September 20 - 24, 2010

[Bella20]

Actually, only 11% of U.S. TV homes only have the capability to receive TV reception “over the air”. They don't have cable or satellite. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/more-than-half-the-homes-in-us-have-three-or-more-tvs/

According to a 2009 report, 51% of homes have cable, but 26% have satellite.

My theory is that many of the ATWT viewers don't want to make a commitment to another soap, because they were letdown by ATWT's ending. Why make another commitment, and risk the chance that the new soap will put out the same crap that ATWT did. People feel like they didn't get a positive return from investing their time in a show that they felt obligated to watch every day. People don't have to make the same type of time commitment to the procedural dramas or reality shows, and they don't get as invested in them as they would with a soap, but that means that they will have more free time, and won't feel like they have been messed over, like they feel when soaps suddenly change a character's personality to fit the plot, drop a character's storyline to prop a character, who isn't as interesting, or like ATWT did throw out a bunch of unsatisfying endings that were better suited for an episodic show. If soaps are going to become episodic, why shouldn't people just stop watching them, and watch shows that are meant to have that type of format.

[Ann_SS]

LOL!

[DRW50]

I think a lot of people just don't see the soaps as being individual anymore. It would be one thing if all the soaps were amazing but when many of them are just pabulum, why tune into more of that when one goes?

As for SVU, I used to watch that for several years. I eventually just kind of lost interest but I think what annoyed me was some episode where a girl was suspected of being abused by her lesbian parents, and there was some argument about whether a child should be raised by gay parents. At the end of the episode they decided that the parents hadn't abused their daughter, but then they had some sort of a "Were we right?" or hint that the parents were abusive, and what I felt like was an implication that all gay parents will abuse their kids. Stuff like that and episodes with "oh look at this gay man who likes to infect other men with HIV" when you have so little positive gay representation on TV -- it's hard to just shake it off.

[Jess]

I have been out of touch with dear old OLTL. It sounds like ABC has decided to let V & C go down with the ship. I guess the network has given up on this poor show.

Man, I really had to make my finger put that p on ship instead of another letter.

[dragonflies]

AMC fun? If by fun you mean mind numbingly boring

+1 Yep and unlike Days, OLTL and whantot Rape is NOT considered romance

I'm pretty much losing interest in all soaps, I'd rather watch NCIS or SVU repeats

[Gray Bunny]

I think that's pretty much how it is these days and has been for the past 10 years now. Especially longtime faithful viewers, which are what the majority still watching are.

Long gone are the days when people gladly switch channels because there's only 4 channels to choose from or because there's some great buzz going on about how some lady is possessed by Satan.

[bellcurve]

[marceline]

Getting back to the actual numbers, these are pitiful especially the year-to-year. Were they unnaturally high this time last year for some reason, like weather, or is this genuine attrition?

[EricMontreal22]

This is a great point. As well--issues about quality (which are major) aside, I think most soap fans kinda see it as a dieing genre--why get invested in another replacement show if it'll probably only last another couple of years? I mean in this day and age many people won't even commit to a primetime show till they've seen it can last a season, then they catch up on DVDs or something--I ALWAYS hear people say, when I recommend some new show, that they don't wanna watch it and have it canceled. (Even more extreme I know people who, say, ever since Fox canceled Firefly early, won't trust any new Fox show, etc). With soaps it takes MUCH more investment to get "into" the show--why bother?

Furthermore, with people having so much less time, particularly in the daytime, the days of when someone would watch a solid block of soaps are long gone. Most people, in my experience, have whittled whatever they may have watched in the past to one or at most two soaps to keep up with. So when one goes... that's it. It's not like in the past where you might look for another show to fill that 30 min gap between your two other faves, or to fill the time before you pick up the kids from school, or whatever. I think these factors are as important as quality in reasoning why when a soap is canceled you don't see its audience, or even a significant fraction of its audience just move to a rival network... (By the same token, I doubt, for example a significant part of Let's Make a Deal's audience are ex GL watchers...)

This would hardly make a difference, but weren't the rating numbers readjusted this year so that a point represents more viewers than before? I know they do that every so often--but am not sure if I'm remembering it right. Nonetheless that shouldn't affect the actual figures.

[Jess]

I don't know, but with DVRs and all, ATWT viewers may have been checking out other soaps for a while and nothing has caught their attention. There really is not much to draw somebody into a soap these days.

The best soaps are on at night. When the show runs out of gas, it is cancelled and replaced.

[EricMontreal22]

I think most people who DVR ATWT wouldn't do so to check out other soaps--they'd prob be the people least likely to care about trying another show. IMHO anyway...

Good point re primetime--albeit often it seems they allow certain shows to go on way too long, and others don't get a fair chance.

[DRW50]

It depends on the show. I can't think of a recent show which I felt was canceled too soon (perhaps because I don't watch that much primetime now -- my parents would say Moonlight, the Gates, Flash Forward). I can think of a number of shows which have run way too long (CSI being #1).

[Sylph]

That's quite an OK view.

However, people forget that the criteria here are very simple and they have nothing to do with creativity and so on. Numbers rule cancellations. If you're not bringing in enough people (and how much enough is depends on the network, day of the week, time slot), you will be cancelled. Same goes for shows kept on air: if CSI is a solid performer for CBS, it stays.

[Southofnowhere]

AMC is TOAST!

[Soapsuds]

I need to send you a message at FB. So that you can understand why I made my comment.

You mean you arent enjoying the David murder mystery where Real Greenlee and Ryan are meant to be together for the millionth zillionth time. ...ends sarcasm.

Yup...its ATWT all over again with Pissy and Goutman.