June 27 - July 1, 2011

[MontyB]

Those numbers are up there. I'm really surprised how much GH has dropped.

[starwatcher21]

No, but I think LB kicking her stories off with another lame Rylee wedding, her recycled David is God crap and Ryan the hypocrite playing the hero going after David turned a lot of people off. All she did was recycled her scripts from 2009/10 when she was transitional headwriter.

[marceline]

This is why I hate all the date drops of "So-and-so's material starts airing TODAY!" It's the first week of "her scripts" even though she's been AHW all this time. Was everything really supposed to just R-E-S-E-T? Mathison even said in an interview that the Rylee redux was because of cancellation. Hopefully they can just crap out this twu wuv then move them a little farther on the backburner to better stuff. I prefer that to having Rylee angst eating up screen time only to have their reunion decimate the end. Magneto!David will hopefully lead to something more complex with Erica, Dixie and other returns.

Bottom line for me isn't that this was the start of LB but the end of the long, slow Megasuck of Mediocrity created by S&K. Those two produced some of the most boring daytime television not broadcast on CSPAN2 and AMC has been paying for it for the better part of a year. There's not enough time to turn that tide especially with LB/AN style writing. Focus now needs to be on the "wrap up" and the "tee up" not the ratings. AMC won't even see another sweeps period so focus on wrapping up this show and teeing up AMCv2.0. It's one benefit to leaving first. PP can jump right in and start working with the show. For better or worse, AMC is going to be the beta test for this new venture.

[alwaysAMC]

+1 and

[Angela]

Is it still going to be K & S's fault if the ratings are low a month or two from now? I'll be shocked if they are still low a month from now due to all the high profile returns but IJS.

LB was promoted from AHW to HW on April 2 and her first full week aired on the week of June 27. For some reason enough viewers didn't watch the week of June 27 for it to be the new lowest watched week ever. Whatever the case, that was Broderick's work. I will say you can't judge any writer on one week of ratings if you can judge them on ratings at all. For example, Broderick's last long-term run on the show acheived many record lows but was critically acclaimed. In 2010 and now in 2011, there were and are too many outside factors influencing the atmosphere of how Broderick's numbers will look from the short period as head writer to high profile returns.

S & K wrote for a year and the ratings were stagnant. S & K's writing neither attracted or detracted from a core viewership of about 2,350,000 viewers on average. My opinion of why that is because the writing was stagnant and dull. They neither offended that core set of viewers enough for a real drop nor did they write anything that would attract new viewers.

[marceline]

We're not really saying opposite things. S&K wrote boring bad television and we are still feeling the effects of that except now were feeling it in summer after a cancellation notice. And yes, we may still be feeling the effects of that a month from now. The idea that there is a definite line between HW's only exists for HR and Legal. In real life it all builds like mercury in the brain. We are still suffering from stuff McTavish did. Sorry but I don't believe that just because last week had LB as HW that scads of people were going to find themselves mysteriously drawn back to the show on Monday. Especially if they quit sometime in the last year.

I'm not interested in the ratings anymore. I just want to end the show in the most creatively satisfying way so they can get on with the business of starting fresh. That will be the chance to either shake off the damage of the last few years or bury the show for good. This show has a future now. Let's hurry up and get there.

[me4ryky]

I'm not surprised at all by the GH decline, actually. The show is just horrible. As a longtime fan, I've weathered many storms, survived many a crappy story or disliked pairing, yet I've always found something- be it a character or a story- something that would help me hang in there. Except the last year or two. I found myself ff'ing through almost entire episodes. I'm at the point where I can't hardly even watch in fast forward. When I listen to the dialogue, I want to throw things at my television. And I'm a loyal, longtime fan.

If I were new to the show, I'd switch to Judge Judy or Ellen. GW will need to be a magician if he wants to be even moderately successful. Nothing is working now, IMO. Bringing back past favorites won't be enough to right this Titanic.

[Kimmiemae]

I sorta agree with starwatcher. LB is pretty much doing the same stories from 2009 & 2010. I think LB missed a big opportunity to end Rylee with the story David & Donna had in place. IMO, the best thing K&S did as HW's was to give Rylee a fake wedding & backburn them. I think it's ridiculous to think that just because AMC is ending Ryan and Greenlee just had to get married again. I think CM was joking when he made that comment about Rylee getting married again because of the cancellation. Married or apart Rylee will eat up the show because that's how LB writes them.

I love complex Villain David from years ago, but LB's version of David is a little too mustache curling cartoonish for me. David leads all LB's main stories, and controls everything. Now we're back to everybody trying to get big bad David with hypocrite Ryan & his sidekick Greenlee leading the charge. All too predictable & boring.

[marceline]

You guys realize that Frons is still calling the shots right? He's still setting the agenda for all of these shows and he's just as invested in getting his ending. As long as Frons sucks oxygen AMC will get Rylee and Zendall and OLTL will get...whatever? Like it or not, Frons is still spreading his leathery black wings all over these shows.

[Carolyn1980]

You might be right, but I get the feeling he's washed his hands of all of them at this point, and is only focused on his new shows. He didn't even go to the daytime Emmy's this year. I don't even think he cares about GH anymore. In fact, I bet GH is going to go the way of Prospect Park next year and he knows it. I think he pretty much told all the show-runners at this point to do whatever the hell they want.

Of course, as I've said before, I might not know what I'm talking about

[Cheap21]

Why was Days so awful? The show has been amazing!

[marceline]

Nobody really went to the daytime emmy's this year. It was basically B-listers mixed in with nominees. I think most people washed their hands of it. Frons has been a megalomaniacal control freak all these years and he will be one until the end. It's how he's wired. The new shows don't give him a chance to be controlling yet. Plus he's dealing with equally controlling people and they carry knives.

[Carolyn1980]

Oh, believe me, ITA about Frons. Yikes...I don't think ANYONE in charge of daytime at any network has EVER micro-managed so much. He single-handedly destroyed ABC daytime, thanks to his hires and his storyline orders. But I really think he's washed his hands of the shows, finally, because he knows they're ending, and he probably knows deep down he royally f*cked them up, lol.

Of course, like I said before, you could be right, and this guy just won't let go until they kick him over the cliff

[Eric83]

It always goes down during Wimbledon and was pre empted in a large number of markets. Ratings will be back up to normal next week.

[marceline]

Wasn't it during Wimbeldon a couple of years ago that DAYS actually got a massive boost? Or was it the Olympics? Yes, the Olympics! All those TVs tuned to NBC for sports were one hell of a gift for DAYS. It's a shame they couldn't hold on to those transitional viewers. It was the opportunity of a lifetime.