Will ABC Daytime Cut 20 Scripted Episodes Per Year, Per Soap?

[Ann_SS]

If ABC was smart, it would air reruns of prime time shows that it wants to promote.

[bellcurve]

Won't it be difficult for soaps to recover from taking Wednesday off? I mean, look at GL's Inside the Light experiement for example. If one of those featured someone not popular with their audience, the ratings would tank for the rest of the week.

Fridays would be the best option if they did take one day a week off.

Wait for it...

A revival of Bandstand hosted by Cameron Mathison and Vanessa "In Concert" Marcil!

[quartermainefan]

This plan sounds half ok and half pointless. I could see taking a month off and showing repeats, but repeats featuring current couples??? That means repeat from the last year and is there any need to see them again so soon? They should just do "A Daytime To Remember" type retrospectives the month of August and show older stuff.

[oltl1]

ITA. It would give the writers time to try to come up with something new and let them weed out a lot of the crap they use to fill in an hour. My only concern is does this mean a bloodbath is on the way b/c there is no way they need this many contract actors per show to fill 4 hours a week. My second question, and I don't know if anyone can answer this is, how much money would this save ABCD?

[bellcurve]

+1

And please get Reba to return! Love her countryfied narration. No, seriously.

[Ann_SS]

It definitely would be a risk. I think that they should do some market research before deciding on which day to take off. I doubt this would do it, but I think that it might buy the ABC soaps some more time.

I thought about it some more and edited my previous post. Instead, I think that they should rerun prime time shows on the day off.

[DRW50]

Rumor has it that Frons is going to ask Bob Guza to add his contemporary spin on these plans. Guza keeps trying to figure out why Dinah Shore and Shari Lewis aren't answering his calls.

[Scotty]

Yes, but on three of those days, ABC doesn't air any episodes of their soaps at all (New Year's Day, the day after Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day), the other holidays you listed are when the encore episodes are aired.

[Sylph]

What if Thursday becomes the new Friday?

[Scotty]

This would be the equivalent of taking about 6 weeks off per year when you think about it...

5 episodes per week x 4 weeks = 20 episodes cut + 6 encore episodes that already air + 3 holiday pre-emptions = 29 episodes, not to mention the occassional pre-emptions for breaking news coverage.

[Adam]

If they play actual classic episodes, then I like this idea. If its just going to be Rylee circa 2004-2006 or what have you in AMC's case than no thanks. I mean I guess better than cancelling outright, but it just means my viewing of 2-3 episodes a week currently will go down to 1-2, because I won't watch if its just a repeat of a show within the last 2-5 years showcasing a couple Frons wishes to promote.

[Eric83]

I am glad I decided to check on here today, if this can keep all 3 soaps on then I say go for it. I love this idea actually, but I dont want to watch episodes pimping these couples. It'd be great to showcase episodes from classic storylines, but oh well I'll take what I can get.

[Ann]

I see this as just a stepping stone to cancellation, if it were to come to be. Sorry, but I do.

[dragonflies]

Sounds like they're trying to prolong soaps, what next, taking the summer off and just air repeats?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I'd rather they all just be canceled, but since that isn't an option (at least not right now)...

I wish they'd cut all these shows back down to 30 minutes and cut a shitload of characters from the shows to make it work. This way, ABC for example, would only have an hour and a half of a soap block, they could use the other hour and a half to air a new gameshow or talkshow, or whatever the f.uck they desire.

But EastEnders in the UK airs 4 days a week, taking Wednesday's off typically, and I've never really found that to be a problem. I kind of like it, in fact.