April 9-13, 2012

[Toups]

I think GH's ratings will improve a bit (to the 2.4 million range) once they stop airing after the Revolution (I'm assuming GMA at 2pm will do better). And if GH is moved to 2pm in September, I think they can get up to 2.5 million and 700,000-800,000 Women 18-49.

[Ann_SS]

Good to see Y&R rebound. I thought it might.

I don't see GH's 18 to 49 demo going any direction other than down.

[OldGHFan]

Too funny. Unfortunately, I think GH viewers are just beyond tired of the Sonny/Jason/Carly/Sam show and bringing the OLTL characters (and not the GH vet characters) is not helping. Basically, this show will go off the air with a whimper rather than a bang. So sad to see this once beloved show reduced to this mess.

[TeamEric]

Toups,

I don't understand all this blame placed on Rev's poor lead in. GH was hitting new all time lows last year with OLTL posting far better numbners.

And, I'm not convinced the move to 2pm will aid GH's numbers. They don't seem to be attracting OLTL viewers with this hybrid concept. Not yet at least, and losing the 3pm slot may disrupt some of their existing GH viewers.

IMO, GH will be lucky to average 600,000-650,000 range.

[marceline]

But isn't that kind of a Catch-22? If GMA gets good ratings why wouldn't ABC simply stick with that and cancel GH?

[chrishntr]

And that is exactly what they will do because if GMA Afternoon gets good enough ratings they will cancel GH because GMA will be cheaper to produce and that is exactly what ABC/Disney are looking for. To me it's no savior for GH, it's just prolonging announcing their cancellation. I have to wonder if the GMA show does better or anywhere near what ABC/Disney want it to do, if they will just flat out cancel GH with NO approriate ending. I don't trust ABC/Disney to NOT do just that if they find something else that is cheaper to produce and the ratings are good.

[John]

That is why beginning July 9th 2012 the line up should look like this (All times EST)

1pm-The Chew

2pm-GH

3pm-GMA In The Afternoon ( Then Katie starting Sept 10th)

[JaneAusten]

There is an option no one has talked about. They could give affiliates an option between GH and GAA. I think to do that successfully in the long term they'd have to again look at a more cost effective model than what they have today.

[Cyberologist]

I don't understand it either I'm no pro when it comes to marketing & programming even with my limited abilities I'm sure it plays a part however like you say GH has been tanking for quite a few years. My issue with GH has always been "how they tell their stories" with Carlintini I'm not seeing what I'd hope to see .... a significant difference. I didn't watch OLTL so I have no vested interest in these characters other than what I see on GH... I am willing to give it a chance its still early but I'm not that impressed thus far ... from what I've been told don't be surprised that it will be OLTL characters hogging more air.

[Ann_SS]

I had the same thought. GMA is cheaper to produce than GH. If GMA gets a .6 to .7 18 to 49 women demo, ABC would better off financially keeping it and dumping GH.

[EastMA2]

Cartini is doing nothing to move the GH ratings needle. They are too formulatic. Let's bring OLTL to GH even though we failed at OLTL. It's like they are saying that they will FORCE their version of a soap on viewers whether we like it or not. Sorry, but I'm not interested in split personalities, which was done to death on OLTL; I don't believe for a second that teenage Starr (a horrible actress by the way) will overtake Sonny and bring him down; I do NOT want to hear Starr sing. Cartini is trying to force upon us what they want in a soap, and it didn't work on OLTL and it's not working on GH.

[Max]

+1

So long as Cartini are in charge, GH will continue to have crappy ratings. However, it is possible that GH will continue to last for another couple of years. (This statement represents a revision of an earlier prediction I made where I stated that GH would be cancelled right after its 50th anniversary.) That's because GH now exists for one reason only: to keep the fanatics from derailing Katie's show. If "Katie" is not doing well a year from now, there is a chance that ABC may keep GH around for a while longer; the last thing the network can afford is for her to fail. (And having her branded as the woman who killed GH could greatly increase the chances of failure.)

[Errol]

There are those that believe that a soap opera that's been on the air for more than 49 years should have no problem attracting an audience and it shouldn't be relient on a lead-in to build or keep its ratings at a certain level. Unfortunately, that is not the case. When ABC had three soap operas, they supported each other because they were similar. General Hospital, despite having One Life to Live as a lead-in started to tank its ratings once the double cancellations of All My Children and One Life to Live started to settle in with viewers. Although AMC and OLTL had viewers tuning in, there was nothing that could be done to save them at that point. So I can understand why people would say that Revolution shouldn't be hurting GH.

Yes, General Hospital began its poor ratings trajectory before the final episode of One Life to Live and before the debut of The Revolution, as evidenced by OLTL's strong lead-in numbers, GH can and has been able to pull in enough viewers to make it a viable property on ABC. Unfortunately, since Revolution has continued to hit series lows since its debut, the audience that is left watching ABC Daytime for soaps aren't tuning in to the lead-in show as they had for the past 40+ years and/or decided that they didn't need to watch GH anymore simply because it was inevitable that it would be canceled as well. When you are basically given no hope for the future of your favorite show, why would you waste your time on watching it? That seems to be the response viewers have given to GH. Of course, this is also attributed to the types of storylines that have been told by Garin Wolf/Jill Farren Phelps or Ron Carlivati/Frank Valentini.

When Grey's Anatomy regularly pulls in 10 million viewers and a 3.5 demo, but it's lead-in program changes to a series that pulls in 4 million viewers and a 1.5 demo, what do you think the result will be on Grey's Anatomy's performance? Grey's Anatomy is now getting under a 3 demo in recent weeks and it's lucky to top 8 or 9 million viewers.

I'll touch more on this later...

[MontyB]

+1

[JaneAusten]

I'll be interested is reading your thoughts Errol but I don't think the Greys or even DH examples are comparable because those shows are, were anchors you build your lineup around. The shows have lost viewers for the same reason ER did and other strongholds. They have grown long in the tooth. Law and order was a powerhouse on Weds for years am I to believe the show lost viewers and was cancelled due to poor lead ins. How about American Idol or DWTS who have both dropped. TBBT is a perfect counter to that argument. It lost it's lead in and was moved as the lead show on Thursdays and blossomed.but it had a strong lead in as it built it's audience. If GH were a new up and coming show I'd buy that. And if GAA draws as many viewers and ends up equal to GH in viewers what exactly does that say about GH.

I concur that some folks probably watched the entire lineup of soaps and they likely lost some viewers as a result of that but anyone paying close attention to GH over the years knows it was the once a sweep stunts

that drew viewers in and those numbers always eroded in between sweeps until the next stunt. And dont forget up until recently GH always got promotional money and more cross promotion than the other shows did something they are not getting now.

To me it's all an excuse to avoid passing some blame to ABC and yes Cartini for just airing the same stuff and focusing on the same people the show has for years. I don't blame Cartini for the state of GH but i don't buy their hype as this generations bill bell.