TALK: Overnight Ratings Strong, Should Soaps Be Worried?

[Sylph]

Carl, admit defeat. Today The Talk won. Will it win tomorrow? Who knows. But today – they obliterated the soaps into oblivion.

Which is why I'm surprised at marceline's cold and indifferent first reply.

[YRBB]

This is kind of how I feel about it as well. Brinkley was a charming guest but I do hope they all go into "View levels." Mainly because, to my shock, THE VIEW appears to be a place for far more in-depth conversation than THE TALK. It did become somewhat annoying how they all talked about one cliche after another (like that review says) so I hope they relax and let things happen. And, you're right--not that I ever believed that THE TALK would be "different" than THE VIEW, but it was a complete copying of the format. Even down to the sign-off line. Blatant is a good word for it. However, that crap about sex talk... it was just embarassing, simple-minded and wrong.

[marceline]

Because I don't really have a dog in this fight. I have nothing for or against The Talk. Plus the ratings thread is full of so many people jumping to conclusions based on a tiny bit of data ("It's Zimmer!" "It's the ATWT migrants!") that I'm just not interested in yet one more sweeping declaration about anything, certainly not based on one day's ratings. I just want to see what's going to happen.

[Sylph]

Well, I thought you might rejoice. Out of some sort of vengeance against OLTL.

[OLTL_fan]

OLTL beat it!!!

In Head-to-Head Competition, “One Life to Live” Tops the Launch of CBS’ Highly-Publicized “The Talk” by 13% in Total Viewers and 19% in Women 18-49

“The View” Tops the “The Talk” by an Impressive 1.6 Million Total Viewers

and by 25% Among Women 18-49

ABC Daytime

Against the highly-promoted debut of CBS’ “The Talk,” in head-to-head competition at 2 o’clock, ABC’s daytime drama “One Life to Live ” defeated “The Talk” by a solid 13% in Total Viewers (2.5 million vs. 2.2 million) and 19% among Women 18-49 (690,000 vs. 581,000).

•ABC’s “The View” defeated “The Talk” by impressive margins across the board, including by 1.6 million in Total Viewers, or 73% (3.8 million vs. 2.2 million), and by 25% among Women 18-49 (729,000 vs. 581,000).

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/10/19/one-life-to-live-betters-premiere-of-the-talk-in-head-to-head-competition-the-view-tops-the-talk-by-1-6-million-viewers/68787

[DRW50]

From the ratings report below this, it looks more mixed.

The Talk is going to be around for a long time, no matter what, because of Julie Chen. The soaps are on the way out no matter what.

But for a first episode, I'm surprised this wasn't higher.

[fanOLTL]

In the 56 markets that were metered, OLTL just barely beat the premire of The Talk on CBS.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/10/cbs-daytime-show-the-talk-debuts-ok/

I don't know if the show was good - if it wasn't, it's in trouble since it couldn't beat OLTL with its premier.

[marceline]

LMAO! No. My hatred for OLTL is a rifle with a laser sight not a shotgun and I have the little red dot trained on a specific target.

I can't exactly root for some braindead knockoff of "The View" just to stick it to them. I'm not in "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" territory yet. Plus, I just don't feel like freaking out over every little bit of news like a bunch of drunk senior citizens playing the nickel slots at Caeser's Palace. I'm looking forward to sweeps though.

[Cheap21]

I dont see why it would be in trouble. Being a talk show, it doesnt cost as much to produce as there are less people to pay. If anything it looks worse on OLTL which was barely able to beat it.

[DRW50]

I wasn't expecting that -- was that episode of OLTL rated higher than OLTL episodes usually are? If not then The Talk not being able to beat OLTL on their very first episode isn't great. Unless word of mouth helps The Talk's ratings...and I haven't heard great word of mouth for The Talk.

I guess OLTL might have had a spike because of the Eli crap.

If it's not an anomaly, then the whole thing about the death of soaps because of Leah Remini and other loudmouths is still a while off.

There are 6 or 7 hosts, whereas most talk shows only have a few, not to mention Sara Gilbert will get some of the profits (isn't she co-owner?), and this is a Julie Chen show, which means Les Moonves probably won't spare any expense.

[Cheap21]

That is still ALOT less than a full cast of contract actors, and bigger production team of camera men, writers, etc... You cant compare them. A scripted soap opera (and Im not talking cheap like GL), costs more to produce than a talk show. Theres alot more that needs to go into it

[OLTL_fan]

I just posted the ABC press release in the other thread. OLTL had 2.5 million viewers vs. The Talks 2.2 million viewers.

[DRW50]

In this case I'm not sure if the budget is that different. This show is something CBS sees as very important. It's not a cheap jack fifth rate game show like LMAD. Most of today's soaps have budgets which are slashed more and more and more -- they will only get less expensive. This show probably won't.

The ratings are meaningless anyway, since Julie Chen is involved, but I was surprised that they didn't win their timeslot on the very first day, especially since OLTL is a mess. That doesn't negatively affect their show, since I didn't hear anyone at CBS going around saying they were going to kill soaps and thrash the competition, but it's not exactly a rousing start.

[Eric83]

It was just the first day, ratings could either way for The Talk. ABC already has The View so its not like they are seeing this and thinking OLTL should be cancelled for a round table talk show with women.

[J.W.S]

OLTL Averaged a 1.9 last week which was up 276k in viewers and the highest it got any day last week was a 2.0 so its already beat that

if this keeps up maybe it could be in 2nd place and beat B&B for the week in HH