LMAD Renewed

[Max]

While I cannot find an official press release, Wayne Brady tweeted that LMAD has been renewed for a fourth season. (He also mentioned this when he was interviewed on The Talk as well.) Although this is great news, I am completely shocked, as I had been under the impression that CBS Daytime was going to shave one hour off its schedule (to make room for a syndicated Jeff Probst talk show). (It looks like CBS will still have 4.5 hours of daytime programming this fall, as I recall reading that The Talk has been renewed as well, though that is no surprise.)

Because the household ratings are (unfortunately) rarely posted here at SON, I don't know exactly how well LMAD is doing. However, the few times I have checked on its ratings (here and elsewhere), it seems to score in about the 1.6 to 1.9 range (which was considerably better than the 1.3s and 1.4s GL was getting in 2009). Thus, CBS did indeed make the right decision in choosing LMAD as a replacement show, and it is very refreshing that at least one of the broadcast networks respects the game show genre.

Ratings for The Talk, The Chew, and the fourth hour of "Today" seem to be on par with what LMAD is doing (based on the relatively few data points I have seen). Given that Talk and Chew are getting roughly equivalent ratings to the (expensive) soaps they replaced, and that LMAD and the fourth hour of "Today" are exceeding the 1.3s and 1.4s of the soaps they replaced, there can be little doubt that the "heartless" network executives made the right decisions. I know soap fans love to point to the ratings disaster that The Revolution has become, but the truth of the matter is that that show is the exception, and not the rule. (And the major reason why Revolution does so poorly is because it is so boring.) The bottom line is that once a soap falls below the 2.0 mark (for a sustained period of time), there is little reason to not cancel it. (Networks just have to find a passable show to replace it.)

[dragonflies]

The Chew is utterly boring and I have yet to understand why anyone would watch that stupidity. Do they liked being talked down too or what?

[beebs]

Actually, looking at the ratings I saw recently (somewhere on SON's main page), LMAD is up around 3,000,000 viewers now. It's really growing on people. I can't understand how (not my kinda show, honestly), but I'm glad that at least game shows are thriving again in daytime.

[Eric83]

Wow a fourth season, it feels like just yesterday when GL was canceled. Time flies.

[DRW50]

LMAD continues to be a show that CBS is ashamed of, and they seem to want to push it into the gutter, along with Price is Right.

[JackPeyton]

yet, they keep renewing it.

[Max]

Exactly. Why would CBS be ashmed of LMAD given that fact? And why would the network be ashamed of TPIR when it is essentially tied with Y&R for being the #1 show on network daytime television? Furthermore, CBS promotes both of these shows, which is hardly indicative of a network that is embarrassed.

A lot of people seem to trash TPIR, but have they watched the show recently? (While Drew Carey was terrible at first, he has done reasonably well over the past year or two.) This current version of LMAD is certainly not the best show that has ever existed, but I'll gladly take it over the suckfest that was GL in its final years. (The same statement holds true when comparing The Chew to AMC.)

The Talk is the weakest spot in CBS's powerhouse daytime lineup, but I'm sure that it is considerably more profitable than ATWT was (in recent times). I guess ATWT could have lasted another year or two, but--then again--there was little point in postponing the inevitable, especially when P&G no longer cared. Though it was very sad at the time, choosing to end ATWT was the right decision (and I feel the same way about putting an end to OLTL).

Just because one does not villify the gameshows and talkshows that now populate network daytime television does not mean said person is against the soap genre. Really, it is not in the best interest of the genre to continue long-running soaps that are on their last legs. Instead, what would help the genre would be to cancel all soaps except Y&R and B&B (which are the only two that have any future), while establishing two or three brand new soaps as well (that are traditional in nature).

[DRW50]

It's dirt cheap. That mostly seems to be their only interest in this or TPIR - slash the budgets to nothing, dump them onscreen. It's a very sad way to make a game show.

[Max]

LMAD isn't exactly known for its high budget, but somebody recently won $50,000 on the show. (Sorry for the spoiler, but you can see the 4/2 episode where this happened on cbs.com.) To win, a contestant first has to win the "big deal" (which itself is only a one-in-three crapshoot). Then, he has the option of going for the "super deal" (that is in place only this week and the week prior), where the contestant can choose one of three envelopes: one that contains $1,000; another that contains $2,000; and a final one that contains $50,000. If the $1K or $2K enevlopes are chosen, then that is all that is won; if the $50K envelope is selected, he gets that amount in cash along with the prizes contained in the big deal.