Anne Sweeney had told [brian Frons and Kate Nelson] that they needed to evolve [soapNet] for the future, especially as more people had DVRs and just airing soaps at night was not enough. They pitched an idea to make the network hip and cool for women basically the type of woman that Carrie was in "Sex and the City." We thought that it was a go and then found out that the executives rejected their idea all together.

Disney rejected it either because they would've had to compete with Lifetime, Oxygen, Bravo, Style Network, WeTV, and about a dozen other, similar networks that compete for the same "niche market"; or, because they couldn't understand Frons' fascination with S&TC anymore than we could. (Seriously, Frons, just b/c your beard wife watched it religiously every week didn't mean everyone else in America did.)

(So, "Disney Moms" would have been a network for Moms...and their families. Ohhhhkay.)

Ironically, I think Anne Sweeney was/is right about SN needing to evolve. Once DVR's and such entered the marketplace, SN's basic selling point - the ability to watch "today's soaps tonight" - was gone.

Edited April 19, 201114 yr by Khan

http://www.deadline.com/2011/04/carrie-disney-moms-among-rejected-ideas-for-soapnet-an-insiders-perspective-on-nets-evolution-abc-soaps-demise/

What they should do is just split soapnet, much like Nick use to do Noggin/The-N. Noggin would be like 6a-6p and would feature kiddie shows, then 6p-6a it was The-N with tween/teen shows and reruns of 90's teen shows later at night. Toon Disney could run in the morning/afternoon/early evening and then at night into the early morning they could air soaps/acquired movies/etc. See how it goes. Nick ended up spinning The-N into its own network, TeenNick.

Too bad Disney is supposed to be "wholesome" and "conservative." Otherwise, I would have pitched "Rainbow Disney," the corporation's answer to Viacom's LOGO w/ a network geared specifically toward gay audiences.

I was reading it and thinking, these loons make NBC look like a well run network. Frons mismanages the soaps, drives SoapNet into the ditch, comes up with two awful ideas to rebrand it which neither get picked up, AMC/OLTL get cancelled for two awful sounding shows, and now SoapNet actually might stay alive for a while longer and he still has a job? What the heck is going on over at the house of mouse?

Edited April 19, 201114 yr by wingwalker

What the heck is going on over at the house of mouse?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGnz4RykgF8&feature=related

Cancellation was handled on Chelsea Handler's show

I love Chelsea Lately!

http://www.theblowoff.com/2011/04/soap-opera-blow-off-former-executives.html

A somewhat insiders account of the recent past at ABCD

Edited April 19, 201114 yr by JackPeyton

Why encourage people to fight a losing battle? Expelling all of this energy when it is completely useless is such a waste of time. The confirmation that you received that OLTL's cancellation was a year in the making would be indicative to accept the inevitable and move on. ABC is sticking to their guns. Hoover's decision to 'aid' soap fans is in no way deterring ABC from their decision and suggests that if more sponsors remove themselves, it will only expedite the cancellation dates.

LOL I dare you to go to SOC and say something like this, you get your head chewed off for being "negative"

Cancellation was handled on Chelsea Handler's show

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Voqc71x54ig

Ironically, what that girl with the dark hair said is true.

Edited April 19, 201114 yr by MontyB

I was reading it and thinking, these loons make NBC look like a well run network. Frons mismanages the soaps, drives SoapNet into the ditch, comes up with two awful ideas to rebrand it which neither get picked up, AMC/OLTL get cancelled for two awful sounding shows, and now SoapNet actually might stay alive for a while longer and he still has a job? What the heck is going on over at the house of mouse?

For reals. If everyone were black this would be Tyler Perry presents Madea's Changing Channels

http://www.theblowoff.com/2011/04/soap-opera-blow-off-former-executives.html

A somewhat insiders account of the recent past at ABCD

Interesting little article, I wonder who the writer actually is...

Interesting little article, I wonder who the writer actually is...

Sara Saedi

http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/all-my-stories/?hp

In the time I was at ABC, we tried EVERYTHING to save the soaps and increase the ratings. We brought back legacy characters, we brought in younger characters in hopes of raising our teen and 18-34 demo, we cut costs, we executed high concept action driven storylines, we executed high romance emotionally driven storylines, we started a cable network so women could watch their soaps at night, we produced webisodes, we used CGI to raise production value, we did endless research to figure out what was working for viewers and what wasn't, we went back to focusing on social issues, we went HD, we traveled all around the country so soap stars could meet their fans, we hired Latino actors to attract the telenovella viewers, we went more salacious in our narratives, we went more true to life in our narratives, we went multi-platform, we did shorter close ended story arcs, we sat in rooms for hours with writers and talked in great depth about every single character on each show and what their objectives were, we took risks, we played it safe, we sold an All My Children perfume in Wal-Mart, we published books "written by" our fictional characters, we killed off beloved characters, we brought back beloved characters from the dead, we even brought a movie star on General Hospital...and the ratings still didn't go up.

Because you didn't tell good stories. None of that means a damn without good story. Or did we forget to cover that between the cross-country road trips and the skunky perfume tie-ins?