August 1-5, 2011

[JaneAusten]

See I don't agree and it doesn't matter how good the writing is. You can only play that "bring back that vet to a big story" so many times or back from the dead. Dixie is a perfect example. Popular actress, character, very popular pairing for AMC and to what? Its been done before and even with decent writing. I can't say the writing now is bad I just find the story very been there done that. I know as a GH fan for years I don't care about Robert, Anna, Felicia, Holly anymore like I would have been excited years back.. I know I won't tune in specifically if Vanessa comes back and Genie, maybe but she might be the only one. They have no surprises or shocking returns to play up anymore that hasn't been done before aside from back from the dead and honestly AJ and maybe to a lessor degree Emily but then the Cassadines are gone and AJ was never really a huge fan favorite. Alan but then I don't see them bringing a 70 year old character back from the dead.

[MontyB]

+1

[MontyB]

It's interesting how that fact is being totally ignored by some. Whatever. The proof is in the ratings. Good for OLTL.

[aMLCproduction]

Your right. It would have ben safer to only cancel AMC first and then maybe waited a year to give Chew a good start and if that went well then cancel OLTL to get the rev in. ABC should have done a 3 year plan. Becasue GH is done for next year too.

[DRW50]

I agree with you, but given the increasingly poor performance of CBS' drama slate, and some of the shows they thought were going to be much bigger than they've turned out to be, I wonder if CBS has any regrets over that.

As for these ratings, I am surprised OLTL managed another big gain - I thought they'd level off. Kudos to them.

[TeamEric]

Looking long-term OLTL started an upswing last October when it spiked out of the cellar and began beating AMC consistently. It beat AMC and GH the last week in October and hovered very close to GH for weeks, beating it again two more times over the winter.

February sweep OLTL averaged 2.6 million viewers but March was weak month following to 2.4 million. The bullying story in April spiked viewership back to 2.6 million viewers.

OLTL lost viewers in May and June with RH stalking around and interacting with dayplayers no one cared about. It was July when the story finally started to heat up that OLTl spiked up to 2.67 million viewers.

[Max]

Unfortunately, I only have one week of these ratings available (which doesn't include the women 18-49 demos), those for the week of March 7-11, 2011:

These ratings were taken from golden-road.net, who got them from SON (and gave proper credit to this site). The poster did provide a link back to SON, but that link is no longer working.

I wish that there was more than just one week to go by, but Toups has chosen not to post the ratings for all network daytime shows (as is certainly his prerogative).

Carolyn, I highly doubt that total viewership means nothing, although I do concede that it is less important than the demos. However, what you are failing to acknowledge is that lower demos (as well as lower household ratings) can be tolerated with shows that are much less costly to produce than soaps. Thus, that is why it was a slam dunk decision for ABC to cancel OLTL while keeping The View.

Although I agree that fan outcry should not uncancel a show, you are underestimating just how important fan outrage can be in regards to possible damage to ABC's future daytime lineup. (I believe that a huge reason why ABC agreed to license AMC & OLTL to PP was because the fan outrage threatened to derail the sucess of Chew and Revolution.) And any objective person would have to concede that the lion's share of the outrage is due to the cancellation of AMC (because AMC is Susan Lucci's soap and has this completely overrated reputation of being such a "national treasure.") If you ask 100 non-soap viewers which soap--AMC or OLTL--is currently doing better in the ratings (or which soap is the "better" soap quality wise), at least 98 of them will say AMC. (In fact, I'd be shocked if more than seven people out of the one-hundred ever even heard of OLTL.) Hence, if ABC was going to cancel just one soap, they would have cancelled OLTL. (If you don't think that this could have happened, look at NBC, which cancelled AW before SuBe, despite the fact that it outpaced SuBe in viewership by a far greater margin than OLTL is currently besting AMC.)

[aMLCproduction]

Thanks Max

[Max]

You're very welcome.

[Carolyn1980]

Lol. First of all, Max, total viewership DOES mean nothing. ABSOLUTELY nothing. Advertisers don't give a whit how many people watch a certain show, and neither do networks, because they don't make money on viewers. They ONLY make money on who those viewers are. (This goes as far back as the late 60's, when CBS purged a ton of their top shows all at once because they only appealed to older, rural viewers....read your history).

Second, I never said a word about whether ABC was right to cancel OLTL, or not. All I said was that total viewers mean nothing.

And they still don't.

ETA: One more thing....you really overestimate corporate America's interest in public opinion. If ABC had waited until this moment to cancel just one show, it would have been AMC, Susan Lucci or not. ABC couldn't give two shits about whether or not one show was better-known or considered a "national treasure" (lol) or not. They only care about what every other corporation cares about: money. And AMC is making less for them right now.

That said, these are all moot points, because ABC basically canned their entire line-up. They're just waiting until April to drop the bomb on GH.

[TeamEric]

Ad rates are set based on demo performance during 3 sweep months. If a show fails to maintain close enough to their sweeps performance, advertisers can and will request adjustments. ABC had to pay back some money for GH 2 years ago and were not happy.

So yes maintaining demo performance is THE most important $$$ factor to the networks.

However, I do agree all this ratings debate is a MOOT point because ABC wants out of soaps. GH has already lost its slot as of Sept 2012, and thus effectively canceled too.

As for PP's versions of AMC and OLTL, it totally depends on what their business model is, web only or web/cable or ???

[Cyberologist]

I think Prospect Park was in the works for awhile (Frons old cronys) and I think it "also" has to do with the government granting money for this ....so they are just a (quasi/pseudo) - Disney/ABC spin-off without coming right out and saying it...even the name suggests it...

...Burton says they have deep pockets.

[JaneAusten]

I agree with you that the PP deal has been going on for a lot longer than the 2 months between cancellation and the online announcement. And I think GH's part in this being last was intentional.I think someone feels they have the greatest chance for success therefore they won't be the sacrificial lamb so to speak,

On a side note I honestly am perplexed at the fact ABC had to give Ad money back based on GH's lackluster performances 2-3 years ago yet the regime that drove the show to that state remained in power and still does to a great extent. Mind boggling

[OldGHFan]

I guess I disagree. Ratings did go up when they brought back the vets (minus Brenda). Robert & Holly's return garnered a 3.3 in February of 2006 and it went right back down after they left. But each return after that brought in less and less numbers because the long time fans (who were fans of these characters) didn't want to watch the hatchet job. I know I tuned out. So, why not repair the damage? Why not go back and bring back these vets and fix them? Garin seems to be interested in true GH history unlike Guza. I'm not saying GH will go up to 1st place or should ignore the Sonny, Jason and Carly fans but I think trying to repair the damage will go a long way in bringing back some fans. Face it, GH needs all the fans it can get at this point. I don't see how it can hurt.

[RavenWhitney]

OLTL could have acheived higher ratings if we weren't forced to sit through Nate (can't act) and Destiny (can't act) and Sean (can't act) scenes...horrible. and who cares. This is what's wrong with OLTL...so many newbies are are just awful. Frank and Ron's downfall is that they love being surrounded by hot dudes and so do i but they have to act AND get nekkid on my screen..then I want to tune in/turn on every freakin' day!