October 18-22, 2010

[Saving ATWT]

Les does what Les wants and could cancel Y&R and B&B as is just like Without a Trace, a top 20 show, due to production costs. The days of insane soap fan boycots are over and CBS isn't afraid of 5 million mostly older fans. I don't think Mooves takes us all that seriously or feels the need to drive down ratings before dropping the ax.

Y&R remains stable aside from a small drop this week. All shows, aside from Days, slipped. The writing on Y&R has been bad and the show is so boring. Thought maybe the Nikki story would bring in a few fans but, if anything, seems as if no one cares. The show is moving too quick with Diane and should be slowly adding her to the canvus. People seem to either love or hate Maura West and can't help but feel like Carly has moved to GC. Well, Y&R will probably be back to 5 million viewers by next week and, regardless, it will remain the top soap for a very long time.

[Saving ATWT]

Repeats would be pure profit for CBS but they seem to be making cash of selling shows as first run replays to cable companies and ion TV. The NY Times article said Lifetime Pays 1.4 million per Medium episode but that seems like an insane typo. A cheezy show like Medium or Ghost Whisper would probably get good demos.

Disagree about Tood on OLTL. Todd may be one of the few male cast members who does bring in a following. Characters like Brody or (forgot his name) the cop with the cheating girlfriend who is now pregnant are totally dead weight without any real purpose, passion or motive. Todd may be insane but he is passionate about everything and this gives his character a bit more texture. He keeps the show moving by being willing to risk everything to get his way. Brody is the classic boy--sweet but not much of a character aside from being Star's prop. ATWT had the same problem with Jack in so far as he was just a sweet prop devoid of an inner anything. Those 'what you see is what you get' type characters get boring, fast.

[BlueLick]

Interesting week of ratings kind of shocker that B&B and DAYS had a decent week. I guess its b/c I had high hopes that OLTL would grow or stabilize from its Monday number the rest of the week but its only good day after Monday was Thursday. I think maybe part of the problem for OLTL right now is that even though their either getting returning viewers back or new viewers their just not getting them live on ABC. Their probably getting them through DVR, SoapNet, and online or whatever other outside venture that people use to watch their favorite soaps. I don't really believe the show declined as much as those viewers just aren't showing up to watch it live which has been the problem for soaps over the last 5-10 years anyways. I remember how excited people were last weekend on fansites after the cliffhanger for OLTL. OLTL is usually one of the least talked about shows from the remaining soaps but it was on fire and still is this week so I think at some point in November were going to see the show grow.

Now November Sweeps just started yesterday so this is a pretty important period for soaps during the year. So I'm not sure how far they'll go up or if they will continue to bleed.

Back to DAYS for a sec I agree with some you that DAYS has gotten better and that was expected anyways with the HD switch around the corner in a week. This is when they know they usually start building for February Sweeps. DAYS is one of those soaps that you can't really stomach for the full year anymore they only write for like half of the year so they can get that renewal. Its a shame but its the truth but hey if it means escaping the axe I'm all for it.

[Steve]

As a longtime AMC fan who wants only good things for my show, it pleases me to see Zach's return coupled with Ryan & Greenlee's reunion getting only a 1.6 for Friday, October 22nd. Maybe now someone behind the scenes will smarten up and realize we don't want to watch this sh-t!

[BlueLick]

That is true about DAYS, I believe it airs at 1pm no matter you live except a few markets where it airs at 12pm or 2pm. If its 1pm in your time zone your going to see it at 1pm.

The Talk doesn't have too much to worry about when it comes to surviving b/c of the cost but if there's one argument I can make about Les and CBS. He loves to win against his opponents, he is one very competitive dude he wants the #1 daytime lineup on television. He can't be happy about The Talk's numbers from a pride standpoint b/c he wanted to put soaps to sleep and knew if The Talk did better than soaps then that might just do it. Making the bottomline is different from being happy but who knows The Talk may still grow past OLTL in the coming months. I'm not ready to put a fork in The Talk just yet. As for OLTL, I like how ABC is making it work for them as best they can despite costs. I saw a report back in August and the ABC Soaps are not as expensive as they were 4 years ago in comparison so it might be working for them right now. The one thing that people have to remember is that ABC gets 100% of the profits from their soaps unlike CBS which barely gets anything from running them b/c they don't own them so their not a huge loss for CBS.

OLTL is scheduled to be on the air through 2014 as ABC made that announcement earlier in the month when the executives got new deals but since ABC owns all three of their soaps they can cancel them at any point but its highly unlikely they will cancel them until 2014 at least at the earliest but if their still doing well enough by then they will be on air for the rest of the decade. CBS and NBC doesn't own their soaps which is the problem why they will likely face cancellation whether any ABC Soaps. I think Comcast should go after full ownership of B&B since they have no ties to Sony and hook a one two punch with DAYS.

