March 22-26, 2010

[Rakesh]

DOOL is actually boring right now.

[Southofnowhere]

IMO AMC is the rare cast where more vets are hurting the show.

More Erica/Jack and Brooke's returns seemed to have chased off younger viewers.

It would appear that the peeps who stoped watching when Brrok/Dixie left didn't comeback and instead other vewiers who don;'t real know the older characterss got chased off.

On the other hand are Zendall fans finally leaving and that acounts for the lost? Will zendall's return spike ratings?

Once AMC's increace just a short term bump that most new wroters get or are the new new writers chasing off fans befor ethey even takeover?

[Jonathan]

I don't agree with this. People will watch good story, no matter what age bracket is featured. I think what's hurting the show is that it's in a big holding pattern right now. LB has set up some potentially good story but they haven't been executed in full force because of this new team that's coming. David's trial coming up should provide a good push as will the revelation that Greenlee was run off the road by Kendall.

[tigereye]

I think in AMC's case it's more of who you are calling a "vet" and how you use that vet. When ABC marketed AMC as "returning to the old AMC", it meant bringing back Julia Barr, Walt Wiley (in some capacity) and Rebecca Budig. But I would argue that RB is not a vet in the same way JB is and that some of the viewers who came back for the "old AMC" were thinking of AMC of Julia Barr, but the show has been heavily focused on Rebecca Budig and I don't think there was as much interest in Greenlee as there was in not only Brooke, but the promise of the Brooke-era type AMC that the marketing promised. And when Brooke came back, they didn't use her correctly. Why did it take so long for Brooke and Erica to interact? Instead, Brooke was left dealing with Annie. Well, there's no history there and if Brooke's presence/promise of "old" AMC lured viewers back, there's a good chance they had little or no knowledge of Annie. So I think the higher ratings at the beginning of the year were due in large part to ABC's increased marketing efforts and the promises they made that went largely unfilled and people are leaving the show. I do not think Rebecca Budig is a draw and never has been. I don't think she repels viewers, but I don't think she can hold onto them and the show has largely focused on her and to some people she doesn't represent the "old AMC" the promotion had been going on about and which may have lured some people back. For that matter, neither does Vincent Irizarry or Cameron Mathison.

As for when people started to drop off, that occurred BEFORE February Sweeps ended. In fact, the slide started in mid-February, the week of February 15-19, to be exact. Since that week, AMC has been steadily losing viewers every single week. So figure with the aggressive campaign promises that began at the beginning of the year and people likely giving the show a chance to prove itself only to see none of those promises, in their eyes, be fulfilled.

[DRW50]

That's all very true. I think it was a smart idea to bring Brooke back but she was basically window dressing to this story that was already there and I think is unpleasant and has done zero favors to any of the characters involved.

I think it's obvious they don't know what to do with Erica and they are in a big state of transition, and I also wonder if some are writing off anything with Greenlee because of fear of Rylee reunited (and those who want them reunited may also not like her current story).

I guess that's GH's trump card; the stunts have started to fail, but even when Ethan the bestest son ever/event that will change lives forever/Franco, the return of Golden Boy JJ/Liz Rape = Glory Days!!! all flopped, they will get a boost when they go back to Sonny's pain and Sonny's struggles and everyone obsessing over Sonny. For better or worse that IS General Hospital.

[Saving ATWT]

So sad, Luke starts getting closer to Reid and ATWT drops to last place in the male demos. I can't figure out if gay men just hate the story or a majority of male viewers are str8. ATWT has always done well in the male demo when it has a good week ranking in at about number 4.

[Ann_SS]

True. Guza has trained the GH audience to react to only Sonny and his box of pain. Unfortunately for Guza, the audience remains immune to his Jason love. However, this is only one week with a small gain since GH tumbled back to reality after sweeps. Not even Sonny can help GH retain any of its sweeps demos increases.

[Sylph]

So what do these sh!tty OLTL demos mean for Jean Passsanante and her prospect of becoming HW? Will it even get cancelled before she arrives as BDW?

[Leia]

Those ratings are awful! I can't say they don't deserve though.

[Cyberologist]

Exactly....

GH is predictable offers no WTF moments no twists no turns the momentum gets lost because the stories start most times excellent then oh oh

here we go same cah-cah. different day...

.... formula storytelling its straight up 'the same ole' story

right now in Sonny vs the State of New York mostly everybody every character (except Claire/ prosecutor team) is in Sonny worship mode singing he's a killer but what a great guy he is (not new)..Dante is flip flopping, cliffhanger Friday he got shot and then by Monday he was starting to backstroke...

