Frons to leave ABC in January

[Wendy]

Well, yeah. He did what ABC wanted, to kill soaps. So his job is done and his position is no longer required.

IMO, this is what is comes down to, not some miracle for the genre or, specifically, GH. It would have felt differently if this happened almost a decade ago.

[Chris B]

The best place for him was ABC. Now we need to worry about what soap he will murder next. He's going to be hired, it's just a matter of time. Let's just hope he gets hired outside the soap world.

[DRW50]

I would say he'd go ruin their ABC Family lineup but I doubt they would give him such a job. Maybe he can go flop in Europe like he did in the 90's.

[Khan]

I have a feeling Brian Scott Frons will become an independent producer of reality and talk shows.

[Cat]

His job is done. He did what ABC wanted him to do and now his contract is at an end. He probably had something lined up the moment they decided to move AMC to LA, in case the move flopped. This guy did not just cancel the entire soap line-up and then sat around wondering why the hell he was getting canned, too.

BTW, GH is dead, too. Has been since the announcement about AMC and OLTL. FV could be the next Gloria Monty and RC the next Claire Labine, but ABC wouldn't care unless GH started pulling in 6.0s all of a sudden.

[chyti]

Like others have said job done he will probaby leave with a nice retirement package, I can't even get happy about this its like firing the dj at the end of the party with only an hour left on the rental and plugging your ipod into the speaker system. GH is so over.

[Carolyn1980]

The things I just *know* about how the end of soaps at ABC went down, and I consider any opinions disagreeing with any of these ridiculous:

1. ABC didn't hire Brian Frons to kill the soaps. But Frons' poor decisions and micro-management hastened their demise. With the fracturing of the daytime audience eroding the audience for the soaps, they were going to have to end for economic reasons at some point. But I think they could've gone another 5-10 years had a more talented person been in charge of the shows sine 2002.

2. When AMC was moved to L.A., OLTL's cancellation was sealed. There was no going back, even if OLTL had sky-rocketed in the ratings. And AMC *was* intended to live for several more years thanks to the move, with a lifestyle/talk show slipping in for OLTL once they found one they liked. But AMC's ratings collapsed (Frons bet on the wrong horse), and no way were they going to spend money to move OLTL to L.A., so both shows were cut.

3. GH was not going to be cut, even with the dumping of AMC/OLTL. As I said, it was originally only going to be OLTL, but AMC *had* to be cut, because it crashed in the ratings. But GH's ratings collapse over the last several months, coupled with the canceled OLTL regularly on par with or beating it in the key demos sealed its fate. NOW, just as when OLTL's fate was sealed by being left behind in NY, GH's fate is sealed. Nothing will save it. It will not be on the air by the end of September next year.

[chyti]

1. There is no way any these soaps or any of the remainin soaps are lasting another 5-10 years on any network. Yet that is not to say that soaps are dead new format, new outlet is the future.

3. If left up to the network(Anne Sweeny) all there soaps would have been cancelled together in April this is not my opinion but a fact also it seems that ABC just wants out of the soap business so I do agree with your statement about GH fate being sealed.

[Carolyn1980]

1. There is no way *now* they would last another 5-10 years. Read what I wrote again. Had someone with more talent been in charge, the seeds would've been laid years ago that allowed them to last another 5-10 years at this point. But that ship sailed years ago.

3. That IS your opinion, lol. No legitimate news source has said that Anne Sweeney wanted all three shows canceled at once, only "insiders" and "anonymous sources." I firmly believe GH's fate was not sealed until it tanked in the ratings over the last 6-8 months.

[chyti]

1. No soap on today is or was going to last another 5-10 years regardles if someone with more talent been in charge. ABC was not the only network with soap cancellations, across the board ratings are down and cost are up soaps are ending on broadcast network period.

3. No that is not my opinion, I am simply repeating what has been stated in articles and is being supported by ABC's actions. It is YOUR opinion that those articles were wrong, but looking at the lastest developments it seems that things have been in place for awhile.

[R Sinclair]

Unless these articles have statements made by legitimate ABC representatives, any article involving information divulged by alleged "insiders" and "anonymous sources" are using nothing but hearsay to beef up their articles' particular angle. Therefore, you're technically correct. It's not YOUR opinion -- however, it's not fact, either. It's hearsay, which is far from indisputable.

[chyti]

You are absolutely correct and I amend my statement to this, statements made by those in the industry suggest that GH was to be cancelled along with AMC/OLT and the actions carried out by ABC since has supported those statements imo.

[Carolyn1980]

1. I disagree. And by your logic, it didn't matter who was in charge at ABC, the soaps were going to be canceled now, anyway. So then I guess Frons did the best he could, huh?

3. It's not being supported by ABC's actions. Just like AMC's ratings plunge led to its cancellation (despite an expensive move designed to keep it around for several more years), GH's ratings plunge is leading to its cancellation.

[Khan]

It truly is the end of an era when we can't look at even Frons' departure as good news.

[Max]

Most of the time, I agree with the things Carolyn says. The only things I disagree with her on are that (1) IMO, the cancellation of OLTL was still justified (despite having higher ratings than AMC & GH; Carolyn had earlier stated that OLTL should not have been axed because of this) and (2) there is a tiny chance (20% or less) that GH could last until 2013. (Though for the latter to happen, The Revolution's ratings would have be in the 1.1 or 1.2 range.)

I've give Carolyn huge amounts of credit for being the only die-hard OLTL fan (I'm aware of) to realize that OLTL's fate was sealed the moment AMC moved to Los Angeles. When the AMC cancellation rumors began popping up early this year, it seemed as if every other OLTL fan was in complete denial that their soap would go as well.

Furthermore, as Carolyn suggests, its ridiculous to suggest that Frons was hired for the purpose of ending the soaps. People love conspiracy theories, but the fact of the matter is that Frons likes soaps (in his own perverted way) and honestly thought that his misguided ideas would help them. ABC wasn't even ready to give up on soaps in 2009 (when the decision was made to move AMC to Los Angeles), so why would they have been ready to give up on them in 2002 (when Frons was hired by them)?