I'm surprised this is effective next week and not down the road like in Aug/Sept. Shouldn't they wait until the writers, production, etc adjust to the new two episode a week schedule...Now the episodes story progression from this point on will probably go very slow for who knows how long! Doesn't seem like very good news at all!

This definitely seems like a financial decision which is worse than a ratings decision. Everything seemed to be going so well.

Edited to add, Most UK Soaps actually started in the 2 half hour shows a week format, they'd need to have big changes in the writing style though

This is the one solace I can take from this news, that I remember still being addicted to EastEnders and not feeling like there were a bunch of pacing problems in what I was watching when it was still airing just 2 half-hour episodes a week -- even when it went to 3, then 4, episodes a week and my local PBS station was only showing 2 a week and we were falling further and further behind.

Maybe production is taking longer on the episodes are they dont think they will produce 168 this year. Well I think OLTL wanted 40 episodes completed by the end of their first cycle and MA said they only got 20 some pisodes completed. I think AMC only shot 12 its first cycle as well

WTF? They arent filming an episode a day? With the shows being shorter than on tv and less sets, you'd think they'd be able to produce the same amount or more within the same time span. Me thinks PP is very inefficent with their production schedules

I'm surprised this is effective next week and not down the road like in Aug/Sept. Shouldn't they wait until the writers, production, etc adjust to the new two episode a week schedule...Now the episodes story progression from this point on will probably go very slow for who knows how long! Doesn't seem like very good news at all!

might be enough to make people drop it. This has got to be the first major WTF from these shows and I think possible the jumping the shark moment. I hope all turns out well but I fear they may not be able to recover

Edited May 16, 201312 yr by Cheap21

I hope they lengthen the episodes if they are going to only air only 2 days a week. Two one hour episodes a week would be a better idea IMO.

I have to admit though, I have had difficulty keeping up and making sure I watch all 4 episodes, but two thirty minute episodes a week? Thats a terrible idea.

Maybe production is taking longer on the episodes are they dont think they will produce 168 this year. Well I think OLTL wanted 40 episodes completed by the end of their first cycle and MA said they only got 20 some pisodes completed. I think AMC only shot 12 its first cycle as well

That makes since because having to do 20 episodes a week plus a 5 week deadline is way too much. This may mean more rehearsal time for the new kids which means better acting.

I never had much faith in these reboots to begin with, so I won't pretend to be shocked by this news. I had a hunch PP would do something that would leave everyone feeling confused (at best). I'm just sorry for the fans who have been enjoying the return of their shows. It isn't fair to y'all.

I understand the reasoning as outlined, but I think it's a bad idea. Even the UK soaps air 3 or 4 days a week.

It doesn't sound like they're struggling at all - they've been on top of the viewing charts on Hulu and iTunes - but rather experimenting. I just think it's the wrong experiment.

UK soaps only Eastenders is on 4 Days, well Corrie is 3 but they do double episodes on 2 days, then Hollyoaks/Emmerdale are both on 5 Days.

Most recent Soap to do this 2 half hour eps would be River City, & that didnt work very well & they changed to 1 hour long ep a week.

I wonder how this will affect the Canadian TV scheduling too

The network shows are not great for the most part, this doesn't change that and PP soaps are still miles ahead. There may be an issue with how the advertisers are paying, they may want to pay for unique viewers on each episode in a way that the current format of the shows isn't working with.

The shows are now essentially 2 half hour episodes. They might as well just make it an hourly drama like a primetime soap. With less episodes, the writers need to adjust how they approach the storytelling and they cant write it like a daytime soap anymore. Im not sure if the current writers can work in this new format. I fear Marlene may just continue to write the way she has been and that would be terrible for any soap

But its only been 3 weeks. I think it was way too soon to make such a drastic change and it'll be a few weeks before the show/writers can catch up to this. The next few weeks are going to be painful

I feel bad for the actors. With even less episodes than on tv now, then thats less money to be made. I wouldnt be surprised if many are wary of signing on or even sticking around

I understand that but we need to still be glad that they haven't cancelled the shows altogether. At least they're doing something to preserve the shows. IMO, I've always thought that 4 shows was too big for them to jump out and do from the start anyways. I always thought they should've did 2-3 shows a week until they built a stable audience.

I understand people being worried about the writing but I seriously think it'll make the writing tighter. It'll give the head writers more time to come up with more well thought material and for the production company (or Agnes if she's consulting) to view their story projections fix them ahead of time.

My only gripe is that if they're doing 2 shows a week for each show then bounce them back to an hour. Other than that, I'm glad they're downsizing. Build an audience first then go back to doing 4/30 min shows a week.

If anything, they'll just cut back again to one.

Until they cancel. This is not going to get better.

I just don't understand what the problem is with binge viewing. I think they're overthinking the numbers. I also think it may have to do with production turnaround to air and giving themselves some distance, which is understandable.

I'd be surprised if this stands for long. I think they'll try it and revert back, frankly.

Right! I said that previously. I highly doubt they are trying to cancel the shows again. I like this idea because me and my parents binge-viewed on Fridays but now we can watch one hour of shows on Friday instead of two.

If it is because the production schedule is behind, maybe PP shouldn't have tried to rush these to air so fast.

When it was first announced that AMC and OLTL were coming back, I thought that we wouldn't see them until sometime in June/July.

Michael Loganþ@TVGMLogannow
"@ColumbusNYC: How do you interpret this?" U want me to tackle this AMC OLTL thing in a Tweet? OK. $ome thing$ ju$t ain't what they $eem.