May 16-20, 2011

[marceline]

I think you're both right in a way. The victimization of women is one of the many reasons the genre is dead. Soaps don't fit in a post-Buffy world and that's why they have succumbed to a sort of natural selection. This isn't about last week's ratings or last month or even last year, it's about the last 5, 10, 15 years.

Unfortunately Toups is right in that the remaining soap audience is acclimated to and comfortable with the misogyny (as well as other forms of bias). Most of the people who cared stopped watching and the people watching don't care, at least not that much. Right now in soaps, misogyny draws people in and I think that's a big part of the reason OLTL is doing so well. Two Todds = double the rapey goodness, the exploitation of uber-victim Jessica, Marty/Kelly/Natalie all destroying themselves over John McBain.

Whatever AMC's many faults, that show has never hated women the way OLTL does. Just this week Bianca's rape was still treated as a crime and a trauma. On OLTL, she'd be peeling off Ricky's clothes and telling him that she secretly loved having Michael Cambias inside her.

[Gray Bunny]

Interesting that Y&R has 1,074,000 male viewers 18 and up, and 946,000 female 18-49 viewers. Granted, I'm sure alot of those men are older than 49 years old, but interesting that the male viewer count is greater than their target demo.

[MontyB]

Glad One Life to Live is maintaining.

The weather? Uhhmm, yeah, a tornado is approaching, but I can't miss my soaps.

[DRW50]

That's mostly down to Victor, who has always been very popular among men.

[TC]

Bargaining.

Must be an AMC fan.

Bargaining.

Must be a GH fan.

[marceline]

Ignoring reality and stirring shite.

Must be a OLTL fan.

Attacking anyone who disagrees with you just because they do.

Definitely a OLTL fan.

[Ann_SS]

LOL! My thoughts exactly. The soaps are just about done and they are obsessed with inane soap rivalries instead of living in reality. I'll never understand that the continuing delusion.

[Eric83]

LMAO.

[EricMontreal22]

Re female victims--I do agree to an extent, but I'm not sure I agree in the case of Erica's story, as defensive as that may sound. And this could be partly a case of the soap people again stupidly looking at primetime--where shows like Criminal Minds are nearly ALL about quite awful female victimization.

[marceline]

I don't consider Erica's story to be the typical victim porn because 1.) she has been fighting to get out the whole time and using everything at her disposal to do so and 2.) she isn't being victimized by a man or because of a man. The story is about Erica and/or "Jane." Not the man she's screwing.

[EricMontreal22]

Agreed. There's no case of her falling for her captor, and by soap standards she's actually being particularly smart. I mean was Natalie in the Well a victim porn story?

[TeamEric]

I'd see Frons moving KA over KDP as he's quite the ageist. RH was out in LA for months looking for work and GH showed no interest in scooping him up so I don't see that happening either.

I believe GH has already been canceled and they are just holding off on the announcement until Katie Couric deal can be announced. She's so getting their slot.

OLTL has beaten GH in viewership 5 out of the last 6 weeks. BUT that's not the number ABC cares about. If OLTl starts to beat GH amongst 18-49, then I expect Frons to have egg on his face! So go OLTL!!!!!!!!!!!

[JaneAusten]

That's all likely true. And I think OLTL's gains are a good example. Sure OLTL has 350k more viewers than last year but who are they? They aren't women 18-49. That demo hasn't budged. They aren't women 18-34. They went down. I think what you are seeing now in terms of gains for all soaps is no one making great strides in the demos anymore. Which is an indication the average age of the audience continues to get older, they are likely pulling back some older viewers, and younger viewers are more interested in other things.

Myself I am buying my time on when to tune back into AMC until Brodericks writing kicks in and Dixie is back.