January 25-29, 2010

[Angela]

Carl, how do you really feel? I hate the misognyny in Pratt/Guza soaps, but they crafted that story so well for that type of reveal outcome. BUT yeah misogyny is a stupid little bitch. I agree that the rape fascination in that story is beyond bizarre.

I'm going to be really interested in seeing what happens with the ratings with Sonny being more of a force. Love or hate the SOB/mob focus, you can almost correlate GH's stronger than usual drops with them making him secondary in stories. This story appears to be more of a vechile for him. Appears ... we'll see what happens.

I think that has to be it, their 12-17 demo isn't good so it appear the 50+ has been giving them an edge in HH. Either 50+ or male viewers, a demo/category I never pay attention to for some reason.

[DRW50]

I think the problem is the story has had no motivation, and it flies too much in the face of history, both past and recent. They were so blatant in hey, let's do this to show everyone how much we love JJ's Lucky, and the rest of the story is an afterthought. They managed to kill most of what was good about JJ and BH as Liz and Lucky, and after the way various characters have acted towards Lucky over the past few years it's hard to get onboard now that they are suddenly his boosters. I don't know why the show thought the only way to welcome him back was to have a big "Lucky is too good for this whore" story. That wasn't what JJ's Lucky was about.

I think that focusing on Sonny and Dante would improve ratings. I would think that the almost constant drops during the Franco story might tell them Jason needs a long rest.

[Ann_SS]

It perplexes me, but despite the online hate for Sonny, the wider GH audience loves the character and MB. It is a mystery that we need Hercule Poirot to solve.

[JaneAusten]

I don't think the Liz story was setup well at all. She and Nikolas fall into bed at the drop of a hat, all of a sudden despite spending no time together other than sex they are in love, then returns REALLUCKY to get cheated on again and now no longer the town loser, everyone is now on his side and his best friend. Add this to the fact that practically this same story all the way to the product of Liz and Jason's affair is being repeated just 2 years later with the same 2 characters involved before. I suppose we'll find out Liz also has some mental illness when she slept with Jason and his kid and lied to Lucky before also. And with that this discussion belongs in the GH thread. No more from me.

[Cyberologist]

Thank you...I don't mind a fall from grace story no problem but damn give the girl something that's all I'm saying level the playing field so I can get a good triangle instead of a trash heap.

its soo written for Lucky its mind boggling the dialog is atrocious and too immature for these adults...I like JJ/Lucky and Elizabeth and never thought I'd ever see them together again and waited ten years so give their fans some of their old feeling some warm and fuzzy before lowering the boom. Instead they are yet in another endless triangle (that's all they are ever written) with a WTD to boot that should be coming round the bend somehow with Becky's pregnancy I fear it will.

I too adore Dante!

[Cyberologist]

Just wondering

would you consider Carnivale a mob story? because they went to #3 and gained over a half million viewers (330,000)

[Angela]

I don't watch GH regularly but from doing the spoilers for the show, there's not one point you made that I can argue against. The story came out of nowhere, didn't have any real motivation, it was done for the sake of being done with little thought to the heart of the characters and pairings involved. Point A to Z with no care for stops B thru Y. That's damaging and looking at it like you laid it out I can definitely see why it isn't any type of draw although I admittingly enjoyed that Monday episode dealing with the reveal.

I barely remember what the story was about (Martha Byrne, Claudia, good cast integration - coming back to me), but a one week gain doesn't mean GH ails are cured. If GH can't maintain a more healthy rating with Maurice moving to a stronger story, the same would be true for my/our theory that the ratings may improve with his character becoming less secondary as well as less dumbed down.

[skiman12082004]

I am really happy for AMC. I'm also glad that GH had over 3 million on Friday. OLTL has been better to me but glad it didn't go down. B&B is so hit and miss lately and Y&R has been pretty good. Days is building up for the big wedding so I think them being @ 3.1 million viewers is a good sign.

[Sindacco]

I would take Sonny anyday over Jason, that doesn't say alot but still, lol.

[MarkH]

Regarding confusion about why "online hate" doesn't translate into general viewer hate (i.e., lower ratings).

Don't forget that that can because many soap opera viewers "love to hate". I obviously speak mostly about my main show (Y&R), where hating Victor (being outraged at whatever atrocity he dreams up next...what rude phrase he tosses off...watching people twist themselves into pretzels to have some influence on him) has been a major part of audience loyalty over the years.

My guess is that characters like Sonny, Victor (and historically, folks like Vivian and Stefano on Days) are pot stirrers. It's not just THEIR stories, but it is the fact that they often are the center of umbrella stories and larger character groupings, and this gives the show some "cast integration" (to use Angela's term) and also momentum.

Many people may DETEST the Sonnys and the Victors...but they are still compelled to see what next horror they perpetrate. Likeability may be over-rated?

[DRW50]

Sonny and Victor aren't written as being bad people. They're written as being wonderful people, although with Sonny, there are a few people who can call him out (just not too much, or they will be destroyed). Victor is such a god to those at Y&R that the entire canvas has been demolished for him. Even at GH I don't know if they would give Sonny someone's heart and then have him declare war on that person's family for no real reason.

I wonder how much of an impact Victor has on numbers at this point. The ratings didn't go down when Victor left and they actually went down the week he returned.

[BlueLick]

All the ABC Soaps have all gone back to their quality ways although OLTL has been consistently acing quality for the last couple of years now. Hopefully with AMC and GH getting back on track OLTL can finally pick up their leftover ratings and and all ABC Soaps are back over the 2.0 range and 3 million viewers mark on a regular basis.

I can feel it just like DAYS this is going to be AMC's comeback year.

Lately especially this past week it seems like AMC is finding its touch again as a quality soap. The first sign of this might be their move to LA and changing the show's look to HD, it has become an easy soap on the eyes again. The second sign is that the writing on the show has improved big time. I like the close-net character element that the show is getting to. Its like they left off from 2004 and finally picked back up to 2010. I heard Pratt's writing isn't in the picture anymore so that might be a positive sign going forward.

Somebody finally woke this show back up from obscurity. I don't have a problem watching the characters I saw last week like I did in the past. It wasn't even that hard watching Greenlee and Ryan's scenes.

This show might finally be back and with this being the start to a new decade. This might be a very good 10 years for the show. We can only hope right?

[Saving ATWT]

Especially when you consider Days, Y&R and AMC all run up against each other in the East. I know each soap have its popular region but, even with that, you'd have a huge bloat of viewers. Something always seems off. I wonder if SoapNet harms ABC daytime's numbers? Daytime plus SoapNet must give AMC and OLTL a huge following, though. I guess that is why AMC and Life have so many threads. PGP should have found a cable channel years ago for a daily second run.

[Saving ATWT]

It seems to me like all soaps are slightly inching upwards. Not huge gains but far better than the close of last season.

[Saving ATWT]

Bit in the GH world women are whores maybe, one day, lucky enough to get into bed with real men like Sonny who does total evil which makes him more of a dude. Dude, criminals are hot role models!

GH is TV at it's worst where murder is sexy.