June 29 - July 3, 2015: GH Continues To Collapse; Hits New Low Again

[Soapsuds]

The problem with TG exist is that he has been on way too much this past year and a lot of viewers are probably sick of his character. So giving him another lame story again drove away the viewers.

I am sure Carlivati is sweating it out. He is one awful writer who shouldn't be writing any show on daytime or primetime. He needs to join TG in Amsterdam ….LOL

[Vee]

If he was simply masquerading he wouldn't have been on staff at OLTL for over a decade before getting the big chair.

And before you say it, it's not about defending Ron Carlivati - there's no defending what he's doing that's caused this. It's just about being even-handed. I think RC was probably a very talented staff writer, much like Jean Passanante is allegedly a very talented breakdown writer. But she couldn't handle the big chair, she's a horrific HW, and Ron quickly succumbed to his worst weaknesses when left to his own devices with no control variables. God knows EricMontreal and I argued for years over Megan McTavish, who IMO was only good at AMC in the early '90s when she was backstopped by everyone from Agnes Nixon and Francesca James to curb her foolishness.

Unless we're dealing with Brian Frons there is no pure good or pure evil in daytime. There rarely ever was. There's degrees of competence and incompetence, and ego, and successes marred by catastrophic flaws.

[marceline]

Getting away from GH for a moment, it looks like Y&R is doing a little better under Pratt. He did the same thing at AMC. He was an !@#$%^&*] but he managed to bring up the ratings.

[Vee]

It's crap, but it's not crap in the same sort of car-accident way at the moment. Even the Marco/Jack storyline has calmed down somewhat.

[ChitHappens]

The bump came from 2 lost soaps. Check the archives and see when GH actually began to go up. ABC Daytime viewers were desperate for a soap and they settled for GH, something they didn't watch prior to the cancellations. Gradually, Craptini tried to shill their pets and then put them front and center while the GH cast became their co stars. This is when the show began to tank. Killing off AJ was the beginning of the end because this was THE moment you knew Craptini didn't give 2 sh!ts about GH and was going to put their energy into OLTL 2.0. GH viewers showed them, didn't they?! Once they learned they'd get back the pets from OLTL, Craptini no longer cared about the vets they told you they loved. Can't used the vets now to bring in viewers because they've cried wolf too many times. The fans tune in only to get burned. The jig is up!

[Soapsuds]

That is frightening considering how bad Y&R is to me right now.

[ChitHappens]

I watched a bit yesterday and it was kind of good. Very soapy.

[Soapsuds]

So are we getting a 12 straight week of a new low this week?? Thats 3 months of new lows for GH.

[DRW50]

But they've always been around, we know they don't bring in ratings.

JJ was supposed to bring ratings in when he returned in 2009, and they just kept falling.

Nostalgia, especially nostalgia for a period that was in itself not all that great after a few years, isn't going to bring ratings.

[Vee]

I think what's holding up Y&R are the performers in the face of either lame or just ridiculous storylines - Peter Bergman, Gina Tognoni, Justin Hartley, etc. are all giving it 110% and selling every inch of it and they're on constantly, and not just for thirty seconds either. Poor Jessica Collins is also doing her best, to say nothing of Daniel Goddard, someone I'd usually never credit with anything good.

[DRW50]

The ratings crashed by Pratt's last month or two at AMC so I assume the same will happen here.

[Vee]

That was about the show as a whole, not Jonathan. Nothing was able to keep it going, not Vanessa Marcil, not anything or anyone. And honestly, I loved those original years with JJ in the '90s. There were lowlights and bad periods, but there always are in any semi-golden age of soaps. That is the nature of cranking out product 365 days a year, every year, for 50 years.

[ChitHappens]

Sad part is, they knew since January Geary was leaving. That was enough time to craft something reasonably decent. Instead, they wasted time and energy trying to pretend history matters. I think Tom/Lena should have been revisited because they wasted an entire year of our lives with Fluke trash, the high note should have been him healing. Pulling Frank and daughter (what is her [!@#$%^&*] name) into this and then Ethan? Holly? That was a waste. Ratings increased by over 100k when Laura showed up and dropped like a hot rock the week after. Nothing meaningful is happening EVER.

[Vee]

Maybe. People thought they were going to crash by now, and they didn't. I think one thesis may be correct: Y&R fans used to a slower, more character-intensive show may be enjoying the 'junk food' speedballing approach that is Pratt, where everything is all right here, right now.

[Soapsuds]

Yeah, just like Carlivati's awful writing took time to show in the ratings so will Pratt's…Im sure we will see Jack in another ridiculous storyline as well….Im just surprised it has been going up lately considering how bad the stories are on the show.