Carly (of course) is flitting about and should be solidly in her storyline re: her son but here she is of course agreeing to "stay out of it because she shouldn't be that much into it" and in odds with Jax over Sonny, and Alexis being in the position to champion him because of Krystina, Robin and Patrick are odds re: Sonny' trial because she's pimping him, Lucky ? the understanding cop....when its Sonny and his henchmen who covered up a crime and stuffed a woman in a garbage bag because oops Mikey didn't mean to kill her he thought she was harming his kidnapped mom and baby sister. She deserved to die because she hired an inept shooter...

Sonny has two major arcs going Krystina's Abuse where you are probably on team Ethan the innocent man wrongly accused so now Krystina looks like a spoiled lying brat for fingering an innocent man because he rejected her come-hither. While standing up for Kiefer

The story is being twisted to pimp (garner mucho sympathy) for a non popular Ethan who turned up as Luke's son... (for the most part bc Luke cheated on Laura on one of his adventures twenty years ago) but I'm still much less sympathetic than I should be for a young girl being abused and honestly whatever excuse they will try to train me to accept the reason she lied...I doubt if it'll work...the 1.8 is the day she covered her bruises with make-up by her sister which should have made me cried...but I just didn't care. I cried when Ashely pleaded her case of having to give up a child she thought was hers....when I just saw Beth Maitland appear in the scene this week I immediately started blubbering...GH has nothing like this for me.

I did like that Michael knows immediately its Kiefer I wish he would tell Sonny...(Luke/Carly/Jason/Dante, Lucky etc) are thinking that Krystina' is lying it would be nice to see a rare Carly / Luke scene (maybe I missed it)for me it should be slowly revealed who actually beat her...even though I know it was Kiefer probably but leave some kind of mystery there for a minute.

Not to mention Elizabeth / Lucky / Nik triangle one of the worst written tris I've seen in nearly a decade even though its the same old story its written more badly than the others with a WTD inked in...they only write these for her... Oops I'm knocked up, let me lie about it since I don't know who the daddy is so I'm crying, rubbing my belly or somebody else rubbing her belly e.g. Spencer. And they will write the men to accommodate her decision heaven forbid Nik or Jason would have said to her "nope its not going down like this." I'm telling the truth and I want my son....take her to court .....same ole' story... Helena is solely brought back to tamper with results and stick it to the Spencers even though Luke just saved her life not long ago.....What a surprise never would think she'd do that.

I'm not complaining I get to see Alexis somewhat more present in this storyline than usual, beggers can't be choosy. The only thing re: GH that is rocking my world is the acting the storytelling is basically written on the same old premise:

Jason /Sonny one the hero the mob PI who only kills if he absolutely has to

Sonny the mob lord who mostly everyone absolutely adores and will vouch for.

The criminals with the heart of gold...

[tigereye]

I personally don't think Greenlee is that much of a draw and Rylee and whatever happens there really interests people too much. People hate them, people like them, but I think the majority are fairly indifferent and want to see other aspects of the show, like, again, Brooke, Chandlers, etc. Not that Greenlee/Rylee/David are repelling viewers, just that they don't hold viewers. The viewers see them dominating the show and these viewers have no interest in them, so they tune out.

I think the whole better ratings at the beginning of the year is typical of what happens when there's a brand new primetime show that comes out. There's a lot of press, a lot of promises of "exciting" shows, etc. People tune in for the premiere so there are high ratings, but as the shows go along, the viewership drops. If you're lucky, it stabilizes at a fairly high level, but the more people watch, the more they find out the show is not for them after initially giving it a chance with the lure of a splashy marketing campaign. It's typical business. Starts off hot and then dies off. If the quality is there, it maintains a certain high level. If it's not, viewership or customers, reduce. That's what's happening to AMC. People say the show is "better", but pratically anything would have been better than Pratt. Watching mold grow would be better. But it doesn't mean it's good and the show is not good.

[bellcurve]

Best looking sh*t in daytime, as far as I'm concerned.

[amcfanfor30]

IMO, the show has improved the last few months...it isn't awful anymore. It has a lighter feel to it. But it still isn't close to the AMC of old. January and February were pretty solid, but March was iffy. Perhaps that is why viewers are tuning out? Not enough change quickly enough?

I don't know, but I fear as long as Frons and Carruthers are at the helm, the show will suffer.

[Saving ATWT]

I'd be so curious to know what ATWT demos were like back when it followed Y&R at 1:30? Everyone will say that I'm wrong but I really think World Turns would rate about the same as B&B, if not better, in the same timeslot. B&B only does well because of that strong lead in from Y&R but still manages to loose way too many viewers. It seems to me that a one hour show might give CBS more bang for the buck because it would slow viewer migration to ABC at 2pm.

B&B is an eye sore and makes limping to the grave ATWT look good by contrast.

[bellcurve]