February 21-25, 2011

[DRW50]

The problem with Y&R is that they will probably cut everything but what drives their ratings down. I think endless stories about Victor-is-god, the pathetic set of younger characters (since the show is afraid to write specific age groups, as that would mean Nick/Sharon/Phyllis/Victoria/etc. can't be written like 20 year olds), and killing off Cane might have caused the viewer exodus in a younger demo.

[JaneAusten]

I know everyone here and on a lot of other boards pretty much hated Lane but they sort of had that Love of your Life/fairytale vibe I guess that probably appeals to a lot of younger girls. NOt everything on soaps needs to be cheating and ugliness and b*tchy women. Its a lot of the problem I see on a lot of soaps today is the same type of characters and the same attitudes.. I am not a Lane fan but I guess I could see the appeal to some of the younger viewers. And you need all sorts of stories and pairings on a show. BUt I still dont know about it impacting ratings.

But who knows. I am not ready to say Y&R is in deep trouble. And GH only got this boost for 1 week. I guess Id have to look at the past few months to see if there has been a consistant erosion that varies from the other shows to see if there is a real issue at Y&R versus the quality that all soaps suffer from.

[Saving ATWT]

+1

I will say that the big story with these ratings does center far more around CBS drops than it does ABC gains. GH gained in HH ratings, not big deal from a sales standpoint, and oly grabbed demos due to the Y&R drop. As for OLTL and AMC, the ratings aren't that huge.

I think people got excited because, for the first time in years, we saw a slight shift in pole position. I doubt ABC can hold any of these gains for very long.

The Lane stuff written above is very one point. Most soap board people have not been fans; however, Lane did great for younger demos which is exactly why SoapNet made such a big deal over the Lane wedding. Killing cane was dumb. The Lane story had the same Withering Heights edge (just dumbed down)as Marland's ATWT Lilly and Holden story. I hated that, too, but certain stories seem to work over and over again.