March 28 - April 1, 2011

[Gray Bunny]

Y&R is guilty of the same thing re: empty cups. At Crimson Lights, you hear the hollow sound of their cups. Especially bad when the camera gets a good view of the cup 1-inch deep and there's nothing but air.

[marceline]

I would prefer AMC died as AMC (whatever that means) than try to make OLTL in the sleaze department. It simply wouldn't work. OLTL is the deviant/sleazy soap just like GH is the mob/violent soap. If there was more time, I'm confident that AMC could find it's niche again they just need to change the writng (simple enough right? LOL) and step up the promotion of the right stories in the right ways.

Look at OLTL, the show lives in the gutter: Wendy Williams as Phillis Rose, Kourtney Kardashian, ads on TMZ, Jess's mindfucker continuing to mindfuck her, the Buch hos with their Maury Povich baby daddy scandals, etc... I think AMC would benefit from differentiation. Unfortunately, they won't get a chance.

[DRW50]

I think AMC needs the fun type of camp they had in the 80s. The problem now is that camp = sleaze and sickness and way too much self-awareness. I also think it needs more social classes. Why not have Amanda try to fit in with the likes of Enid Nelson? Imagine their heads shaking when they whisper about Janet Green's daughter.

[marceline]

I think the class angle would serve AMC well. No other show is dealing with it and obviously its a subject that resonates.

Oh well, perhaps the new soaps will deal with that.

[DRW50]

There could be a lot of story based on "the new poor," characters who slowly lose most of their money, while other characters become richer and richer. How would they relate to each other after this? Soaps never really do this. Instead someone just loses money overnight and waits tables for a month until their great aunt Lurlene dies and gives them a fortune.

[EricMontreal22]

That's not true though--it doesn't explain many top 40 shows that stay on the air at all.

[EricMontreal22]

That's exactly it. AMC used to rule at camp--but it was in the (quote unquote) Dickens, over the top character sort, not men shirtless for no reason, mocking rape, and reality stars making cameo way. However I think the prob is, even if they reinstated this, it would take too long to grow ANY sort of following to make a ratings diff...

[MontyB]

It's totally true. They stay on because the networks like the demos. Do you ever go to the tvbythenumbers website?

[chyti]

Demos matter but soap demos are doing really poorly as a whole so I doubt that the network regardless if owning the soap or not are happy with their performance. Tvbythenumbers doesn't really deal with daytime broadcasting mainly primetime and their is a difference with the way things are dealt with.

It is sad to see any soap cancelled it just leaves the door open for another one to leave, imo it doesn't matter which ABCD soap is cancel the first one is just the start of all of them leaving the airwaves.

[EricMontreal22]

Yep I'm there all the time. What's your point?

[MontyB]

Then you should know TV shows stay on the air based on their demos. That's all they ever talk about, which brings us full circle. What other proof do you need?

[Carolyn1980]

The thing is, the demos really aren't awful for some of the soaps...namely the top two, Y&R and GH....and this past week, OLTL. Sure, they look awful to us compared to what we've seen over the years, but the bar keeps dropping. Most daytime talk shows, syndicated and network, have comparable or lower 18-49 demo ratings than the higher-rated soaps.

The only difference is cost, since soaps tend to be more expensive...but a network that owns its shows, like ABC, can keep cutting the budget. Unfortunately, if a soap dips down to where AMC is (a 0.8), it's probably not worth cutting the budget down further.