Deadline Hollywood Says AMC May Be A Goner

[Saving ATWT]

The statement made by ABC screams THE END. Normally, in a situation like this, a network would say something like 'AMC is an important pillar of our daytime line up' instead of a vauge, rather blank rebuke talking about schedule.

I have considered that, maybe, OLTL will be the soap to go; however, no major site has made any mention and no OLTL writer has been quoted regarding work with reality TV. Also, killing OLTL could hurt GH demos. I'd guess that many fans watch both shows and AMC with a .8 would make for a lousy lead.

DK seems to be the writer hired when a network wants to put a soap to rest. In 2004, GL was running on fumes and the dying soaps big gamble. Everyone knew World Turns was done and is hiring was a formality on the part of TeleNext. I just wonder why Frons went through the cost and effort of moving AMC out west just to kill the show? ABC certainly wasted money on this. There is no way the move as paid for itself yet.

So curious about what characters will be moving to Llanview

[Chris B]

ABC can be shady since they don't own their soaps. They could drop the ball at any time with as little notice as they want. Hell, they could even pick up a talk show and convince us it's for syndication as they've been saying the past two years. I wouldn't put it behind ABC. I just wish they were more upfront and proactive about improving their soaps which might've prevented this.

I understand Kreizman (who should've never been hired) had a contract, but as soon as they noticed the dip in quality and boring stories he needed to go IMMEDIATELY. We don't have time to wait a year. And honestly, I think they should've gone for broke and given it to [s.W.S.N.B.N.]. She's a little crazy and over the top and would bring lots of (admittedly negative) press to the show with her Osama bin Laden connections. Anything that could shake things up and get them mainstream press is good IMO. She said she fought hard to get her story bible approved, but they picked Kriezman because they found her too controversial. I don't think soaps have time to pussyfoot around now. They need to take risks and everyday needs to be sweeps. Not meaning plot driven, but these shows need to be must see tv all the time.

I feel for AMC because I do think the show looks great and has a strong cast worth saving. It's also a show with a rich history, but the choices behind the scenes have been so lukewarm. Nothing major, even Pratt was more of exactly the same. Kriezman just signed the shows death warrant. He sucked on GL and he sucked worse on ATWT. Nobody should've been surprised.

[EastMA2]

This story has done such harm. One of my facebbok friends posted AMC's cancellation as FACT on their wall and there were a couple of dozen R.I.P the show was good back in the heyday replys. They read the headlines and took it all as fact, a done deal. There are probably alot of people out there who are under that same impression. That's too bad.

[Ann_SS]

I agree with you about JHC. She has worked with the cast for years. She cares about and respects most of them. I don't believe that she would knowingly lie to them if she knew for certain that AMC is going to be cancelled in the near future. She knows that they need to start making plans if the show is cancelled. To decide to talk to them, she must have received assurances from Frons that the rumors were not true. However, they all know the situation is uncertain and that AMC is in trouble in its key demos.

[Gray Bunny]

And there's never any cancellation rumors ever stirred up regarding Y&R, B&B, or GH cuz we soap fans know they will be the last 3 standing. The other 3 have been on shaky ground, in terms of negative cancellation rumors, for years (DAYS and OLTL moreso).

[Kylie]

I read something at another site, that kind of makes this all make sense. BE apparently said that rumor isn't true, ie. that the show hasn't canceled it. BUT they are seriously considering it. So I think this is where we're standing. JHC told them as it stand right now, no decision has been made. It fits with why they actors are saying the show isn't canceled but at the same time, asking/begging for support, because they know the decision COULD be made. <--- Makes sense why ABC hasn't said anything yet. I think we got wind of this before the decision was actually made, and now it's being done in the public eye, so to speak.

[dragonflies]

THIS!

Honestly Kylie I can completely see them lying to the cast. Like Vee just mentioned, they're tryinng to calm things down. To me this is the "calm before the storm" they want to handle things their way and can't do that unless they calm the cast & crew and fans down

[Kylie]

^To earn themselves a week? I still don't think I buy it. That you put all those people together, tell them to their face their jobs are safe, NOT to worry, knowing you're lying to them. ABC Daytime is a cruel, disgusting, vial little world...but part of me still thinks this is to much, even for them.

I guess we'll see.

[Vee]

I believe something similar was said about Another World in its final days - people thought they had a leg up because the cancellation drama was very, very public with Susan Lee. In the end it made no difference, even though AW was IMO in its final months better than a lot else of what was on daytime during the same period. I tuned in out of curiosity in the last four to five months and became hooked as a teenager.

[R Sinclair]

It's because the soap press -- with those hateful, snorting queens at DC leading the pack -- is riddled with "journalists" who love to fu editorialize. Nobody reports just the facts about the situation. Everyone, now, feels the need to take the facts and put their own fifty-two cents in on the matter... based on very little information beyond the facts they've been given. And then, these breaking "news" reports are thrown into the lion's den -- better known as the message boards of public opinion -- and are picked apart until the dominant opinion wins out.

[Kylie]

Yeah, whether or not this will make a difference who knows. But I think it makes more sense now. They were likely told for NOW, that the show isn't canceled/no decision has been made, but yes, the network is considering it. So no one is lying or being lied too.

We'll see how it plays out.

[Vee]

But of course none of us would know anything about that here at Soap Opera Network.

If I had a penny for every time one of our various Amazing Kreskins refers to an upper-level soap production staffer by their first name and intuits all sorts of personal chicanery to them based on nothing but a wing and a hunch I would...well, I wouldn't be rich but I'd be doing okay.

And I realized I called Julie Carruthers "Julie" and that is my lapse, but I don't pretend to know that she is scheming against anyone else or whatever. What I do know is she is EP, she answers to Frons, and if she is told to lie to calm the set that is what she'll do. There is an equal amount of likelihood that she's been lied to as well. Chris Goutman was repeatedly jerked around up to the day AW was cancelled, I believe. Incompetence does not always equal pure evil. Just more incompetence.

[All My Shadows]

Basically, daytime is vulnerable, AMC and OLTL are especially vulnerable, and, for better or worse, that will be exploited.

[LoyaltoAMC]

May sweeps is going to be so vitally important. I really don't think a decision has been made one way or the other, but the cast probably knows that they have to get those numbers up over the next couple of months...or else. Thus, the whole online campaign to watch the show and to call in. The stories they're doing now are setting the groundwork for a hopefully exciting May sweeps. The Hubbard stuff sounds very appealing. Obviously, this is just my interpretation of what's going on, but it seems to make sense. AMC had been doing a respectable .9 (where OLTL is now) up til a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't ready to believe that they were going to cancel the show because of TWO WEEKS of record lows.

[Jonathan]

Feb was just as important as May and I don't know what the hell they were thinking.