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AMC and OLTL Canceled!


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Wow really? That's how you interpreted it? Interesting. I'm not trying to be snotty here. I'm genuinely surprised at your interpretation. Did you listen to the piece? I'm wondering if it came across differently on the air than it reads. Because when I heard it I thought it was nice to see someone address the fact that nobody really knows what to do with daytime anymore and it had the added benefit of staying away from the cliches about soap viewers.

Oprah going off the air seems to have had the effect of pulling the queen bee out of a hive (no pun intended) and the confusion has made people in the industry absolutely BSC. Like Ann said, a lot of soap fans have been terribly myopic but what's happened to these shows is just a piece of a far bigger and more confusing picture. For instance the Katie Couric thing isn't about replacing GH, it's about replacing Oprah. GH is just collateral damamge.

But I keep going back to another point: whether there are many or a few options, nobody's choosing soaps.

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I actually like the idea and I understood what the women were saying, I appreciate hearing a different point of view, and no mention of talking heads or producers reading talking points. I guess I was thrown by, in the middle an article which talks about how these women are struggling to find suitable programming to watch, they casually mention that people today have so many more options than they did in the past. I think it sort of goes against the main crux of the article. I had to put it out of my head and continue reading the rest. I know that's being picky.

I'm glad you posted it, as, aside from that brief lurch, I enjoyed it and I think the point of view is something we don't see very often.

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Honestly what are these so few options to choose from. There are a ton. Sure a lot of its the same and a lot are copycats. TV has been like

that for years.

I think repeats on cable these days almost serve a different purpose then they used to. I think for example the Law and Order reruns opened that

show up to a differnt audience and increased the popularity of the original show. L&O was a show in the basement of the ratings until they

started showing reruns on I think A&E. Once that happened the show seemed to catch on and gain momentum and increase in popularity.

With Oprah everyone is making the same mistake TV has done for years and not just daytime. Trying to replace or copy something successful. And with

Katie Couric I can already hear people saying how she'll be a failure if she doesn't draw the same audience Oprah does same as people insist that

The Talk is a failure because their numbers are not the same as ATWT.

Oprah won't be replaced. Someone or something else will come along that will capture the imagination of viewers and it will be something that

no one ever predicted.

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I think the problem with The Talk is that their ratings probably should be higher than ATWT's - generally that's a problem with all the bold new fresh programming, as the press releases call it - most of it matches the soaps, in demos and in household ratings, or is lower than the soaps. It's cheaper to produce, so it makes financial sense, but then that takes away any argument from the networks about this being such unique programming women have been waiting all their lives to see.

But that's just CBS. If The Chew and The Revolution are competently run then I could see them having a better reach than the hollowed out shells of AMC and OLTL.

I hope no one expects Katie to have Oprah-size ratings, but people are going to expect a big pull, because she's supposed to be this hugely popular icon.

I agree. That's why I disagree when articles make it sound like cable is so expansive or unique or gives many choices.

I think L&O was an exception to the rule. Other shows which have a lot of cable repeats, such as Desperate Housewives, and are still on the air don't seem to have the same ratings boost. Although I haven't checked lately so I might be wrong.

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I used to frequent two black male owned barber shops in my teens/early 20s, and their sets stayed locked on CBS soaps in the daytime. It wasn't just background noise and there was no turning to channel 7 (I asked!--height of Stone/Robin). It was not at all uncommon for a barber to stop mid-cut and turn and watch the screen. The guys laughed and commented and were really into the shows without the least bit of irony.

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Before my folks "moved on up" to the suburbs, I can tell you that Y&R was a common subject at every barbecue and block party among the men. Those men, my father included, loved them some Victor Newmann. Part of our dinner conversation used to be my mom telling my dad what Victor did that day on Y&R. I often wonder if Braeden ever realized that he was a black icon. In those days they could've put him on the cover of Ebony magazine and every man on my block would've asked "What took so long?" LOL!

I wonder what's playing in the barber shops these days.

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I have wondered and will eventually find out when I go back, but I'm sure Y&R and B&B are still holding it down. At one of the shops I went to, GL was the owner's favorite so I know he misses it. But to be honest with you, I bet they still don't have cable so they are probably watching LMAD and Dr. Phil or turning the radio up a little higher just a little earlier. They have such a stigma, but the soaps have always had something for the men, especially in terms of misogyny. A woman's genre where dicks rule the world.

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It's one where the host(ess) clearly knows what they're doing, preparing fun dishes that are easily explained for the uninitiated (but not simplistically so) and then presented at the end to look attractive and "professional," and not just slopped on the plate. (Yes, Rachael Ray, I'm talkin' 'bout choo.) When the host(ess) has left you feeling not only like you want to try the recipe but that you actually could w/o looking like a damned fool, then they've succeeded. If they leave you wondering 1) who'd eat that slop, and 2) who'd they screw in order to get their own show? They haven't.

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That's because of the kind of soap opera they'd produce. NBC's soaps were trying to be anything but; and ABC's, while beautifully produced, seemed to cater predominantly to the needs of upscale, female viewers. CBS's shows, though, were by-and-large MOR shows, w/ a "something for everyone" mentality.

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I bet you years from now when anchors are a thing of the past and there is no more network news, people will come to the accurate conclusion that Katie Couric just happened to be in the right place at the right time routinely. There would be no Katie Couric if an NBC exec didn't axe Jane Pauley to put his girlfriend in as host of the Today show. Then when Debbie Norville failed they turned to Couric. Then the network executives decided that a female anchor was an end in itself, any female will do even if she never actually did a single piece of journalism, and they picked Couric because she was perky and sort of pretty and famous. They decided an untried woman > a seasoned man who might actually have journalistic credentials.

Now she is famous and the networks have very few options. At least Anderson Cooper takes his windbreaker and stands out in a few storms once in a while. It sort of speaks to what an insubstantial journalist Couric is that no one has ever considered Diane Sawyer to host some chatty gabfest full of fluff and froth the way everybody zeroed in on Katie.

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