ABC: The View being considered to take Oprah's timeslot

[Adam]

If GH is bleeding the most money and doesn't get solid ratings (which not counting this week has been the case for months) the network may have no choice but to ditch GH. Frons may not have a say. GH by far is ABC's most expensive soap, and I imagine along with AMC is bleeding money.

[CSF]

I'd definitely agree with that as it's a realistic scenario.

[Eric83]

I guess I could see that happening, but they pour so much money into GH like they have a long-term investment in the show. AMC/OLTL have never had such high promotion for big events like GH has.

[bellcurve]

I'm kind of surprised, but at the same time, very pleased with Ellen's success. Ellen was always at her best when she didn't push the gay factor. She's far more appealing to middle-America when she's being herself. Her first sitcom bombed after she came out of the closet, not BECAUSE she came out, but because the show radically changed after she did that. I think she dropped all of her supporting cast friends, added Laurie the girlfriend and it became a sitcom L Word.

I've watched her show a few times and she mentions Portia alot, but never in a way where it feels like she's pushing an agenda. People love her and embrace her because she's being herself and she's saying "It's okay to be gay" without actually saying the words. Which pisses off militants like Rosie, but it probably opens the door to alot of people who watch Ellen with their kids(because the show is pretty safe in terms of content) to have a conversation about it instead of just ignoring it.

With that said, I seriously doubt ABC's affiliates are going to lose that much profit when Oprah's canceled. I'm still kind of surprised The View is a front-runner for syndication. It doesn't seem like afternoon fare and I don't think it will do well, especially considering the push the network has made for the show to be aired in its proper timeslot instead of at 1:37AM. I think they should choose, maybe not so much O&Os or larger markets, but key markets in the midwest and the east coast to try The View at 4PM, maybe to an affiliate where Oprah airs on a station other than ABC. I feel like it's really the only way to gauge if there is even interest for a program like The View in the afternoon.

I still think(per the earlier part of this thread) that Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie should try to launch a spinoff for O&O's with Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Obviously Hasselbeck is hated by most of liberal America, but she IS the marquee draw for The View. She's a young mom, she's pretty, she will appeal to that demographic if ABC's O&O's give her at least two years to build her audience. When she's doing "Fashion For Less," "Oscar Previews," and Breast Feeding vs. Formula, Hasselbeck can hit to Oprah's core audience. If she's discussing politics, she's clearly out of her league and should definitely stay away from that in her own talk show. She should just donate money to the Repubs and stay away from their personal events.

[Sylph]

I do not like Ellen DeGeneres. There is something... Annoying, almost hypocritical, very off-putting about her... Very fake.

Every time I see her as a talk show host, she seems so misplaced in that role...

I don't know what it is...

[Sylph]

Washington Post, LA Times and MediaWeek also wrote about it:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/11/AR2010021104602.html

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/02/ellen-degeneres-talk-show-to-stay-on-nbc-owned-stations.html

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/national-broadcast/e3i4c8c39f58df428b9178973536af094f5

[bellcurve]

Do you think it's because she plays it so safe with her content?

I admit, I am no fan of how the talk show has evolved. I miss the "happy medium" talkshows, that had celebrity guests, Soap stars, and actual topical information and the occasional trashy moments. The only talk show that comes even remotely close to that is Tyra, but she sucks.

[SFK]

There is something I find off-putting too, but for different reasons. I don't get that she's fake, but I get that she's kind of determined to take over the world. I think it's great that a person gets to see their dreams come true and all, but I think that after all of that business with her sitcom and coming out and being cancelled, she's just dead set on being accepted and being EVERYwhere. That's all good, but to me at least, it has taken on an almost maniacal obsession with her. Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I do get that she has no problem shoving herself down America's collective throat. And did we REALLY need more of her on Idol? I think that's Ellen overload right there. And sure, it was "playful" and all, but even her "muscling" her way onto the cover of O didn't sit right with me. She seemed oddly determined to accomplish that one.

[DaytimeFan]

Kathy Griffin has interesting things to say about Ellen DeGeneres in her memoir 'Official Book Club Selection' that I think highlight that underneath Ellen's sunny, safe, friendly image is a far darker, tougher, meaner, reality.

[Sylph]

It's part of it, but not a big one, it's more what SFK and DaytimeFan say + other stuff:

Precisely. If you're going to try to conquer the world, just say so. Don't hide under sh!t excuses or whatever.

Ellen just screams nasty, not to be trusted to me.

Would you be kind to write down in broad strokes what Kathy said about her?

[DaytimeFan]

Kathy tells the story like this...

In the 90s Kathy starred in a Kenwood commercial that was quite the hit in the US, in it she blankly stared into the camera and spoke the lyrics to "I Just Can't Get Enough" totally deadpan.

In 1996 Kathy nabbed a guest starring spot on ''Ellen''. At the table read for the episode, Ellen DeGeneres burst into the room, barked at the writers, sat down, looked at Kathy and said, simply, "Do it". "It" was the Kenwood commercial. Kathy knew that's what she wanted, so she did it. Ellen then had her "Do it" a few more times to her utter delight. Kathy basically writes that Ellen was the alpha dog on that show, ran her writers to the bone, was an utter control freak and just wasn't pleasant.

Most comedians are very supportive of one another, it seemed that wasn't the case with Ellen.

Then, a year or two ago, Kathy was on Ellen's talk show and trashed a few celebrities since that's what she does. In the commercial break Ellen told Kathy that she didn't think she was "nice" and then proceeded to say nothing else to her for the rest of the break.

[Sylph]

Ohhh... That's what it was. I knew, I just did. She really has that dark streak.

Thank you!

[Sylph]

'The View' gets political -- viewers love it (and so does D.C.)

[All My Shadows]

Ellen annoys the crap out of me. Too happy-go-lucky. Too "Look at me, I'm dancing, I'm so cool! This is a FUN show! I'm a FUN host! FUN! FUN! FUN!!"

Rosie was very much the same way, with the damn koosh balls. I'm glad that Suze Orman and Wanda Sykes prove that lesbian TV hosts don't have to suck.

[Sylph]

Ellen is "happy-go-lucky"?

Never had that impression of her...