October 25-29, 2010

[jpoliver78]

I totally agree about Elisabeth Hasselbeck. She's reasonably attractive - or at least, not ugly - but her personality makes her very ugly. I would have probably tried to wring her neck if I had to put up with her every day like Joy, Whoopi, and Sherri do.

Replacing soaps with talk shows or game shows doesn't really bother me, because I can understand the decision from a business standpoint. Perhaps that sets me apart from the typical viewer in that I'm not really attached to any particular show, so when/if it is canceled, it's not usually a big deal for me.

With that being said, I don't expect any soap to be canceled in the short term. ABC appears to be behind their soaps, at least for the next couple years. CBS would be hard pressed to justify canceling either Y&R or B&B because of their viewership (both GL and ATWT were in last place at the time of their cancellations and therefore, not entirely unexpected). NBC is a wild card because of the impending Comcast takeover, but that would probably be better for "Days" than hurt it, as NBC has much bigger problems facing it (namely, its entire primetime schedule).

[DRW50]

Press releases are designed to give a positive impression. I don't believe it's a positive impression for the show to focus on OLTL, especially when the media has focused on The View vs. The Talk. To say, "Wow, look, we're tying a declining and not all that well known show in one demo," doesn't seem to me like a great way to use a press release. I think it comes from a position of weakness, not strength.

Frankly I don't really see why it matters if I'm the only one bothered by the comparison or not. If one other person felt that way would you then agree? Or two people? Three?

I think OLTL's a mess these days and has been for years, minus some good pockets here and there. It regularly caters to an audience who will never watch daytime and will never get me back to where I once felt about the show unless it makes drastic changes. I'm not upset that it has competition. If The Talk begins trouncing OLTL, I won't be upset about it. If anything I am surprised that The Talk, which is far more than just a cheap talk show, and is still in its early days of media attention and buzz, is not beating OLTL, considering that OLTL's main story at the moment is something everyone has seen over and over and over.

That's why I think it makes The Talk look weak when they have to use their press release to talk about OLTL. When I read it, it just makes me wonder why they are not doing better. This isn't a show which was created for "Look how cheap it is to make." You can put reruns in the timeslot if that is your goal.

[AS THE WORLD TURNS]

I can't stand Hasselback she is suck a I didn't say anything

[Southofnowhere]

I think Ellen's Wife would be awesome on a talkshow. Oprah wan't to keep her shows "NICE" so not sure how well Roise would be there.

The Talk should have gor her , she would droping verbel bombs on the view and making them drop them back.

Bristol Palin would be a trainwreck on the TALK and bring about a million Teaparty folks along for the ride.

The View should TOTALLY trade LH in for Megan Mcain. LH would jump to the TALK or a FOX News show!

[Money]

Portia would be fine but they need someone who stands out. Starr Jones would work because she has fans, she's controversial, and she has an axe to grind. If ratings rose ahead of OLTL and The View it would be a huge.

Bristol would be a complete disaster. She's too young and inexperienced and she knows nothing. Lefty guests who wanted to get really bitchy would eat her for lunch. She's lucky her ass lasted this long on DWTS because they're coddling her.

The Talk's problem is that it's too Pollyanna therefore they ring false. Those women will never get me to believe they actually tolerate each other off set. Their plastic "home girl" smiles are a huge turn off and they need someone to keep it real. I could care less about the show and their success, or lack thereof, doesn't bother me one bit, however if they keep it real and try to create their own identity then maybe I'll give them a chance to be entertained.

[TeamEric]

THE TALK sounds like early years of The View when it was all smiles, too. It was only in the last few years that Walters allowed fighting and political controversy to take over the show's formerly friendly gabfests.

[TeamEric]

She's the walking, talking blond stereotype. There's a carboncopy of her on Fox & Friends. The term NITWIT was created for such women, and I don't take pleasure as a woman in watching DUMB ones onscreen make us look that stupid.

It's not that smart a business strategy considering Madison Ave far prefers to advertise on soaps over talk and game shows. It's short-sighted because few talk shows ever truly thrive and make significant $$$.

[Bella20]

But, the common factor is that the shows are trying to attract daytime viewers. There are just so many people watching any tv at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, so we can't expect The Talk to pull in huge numbers, or to really blow away the rest of the competition. For whatever it's worth, OLTL wins the 2pm hour, so given OLTL's anemic numbers, that tells us that the audience for that time of day is very small.

