The ratings for OLTL were higher than AMC before the timeslot change. If anything, I think that is what messed them up. There was no promotion for the timeslot change either.

They're a package deal on OWN. You don't get one without the other. They're not great numbers for OLTL last week, but they're also not that much better or worse than most of OWN's day programming, IIRC.

Edited August 20, 201312 yr by Vee

To be fair to OLTL the only thing that OWN promoted even less than AMC/OLTL airing on there in the first place was OLTL's time slot change.

Happy for AMC

What happened Thursday?

RIght? They lost 57% of the audience. I expect a slight drop from 1-1:30 just because the further away you get from lunch hour, the smaller the audience is bound to be, but that's insane.

Edited August 20, 201312 yr by marceline

To be fair to OLTL the only thing that OWN promoted even less than AMC/OLTL airing on there in the first place was OLTL's time slot change.

That makes a lot more sense.

OLTL's numbers are horrible. The show just isn't as good as AMC. There is no way O renews OLTL with these numbers. This is not good.

The first season was a cheesy love letter/fan fiction to Todd & Blair. The good stuff, like Clint's unraveling, came way too late. The potential umbrella stories, like the tattoo org and the drug ring, went absolutely nowhere. The younger crowd is over-exposed. There is a giant gaping hole where the 30-somethings should be. I honestly can't believe they left that to rot. That's basically your most vital group of characters and OLTL's 30-something scene is pitiful. There are a few horrible actors in vital roles. Don't even get me started on how they hinged the entire first season on two actors with limited availability.

Jennifer Pepperman seems like a lovely woman, but she needs to be demoted. She's fixed NOTHING.

I'm not sure she needs to be demoted just yet but I agree with most of what you've said here. OLTL needs a ton of work.

I think there are harsh (and mild) criticisms to be made about OLTL in less extreme ways. But I don't think the first season was a disaster at all. I think it was very uneven and a lot rougher than AMC, largely for a lot of external reasons. I do think the show overall is a lot more mature, grounded and balanced than it has been in years, and I think there was a whole lot of good.

I think they needed to give Natalie, Téa and Blair a lot more to do outside of the issues with their stories from the GH/OLTL mess. I think they went too heavy on the kids (who are good) early on. And I think a lot of the stories started off strong, then wandered around, then began to gel a lot more near the end. There was a lot of character moments and relatively little story for too much of the middle. But that's something I've talked about before and it's a discussion for another thread, anyway. And for a prototype pilot season, thrown together in rapid time amidst a sea of problems and complications, it was a damn good job. I do think it needs a lot of work going forward.

Edited August 20, 201312 yr by Vee

OLTL really does need a ton of work. I struggled to watch to be honest. It wasn't bad at all, but it started with such oomph and promise and like a rush of a adrenaline and then ... I felt like things were just spinning. Todd/Blair was alright. Natalie and Cutter amounted to not much. I liked some of Dorian/David's marriage collapse. Clint's downfall. Arturo and Dani have promise. Tea is a blank slate.

But blah at the return. IDK, hopefully Season 2 improves and we get a few more familiar faces, recasts or returns. The 30s portion badly needs filling out.

I guess I shouldn't turn this into a OLTL rant thread, lol, sorry ...

Love her or hate her, Téa is never a blank slate. Her story was after the first couple weeks, though, which was unacceptable. And I'm glad Todd and Blair got remarried and all, but until RH and TSJ return they can't have Téa keep texting him and worrying about Dani, or have Blair hanging around doing nothing but wringing her hands over Todd and nagging Cutter and all those dudes about the club. They've been able to play Dixie and Brooke with other men on AMC without violating the pairings with Tad and Adam - they need to be able to do the same with Téa and Blair, and I think the nature of both the brothers' exits left that particularly open for them.

I think the fact that even social media was late to the party in regards to the time slot change hurt OLTL a lot. OLTL did need help in some ways, but I don't know how much of the issues came from the format.

To be honest, my biggest issue is Shelter. They need to use it much more sparingly. I'm just not interested in the club scene at all so it was a struggle for me to watch the scenes set there which was like 1/3 of them. Jen's obsession with all the newbies coming from there (Arturo, Nikki, Dean, Bruce, Dusky...) and Cutter and Natalie's interaction with them was also really poorly done. Natalie definitely deserves better but Cutter was also widely misused. Stop creating oodles of new characters, bring back a few fan faves and recast a few others if need be (Rachel and Kevin, if necessary) and the show will be in a much better place.

To be fair to OLTL the only thing that OWN promoted even less than AMC/OLTL airing on there in the first place was OLTL's time slot change.

But this is the second week of the time change, right? (Honest question, I don't have OWN.) How were the numbers for last week?

All of the numbers are on the last page, but it was the first week that OLTL wasn't at 3 pm. (August 12-15)

I like the club vibe - I've been wanting soaps to hook into that scene forever - but I do think Shelter is on a bit too much. AMC has at least one other posh restaurant set, but that is actually, uh, just Shelter redressed. OLTL needs another environment like that, badly. And while the recurring players there are fitfully entertaining and sometimes amusing, I just do not care about Dean, Bruce and Diego. If Dean or Bruce turn out to be tattoo people, fine, great, but then get rid of them. If Téa really does get with Dean, okay, but then dump him. I like a diverse supporting cast but you don't need all those random-ass club dudes on quite so much. There was one day where all three of them plus Cutter lined up to talk to Blair or Dusky or someone and I was like, 'the [!@#$%^&*] is this?' Fortunately, Dusky appears to have been sent into a black hole forever.

All you need are the contract players, Cutter and Rama, and the key recurring player, Nikki. Blair's regular environment shouldn't be Shelter, and isn't anyway - she leaves most of it to Cutter as is. Let her run Todd's paper in his absence; she is his wife, and she's done it any number of times before.

The Natalie story needs a lot of work. I hope it gets it in Season 2 - they've amped her up lately.

Edited August 20, 201312 yr by Vee

But this is the second week of the time change, right? (Honest question, I don't have OWN.) How were the numbers for last week?

Yes you're right.

OLTL:

Mon Aug 5 1:30PM 119,000 total viewers Mon Aug 12 1:30PM 136,000 total viewers

Tue Aug 6 1:30PM 180,000 total viewers Tue Aug 13 1:30PM 107,000 total viewers

Wed Aug 7 1:30PM 163,000 total viewers Wed Aug 14 1:30PM 185,000 total viewers

Thu Aug 8 1:30PM 155,000 total viewers Thu Aug 15 1:30PM 68,000 total viewers

AMC:

Mon Aug 5 1:00PM 142,000 total viewers Mon Aug 12 1:00PM 222,000 total viewers

Tue Aug 6 1:00PM 216,000 total viewers Tue Aug 13 1:00PM 213,000 total viewers

Wed Aug 7 1:00PM 276,000 total viewers Wed Aug 14 1:00PM 223,000 total viewers

Thu Aug 8 1:00PM 184,000 total viewers Thu Aug 15 1:00PM 158,000 total viewers