AMC and OLTL Canceled!

[trish672]

And they'd have gotten zero publicity out of it to make it worth their while. Anyways, I'm sure Hoover ads will quietly return to ABC by next year's end if not earlier..

There is that.

[LoyaltoAMC]

Not sure how much of a bump in salary comes from jumping to associate HW to sole HW, but I wouldn't think it would be that substantial. Plus, D&D may not have been pricey, especially him, but they would've had to sign new contracts. I'd imagine that with only a couple of more months of scripts being generated, that the remainder of their contracts would need to be paid off. Simpler and cheaper to cut them loose and promote Lorraine than go through all of that with them. Maybe Lorraine needs the money. Quite possibly she wanted the HW position when she was interim writer, but Frons like D&D better, but just kept her on. I am glad Broderick and Nixon are there to pen the end.

[DRW50]

ABC would probably make them pay for the embarrassment so it would completely undercut any gain from yanking the ads.

I just don't think the publicity garnered from this is enough to offset a strong profit if they believed these new shows were going to be a success.

[You're Soaking in it]

Historically, it's a good chunk of change difference... but we have to keep in mind that this is just for a few months now, of course. Unless you're someone with the clout of David Canary, which K&S are not, a cancellation would always be an overriding termination of the contract. So that wouldn't have kept them from being renewed... I'm thrilled they were not.

As for Lorraine needing the money, I don't believe that's the case at all - if we're talking in the sense that she'd be "washed up" after soaps: She'd been teaching for the last several years before agreeing to return to AMC, after passing on the HW job before it was offered for the last time to McTavish: Frons wanted to transfer her from OLTL back to AMC in 2003, but her initial impression of being a HW under him, so far, wasn't the greatest. She finished out her network contract as an AHW under Malone & Griffith, went to GL for an interim stint, then became a writing professor at Drexel.... She could easily teach again. (Heck, sign me up for a class! I'd love to hear her stories...)

I do believe that she accepted the job knowing that she'd be bringing the show to an end. I'm pretty certain that's how Felicia Behr (though I'm she has other sources) knew what was coming; FB & LB have remained friends. But after all this, honestly, to me it's still pretty much a moot point what motivated Frons to hand it over to Broderick... I'm just glad it worked out that way.

[Bella1974]

People in the US, especially those aged 12 to 35 are not going to watch a daily soap opera at night. BBC America tried it with Hollyoak, and NBC tried it with a soap starring a guy from General Hospital, both attempts failed miserably. Watching a daily soap is a commitment, and people in the US just aren't used to committing that much time to a nightly TV show. Network television viewership among 18-49 year olds is declining at an amazing rate, and aside from one or two shows, like American Idol, it is really hard to lure in younger viewers.

If you agree with the idea that soaps can longer work in the daytime, then, I think, you are pretty much saying that they can no longer work in their current format. The only option, because year round daily airings aren't going to work, is to start doing 13 to 20 week seasons that air 3 to 5 times a week.

[DRW50]

BBC America barely tried (they shifted the show to a late night slot after a month or so and then burned off most of the episodes online), and they also started in the middle of huge, incredibly complex storylines - I think if they'd chosen a better launching pad they might have had more success.

[All My Shadows]

IMO, Hollyoaks doesn't count. BBC America isn't a widespread channel, the show was moved around on the schedule, accents generally turn US viewers off (never mind the fact that BBC America opted to use subtitles), and they started airing the show in the middle of huge complicated storylines.

IDK what NBC's soap with the GH guy was.

I mentioned upthread that I'd like to see a 3-a-week soap for teens/20somethings that airs in a post-primetime slot, like 10:30 (central), with a summertime break (or maybe going to just one primetime airing per week in the summer). Young people will watch soaps that appeal to them (ABC Family's pretty much got a monopoly on them), and young people will watch TV that appeal to them that air daily (or almost daily) at a certain time each night. I'm just waiting for someone to seriously put the two together and commit to putting it out there.

[SFK]

Does anybody know what the numbers were like for Tribes and Swans Crossing back in the day? Granted, they were not of the level of Degrassi, classic or TNG for that matter, but I still think that tweens and teens would respond well to a quality serial in the 5:00-6:00pm window. I liked when FOX was still "a joke" and didn't fill its schedule with local morning and evening news and more time was open for syndicated programming. I can't remember if it was MyNetwork or CW that aired Degrassi: TNG for 2 hrs. on Sundays but I loved that and I would like to see how it would do 5/wk on a non-cable network.

[EricMontreal22]

BBC aired Hollyoaks with subtitles?? Sigh

[All My Shadows]

Wait no never mind. They aired Skins with subtitles Still proves the point, though.

[SFK]

There are folks who watched The Wire with subtitles on.

How is the American Skins doing btw? I know nothing about the series other than the fact that the boy from Slumdog Millionaire was in it, seeing him interviewed was the first time I ever heard of it.

ETA: Ugh, my dog jumped up on the bed and stepped on my laptop keyboard and now I'm missing keys and the h isn't working properly so please forgive my spelling errors, I'm trying my best to correct them.

[alphanguy74]

I'm as stunned by that as you are. I guess the american public really IS lazy as hell nowadays, if they won't even watch a show with british accents. For the love of God... how does one explain Craig Ferguson? Networks certainly used to not have a problem with heavy accents on TV shows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnzcUuRvHsk

[Jonathan]

[~bl~]

poor SFK bad dog!

Yes Skins had subtitles, Hollyoaks was normal. The airing of Hollyoaks was weird with old and new episodes next to each other, but I liked it and watched it. Usually I tried to marathon it, but it was frustrating as DVR listings couldn't pick up reruns versus new episodes.

[SFK]

Sut up! It is so damn annoying to type a post then look up and see that all te 's are missing like I'm cockney or someting! <--SEE! Or Jamaican.