AMC and OLTL Canceled!

[Cheap21]

Wendy comments on the soap cancellations

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[Ryan Chamberlain]

That's why I gave up on that bloody place. I occasionally post. But, it's so freaking nazi-ish. Also, I mentioned 'cancelation' on the live radio show about 3 months ago and Kroll got all pissed at me for saying the 'c' word. Hey buddy, I should have said another one instead!

[CouchTomato]

If FV were to arrange for Erika Slezak to appear on a future WW show (not likely he would let someone who's not "young and hot" rep OLTL), I would hope a staffer tells Wendy how to pronounce Erika's last name correctly before she arrives at the studio. Good grief.

[wingwalker]

A little British perspective on the cancellations:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13140622

And apparently Mal Young, who produced some British Soap Operas is developing one for the U.S. Primetime.

[CCCapwell]

My point wasn't people will watch Revolution because RH returned to OLTL, I was responding to someone who is afraid Frons will "stick it" to AMC and OLTL in the final months. My point was ABC won't be spiteful to hurt these shows as its in their interest for each to get good ratings till the end because in their minds the more people watching at 1pm and 2pm for the cancelled soaps, once they go off, the potential is there for some of them to watch the new stuff. I mentioned ABC hiring LB to write AMC and RH for OLTL as example of the network doing something for these cancelled shows and those decisions were made when ABC knew both shows were being cancelled. The worst ABC could go already happened when they cancelled AMC and OLTL, the budgets won't be slashed or anything else "sticking it to them" Frons and ABC are focused on the new shows, they will likely let the creative teams at each show do what they want for the final months.

[CCCapwell]

Did Hoover advertise on the P&G soaps? Since P&G was the owner did they prevent competitors from advertising on their shows? I don't know if P&G owns any vacumm cleaners companies although regardless of that, I think with P&G the possibility is there they kept a lot of the ad time for their own products and may have only allowed certain others to buy time, so if Hoover was never allowed to buy ads on the P&G soaps or just never did, then its understanding why they didn't say anything with those shows went off.

[JackPeyton]

Perhaps the P&G fans didnt reach out to Hoover, and if they did perhaps not enough of them.

[DRW50]

All ratings declines on TV have been steady, but the decline for daytime over the last ten years seemed much more pronounced than anything in primetime. This is at a time when, with a few exceptions, cable networks were not having any big increase compared to where they were ten years ago (people just move around from one network to another - HBO loses some or Showtime gains some, FX gets a boost while Lifetime begins fading into oblivion, etc.) If anything there are now many less choices on cable than there were ten years ago - almost everything is the same, and many shows called hits would never be that on a major network (like Mad Men, or most of Syfy's crap). The only shows that seem to get a mass audience on cable at the moment are shows about drunken idiots punching each other out and having babies.

I also don't think that many people watch online that it would affect soap operas. I think that would be more likely to affect shows like sci-fi programs.

In primetime, many shows lose steam, but something can always manage to capture the public interest. That's because the networks still care about fixing primetime. They stopped caring about fixing daytime 10 years ago or more. And that's when the ratings really started to hit the floor. 10 years ago, 5 years ago, etc.

[CCCapwell]

Well Fridays have become low rating days, and if it was a daily night soap, then Fridays are out cause its a big night not to be home.

I could see 2 nighttime soaps or even a daytime soap sharing a timeslot. Mon and Wen Soap A airs and Tue and Thur Soap B airs. There are lots of potential although these idiots don't care enough to be innovative.

[CCCapwell]

You got it right! The soaps are making money, they just want more money from cheaper programming.

[Jonathan]

New Agnes Nixon interview:

http://www.philly.com/philly/insights/in_the_know/120261799.html

[All My Shadows]

Wow, Jonathan, that's a great interview! Thanks for posting.

I love it.

Basically the conclusion that we all came to last week in regards to Erica. It's so fulfilling when you know a character well enough that you and the woman who created her and wrote her for years agree 100% on how the character's story should end.

[JaneAusten]

I don't get this idea of developing or moving soaps to primetime as if primetime today doesn't have soaps. Isn't that exactly what shows

like Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, and even The Good Wife are or even a show like Damages? Desperate Housewives has been a

successful show on primetime for years. ANd there were years where primetime soaps thrived with Dallas, Dynasty, Falcon Crest, Knots Landing,etc...

So there is definitely an audience for them but if you look at Primetime all of those shows ultimately lost viewer interest and ended. Same

has happened with DH but something new always comes along to capitivate the audience. And I don't think it will be a continuation of Dallas

but something fresh and new like DH was at the time. I'm just a firm believer that the audience doesn't have the time to watch a show 5 days

a week during primetime much less daytime and if they do, they will lose interest even more quickly than they do in the average 1 day a week

primetime show.

AS for soaps making money, wasn't the original intent of soaps to make a healthy profit to provide cash influx to primetime to help develop

and build those shows. That's likely what the networks are looking for now. Maybe these new cheaper shows can't generate as much of an audience

as the soaps do but they can likely generate a healthier profit. I just remember shows like Cheers in its early years at the ratings basement. Had it

not been for daytime, that show may not ever have been given the chance to build an audience and become as successful as it did.

[CCCapwell]

The ideas talked about are ways to come up with vialble solutions to the concept there isn't a big audience at home during the day to watch daily dramas, so thats why its suggested daily or less than 5 days a week soaps move to a different timeslot, whether primetime, fringe 5-8pm EST or 11pm. Primetime soaps are not the same as the daytime daily dramas that air 52 weeks a year, the daytime soap is what we want to preserve, too bad network execs aren't as innovative as some posters on this board who offer viable solutions and options.

[Vizion]

THIS. I completely agree with all of it.