September 13-17, 2010

[Saving ATWT]

I still say GH is ABC's #1 soap because it has had no other soap up against it in a very long time. I will say Y&R has a great advantage not running up against another soap for its first 30 minutes. Are GH and Y&R really so the much better than all of the other soaps? I still think OLTL has gained some small advantage via the close of ATWT. The real question is whether this advantage will be enough to keep the show on an extra year or two? Even if OLTL only picks up 70,000 viewers, it will tie the show with GH as top soap on ABC. Also, it seems like the ABC shows bounce around a bit in terms of total viewers. If OLTL can put together a good story, they stand a good chance of doing well this fall.

[marceline]

I honestly don't know anymore. There is and always will be an audience for that type of storytelling but I think the open ended daily drama is too cost prohibitive and that model destroys creativity. Right now I'd place my bet on the telenovela model. Even in primetime and cable, the move has been toward mini seasons of 12-13 episodes with a break in between. Soaps are doing well in other countries so there's something about the way the current players in the industry here are handling the genre that's rendered it unworkable.

But the soap opera as we know it, in THIS form, is dead and has been for a while. We're in that scene that happens in every medical drama where the doctor keeps doing chest compressions and screaming "Get me another amp of epi! Don't die on me! Do you die on me!!" until a nurse grabs his hands and tearfully says "Doctor...she's gone."

[Sylph]

I don't know either... So if they return in some form, do you think it will be in an organized form? A line-up on a network or cable channel? Or just bits at pieces here and there?

What I find jaw-dropping is how they all failed so miserably at the same time. They all became misogynous, renounced diversity and so on and so on...

[electrorat]

I watched ATWT and still watch GH and occasionally Y&R. I have no interest in OLTL. That could change of course if the show made radical improvements, but right now I see nothing on it that makes it worth adding to my viewing schedule.

[marceline]

I think bits and pieces. I think the new norm for daytime television will be talk and game shows until some network wunderkind comes up with the "fresh, new" idea for a telenovela and the old guard will gush at his inspiration.

As for how they all tanked at once I can only think of Sidney Poitier's scene from Guess Who's Coming to Dinner where he's talking to his father, "You don't even know what I am, Dad, you don't know who I am. You don't know how I feel, what I think and if I tried to explain it the rest of your life you will never understand. You are 30 years older than I am. You and your whole lousy generation believes the way it was for you is the way it's got to be. And not until your whole generation has lain down and died will the dead weight of you be off our backs!"

[Sylph]

[catherine103]

when will the ratings get posted???

[Jess]

Excellent post.

[Toups]

ATWT got 2,593,000 (+18,000) viewers for its last week.

[OLTL_fan]

Not much of a gain as fans wouldve hoped for.

[marceline]

They could've pulled in numbers like the Super Bowl and it still wouldn't have been the gain fans hoped for.

[OLTL_fan]

GL finale week did better.

GL 2,602,000 (+512,000/+572,000)

[NYC123]

That's SAD that GL did better.

I was expecting ATWT to hit 3 million viewers. But ATWT has been building up these numbers in the prior weeks so not surprise we didn't get a bigger bump.

[jams1234]

Still no ratings?!?! *fingers crossed" Hope AMC gets a nice bump!!

[edgeofnik]

Not surprised ratings didn't move much. It didn't get all te media coverage that GL received like the 60 Minutes story, etc. Also, since its demise was announced just 2+ months after GL wasn't as shocking. Honestly, at least it finished decently, but in the end, it just doesn't matter.