I wouldn't say that this is totally true. One of the biggest problems for soaps is that they were losing a lot of big name advertisers. While soap fans are more loyal than game show and talk show viewers, the audience for soaps is not only shrinking, it is also a heck of a lot older than the demo that advertisers want. I think the solution will be networks creating telenovelas, which will be good for those who like serials, but still bad news for the remaining soaps.

[DRW50]

I think there is some expectation for The Talk, otherwise it would have just been a very thrown together show which is pretty much nothing, like the new LMAD. While The Talk isn't a blockbuster production, I think some effort has been made, because otherwise I don't think Julie Chen would have been involved. Besides being married to Les Moonves, she's also one of the more bankable female reporters/journalists/hosts at CBS, especially after the way Katie Couric flamed out.

[TeamEric]

Actually there was an article posted here just last month detailing just what I posted that advertisers still preferring soaps over talk/game shows. Game shows skew older generally. Oprah scores well with 18-49 but not all talk shows do. For example, the median age for The View is 60 which is 10 years older than GH's 50 and 8 years older than OLTL's 52. Also, the Price is Right's median age was 64 last I read.

ABC tried with Port Charles the telenovela approach and it was only marginally successful for a short period due to Michael Easton's HOT Vampire story. PC was ahead of its time, a vamp soap would be hot right now.

I don't think daytime will produce English telenovels b/c they already have something similar in primetime... with seasons for serials storytelling.

[Bella20]

I've read the article about advertisers being worried about talk/game show viewers not being a loyal or captive audience like soap viewers, but that doesn't mean that advertisers are going to run back to soaps. Every soap is seeing their audience shrink at an alarming rate.

The problems with doing a telenovela format with current soaps is that this is not what soap fans are used to, and as PC showed, the telenovela only works when their is a definite ending. PC ran into trouble when they tried to act like one story arc had no relation to the arc that came before it, and that just doesn't work. Soap fans like continuity, and get attached to characters and couples, so they aren't going to forget what characters have been going through for the past three or four months just because a new arc has started.

[DRW50]

I think today an audience might be willing to try a telenovela, as they will only have to watch a certain amount of time and they can catch up through Youtube. This is also a way to do things for a web that would enhance the story, like personal diaries, deleted scenes, bios, to help set up an early story which we won't have seen, and this could sometimes be added to after the telenovela is over, if people are interested in it.

They could do several different telenovelas a year, and they could always have some characters continue on if they're popular. Or they could do like Dark Shadows did so successfully and have actors play various roles, one role in one telenovela and then when that ends, they can play another role. DS's success shows that viewers can accept this.

They could do some type of "family saga" -- show a family in 1812, then 1912, then 2012.

[Saving ATWT]

This all comes back to the problem of more people working and therefore less daytime viewers. Even if a telenovela did well, I doubt the rating would be much better than Y&R at 5 million and the demos would trend older. A network like NBCU would be far better off airing such a series in primetime on a cable channel like USA. DVR and online viewing still bring in little profit. I think NBC was smart to expand the Today show and, otherwise, basically give up on daytime. They can repurpose so much of that Today content on MSNBC and, even, CNBC. I could eventually see the Days timeslot flip to some sort of National Afternoon News or a Dateline type show 'cause this programming would cost almost NOTHING to produce. The local noon news would also serve as a great lead in.

[Saving ATWT]

+1

[Saving ATWT]

The CBS Press Release isn't even intended for fans but for advertisers who don't really have time to compare data for shows running in a particular timeslot. CBS is saying 'Madison Ave., take a look at us! If you want to place an advert at 2pm consider The Talk. We are ranking close to OLTL and can help you sell Pampers.' Sites like TV by the Numbers are used by industry people plus a few numbers geeks or in this case soap junkies. The average fan doesn't use press statements to plan Tv viewing. I doubt the average OLTL or Talk fan knows the current ratings.

This is also a message to CBS share holders telling them that the network has made progress. Stock analysts don't watch daytime TV but use things like this when making predictions regarding stock valuation.

This is a message to media critics saying 'Pay attention to us, don't forget the show, and write friendly reviews'.

These releases are all about spin and CBS knows The View is a stronger show but wouldn't dare state this.

Madison Ave nor Wall Street follow particular OLTL stories like we do. They don't know whether a story is good or bad and are only interested in data. The Talks numbers aren't pathetic and are holding about even with the final season of ATWT. CBS should be putting out good reports and would be a dumb company if they didn't.