Is ABC Preparing to Cancel AMC and OLTL?

[Khan]

Repeatedly! Wait for her outside her house! Stalk her into the ladies' room @ ABC if you have to! Chicks and network execs really eat that ish up!

;-P

[CCCapwell]

You make it seem like OLTL fans are making the decision! I may be old fashioned but soaps usually get cancelled because they are the lowest-rated show on the network, so yeah I am okay with AMC going first because thats the way it usually works, does that mean I want it to get cancelled, no, although none of us here are making the decision so please stop dividing posters on this board with your labels.

IF the situation was reverese and OLTL had AMC's demos and AMC had OLTL's demos, I would not expect OLTL to be kept over AMC and thats where OLTL fans get frustrated on this message board, its not that OLTL fans want AMC cancelled, its simply an expressed opinion if an ABC soap is getting cancelled then why should OLTL, a higher rated soap, get cancelled just to keep AMC on the air? Its regretable we waste so much time on this as we all should be united soap fans, instead we get posters who love to create divisions and labels this soap fans vs another, it needs to stop.

[MontyB]

OLTL being under budget is not random. FV has been asked about that in interviews and Robin Strasser talked about it on her phone line when she heard the news about one or both of the shows being cancelled. She said FV runs a tight ship. It's pretty much common knowledge.

+1

Agreed. I've based my guess solely on the ratings. They are what they are.

[Khan]

You know, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if ABCD canceled AMC and OLTL - and not "X will go off the air by Sept., Y a year from now," but "AMC and OLTL will both be history by year's end" - demos and budgets be damned.

[Carolyn1980]

I have to agree with you. As someone who has no horse in this race (I haven't watched a soap in over 5 years, but for some reason the "drama" surrounding soaps still interests me), a soap that is number 3 in the key demographic in daytime should not be canceled over a show that has been last in that demo for the better part of a year now. It's been at least a year, probably longer, since AMC beat OLTL in the key demo.

If a soap goes, it should be AMC, not OLTL at this point. Will it? Who knows, but it's bad business otherwise. In fact, OLTL has shown signs of growth lately, and has the potential for more growth with the return of Roger Howarth. AMC has shown no signs of life. If OLTL is canceled this week, AMC won't last another year...but if AMC is canceled, OLTL has the potential to last longer than another year.

But ultimately, as you said, it's about fairness. The lowest rated show in the key demo should go first, period. (And some of my favorite soap memories are of Erica, Jenny, Greg, Angie, Jesse, Liza, Tad, Cecily, Nico, Skye, Ross, Natalie, Palmer, Opal, Brooke, Dixie, etc...AMC was the first soap I watched).

[All My Shadows]

I would be surprised if it didn't happen that way. ABC doesn't give enough f!ck to go through all that. Just cut 'em both in one fell swoop.

[Khan]

AMC very well could, though, if Frons would just leave it (and OLTL) the hell alone. This isn't GUIDING LIGHT, a soap that was dependent on its history in order to survive. You could take AMC's canvas as it is now and still make worthwhile TV, but it needs someone who won't impose upon it some silly construct of what he thinks its audience wants to watch on a daily basis.

[CCCapwell]

thats for sure! IF Frons would leave the entire line-up alone, things would be much better. AMC is in terrible condition although as you correctly point out its not like GL which was like a walking corpse those final years, AMC should be given a chance with its new head writer and as I said many times, no soap should be cancelled until we see what the post-SoapNet ABC ratings are.

[Bella1974]

And what they are is statistically the same. This is like the fans of other shows looking down their noses at GL, even though only two shows drew a million more viewers than GL. OLTL, ATWT and AMC usually just had around 400K more viewers than GL, which is embarrassing considering the shape that GL was in.

[kitty1]

+1.

[Carolyn1980]

But they're not statistically the same in the key demo, which is all that matters. OLTL having 145,000 more women 18-49 viewers than AMC is not statistically the same. In fact, it means OLTL has 22% more of those coveted viewers than AMC.

[MontyB]

Really? Insert "none" emoticon here.

[Kylie]

Who the hell, surely not me, said OLTL should be cancelled FIRST. But the OLTL, not so much here but other places are like, "Oh well, bye AMC." I just think it's sh*t. Sorry, I do. The genre is in trouble, and whether or not OLTL stays, it's future is just as much unknown as AMC's. So we should stand together, not throw each other other to the wolves. It's like there's this belief that OLTL is somehow as safe as GH, or something. Like AMC going won't do [!@#$%^&*] to OLTL.

[dragonflies]

+2

[All My Shadows]

It was me If one of the soaps must go, I want it to be OLTL.