Imagine how powerful ABC's lineup would be if they had both Y&R and B&B to boost it. If Y&R was placed right in front of the ABC soaps we would see them back up to the levels that they were at 5 years ago which was bad back then but would be way strong now. I think ABC is going to become your exclusive home for daytime soaps in a few years but it all depends on NBC b/c I have no idea of how Comcast and the new NBC regime coming with it wants to deal with DAYS on their schedule. Comcast may even try to bring the genre back but whose to say the won't nobody knows right now so let me stop forecasting for now. One last thing I want to mention about that situation is this, when Y&R's contract expires with CBS I believe in either 2011 and 2012 they should try to contact Sony and pickup the rights don't even give CBS a chance to bid on it. I bet Sony picks ABC after what happened to ATWT and GL and I don't think CBS would be mad about ABC getting it. ABC has already done business with Sony and Bell before to get repeats on SoapNet. ABC could find a way to take ownership of it too like they do their current three soaps.

I think CBS honestly should've run repeats instead of original programming, it would be huge if they would run repeats since a majority of their shows do well on cable in daytime like CSI and stuff. Back in the day networks used to run repeats from Prime Time during the mornings so I can see it working more now than it used to. It might be something that their likely going to have to do once Y&R and B&B leave their network ina few years. Let's face it Let's Make a Deal and The Talk are not working their just cheap substitutes for the soaps.

You're right about Todd he keeps the show moving. He's turned into the biggest male character on the show and he really is the only one who can make the show interesting during a down period. Brody is okay but he's not a soap changer or difference maker, he's there for the balance. That's why I hoped they can keep Hannah b/c she can progress into a Todd character but too bad she's gotta go.

[me4ryky]

Oh my goodness, ABC ratings are horrible. There's virtually no difference between any of the 3 ABC soap ratings. What will it take to get some changes? GH keeps sinking lower and lower, yet they keep on doing the same recycled storylines and shortsighted plot points.

Maybe just my opinion, but Frons and Guza must have blackmail photos of Iger. Any other executive or head writer would have been sacked years ago with the mismanagement they've exhibited.

[marceline]

Exactly! I love AMC. It's the only show that's always been able to bring me back. No matter what I always come home to Pine Valley. *looks lovingly at a picture of Myrtle* But I will gladly fly to LA myself, padlock the door on this mess and throw all their [!@#$%^&*] out in the street if they don't stop forcing garbage that doesn't work and hasn't worked in years. That's bad business and it shouldn't be rewarded.

[OLTL_fan]

ABC primetime had a good day yesterday but ABC daytime certainly didnt. These ratings are a disaster.

[Bella20]

Y&R isn't stable, it has seen a steady decline, and its key demo numbers are just a few hunndred thousand above everybody else's. It tied record lows in a couple of categories this week, and is on pace to end the season (eve though it is still early) with a .2 loss in their households rating. Y&R is in just as much trouble as the other shows.

[Cyberologist]

WEll they keep pimping how demos doesn't matter but its attrition there as well. So they can't use the good ole' "we make our demos" we don't care about how many people watch the show excuse this week. Nothing will change its not only Guza the common denominator is Brian Frons and from what I've read he "approves" and "tweeks" storylines why cut off the tail of the snake when its the head that's problem...Guza is just scribing horridly Frons' misogynistic vision...they have a pet parade of air hogging newbies and won't write for the characters most of their audience wants to see...IMO

The lowest day is the Lucky/Siobhan fiasco...I don't care about Shioban she can die tomorrow and it would be of no consequence to me. I'm twiddling my thumbs waiting for the paternity reveal so that Lucky will find out Helena made an ass out of him (again ...Nik too). I watched this for an entire year to play out...but I get Raggedy Ann in Ireland instead.

[Ann_SS]

Exactly. This the same reason that LMAD was renewed for a second season. Let's Make a Deal gets decent enough ratings and is cheap to produce so CBS is pleased. By cutting 20 episodes, ABC is trying to cut the production costs for its soaps, but those 18 to 49 women demos are steadily dropping which means at some point, some hard decisions will have to be made.

[Gray Bunny]

Honestly, I don't know why people say OLTL looks cheap. I viewed it a few times in the past week, and the sets look decent, the explosion site has a realistic dirt ground, and the sets don't look like they're being held up by shoe strings and a couple 2x4's (Hi, Days of our Lives!). My only gripe is that everything is lit very dark. I'm all for some dark, moody lighting (very reminiscent of 90's soaps), but theirs is just a lil too dark (kind of like GL during the John Conboy era).

All in all, OLTL is the only ABC soap I'll tune into. AMC lost me and GH never had me.

[Gray Bunny]

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[Gray Bunny]

Isn't DAYS/AMC/B&B only on the east coast? DAYS is up against OLTL/Talk in Central Time Zone and West Coast too, I believe. Lordy knows about Mountain Time Zone though...

[AS THE WORLD TURNS]

Guiding Lights ratings were lower then The Talk's ratings. GL was under 2,000,000 for awhile.