Is ABC Preparing to Cancel AMC and OLTL?

[DRW50]

So now I can stop insulting Tori Spelling...I never really disliked her anyway, I just don't understand why she would ever be given a talk show.

Now it's down to a cooking show - which haven't had any mainstream appeal since Julia Child - and a Biggest Loser ripoff? Ripping off a show that is already losing a lot of steam?

ABC seems to be behind the times as always.

[Bella1974]

No successful business person is going to look at the numbers for just one week or just one month. Since September 20th of last year, OLTL's demo number is 1.0 while AMC's is .9. If Frons thinks that AMC's .9 is bad, why wouldn't he think the same about OLTL's 1.0? It's hard to believe that a year from now that OLTL won't be at the same level. There's not a significant difference between the two.

[Soapsuds]

-1...lol

AMC Days and GH have the same problem ATWT, GL and AW had. They have lost their core families.....the shows have been all about fan favorites and not about family. There's no difference why ATWT lost their audience to why AMC lost theirs.

[Carolyn1980]

A successful business person in television will look at the last year's demos (where OLTL has beaten AMC), and the most recent trends over the last few months (where OLTL has beaten AMC by an even wider margin). OLTL has shown signs of growth, while AMC has been registering record low ratings. OLTL has an extremely popular actor returning while it's already on an upswing...and AMC has hired a new headwriter because the show is in the sh*thole.

If ABC plans to dump both shows by January, then AMC likely has a chance to (unfairly) be the survivor right now. But if ABC is really interested in keeping more than GH around for any length of time rather than throwing reality/talk shows at the wall until something sticks, then AMC will get canned, and they will see whether OLTL can maintain or even increase its rise.

[Eric83]

+1.

And didnt Carlivati say he had to run all story ideas by Frons first, why bring back Howarth if the show is gone by the fall. He doesnt start taping until May, which means he wont air until July. IMO, it is either no soap is going this year or it is just AMC. I hope for AMC fans it survives, but I honestly if they have to cut one lose, then bye.

[All My Shadows]

[Soapsuds]

+1

[Khan]

Actually, Soapsuds, AMC, DAYS and GH (and even OLTL) have never been about family the way most P&G-produced soaps were. They are what I once called "town-driven soaps" (again, as opposed to ATWT and GL, which were "family-driven soaps") - meaning, as long as the current inhabitants of each soap's respective locale were well-rounded, well-played and involved in exciting and character-driven stories, the majority of the audience could (and would) accept those shows in their present states, even if it all had to happen at the expense of characters and families who'd remained fan favorites. That's why I think there is a difference. AMC in particular has lost boatloads of terrific people, characters and families, over the years. Yet, it suffers today, not because characters/families X, Y, Z aren't living or even being represented in Pine Valley anymore, but b/c the ones who are there essentially as their replacements are doing a piss-poor job of it.

[Khan]

I know, right? Even the Tori Spelling pilot and the "male VIEW" pilot felt old-hat, though. It's like...they want to be rid of soaps, b/c they see them as being old-fashioned, and they want something more contemporary in their place. Yet, the only things they can come up with thus far are as old-fashioned as old-fashioned can get. Either they prove my point that television, by its very nature, will never be capable of doing anything that approaches innovative (even reality shows aren't exactly new, you know); or the endgame here is to put on as much crap as possible in order to drive viewers away completely and yield those hours to the networks' news departments, thus turning network TV into "all talking heads, all the time."

[All My Shadows]

I get what you're saying here, but I think the thing about AMC/Pine Valley is that the town, at least for the first twenty years, was a place where the history was built on particular families. It was community-based, but the community was family-based, even when characters didn't have family in town, they'd somehow find their way into a makeshift family at Myrtle's or The Pine Cone or even that set-up they had at a Wildwind a few years ago with random 30somethings living there.

That said, I think GL was in a class of its own when it comes to being a dead soap. AMC was there for a while, but they've rebounded, no matter how poor some of the show is now. At least it doesn't feel like every episode the needle is getting closer and closer to the E. OLTL, for all its faults, isn't there either, and neither is DAYS. It's been a while since I've really checked in on the Genoa City, LA, and Port Charles bunches, so who knows with them. At this point, the cancellation of DAYS, OLTL, or AMC would feel like the squandering of potential to me, just like ATWT's death did. GL...not so much. Not at all, actually.

[AlexElizabeth]

OLTL has been trying to get Roger back for years (and finally succeeded) so I disagree that they're having him return because of cancellation.

[Khan]

On the one hand, AMS, I agree that ATWT's cancellation felt unjust and untimely. But, on the other hand, I honestly don't believe there was anything that anyone could've done to bring audiences back or even bring in new ones. I wouldn't say that about AMC or DAYS, though. (OLTL...? Ehh.)

[Khan]

Why? It isn't as if we know already what his "return story" will be (although, I think most of us could imagine at this point and not be that far off), or even how long he's contracted to be with the show. It could very well be that RH's Todd is revealed to be the real Todd, thus allowing him to reunite with his brood in the final moments ever for OLTL.

[Soapsuds]

How can you say that about ATWT when the ratings went up after the cancellation news and ATWT was never given new HW or EP to raise the ratings. At least AMC has had its fair chance to stay alive.

[dragonflies]

IMO even at it's worst ATWT was miles better than AMC has been the past 5 years or so. AMC has had more chances than most to stay alive, how many chances will it keep getting?