OWN picks up Jamey Giddens scripted show!

[Chris B]

Honestly I found the show very well written. I think if he took over a soap he'd do well. My biggest problem with Ambitions was casting. Also, he did try to get hired by a soap and not one would hire him. Considering he is black I don't think any would rush to hire him even though he has a larger credit on his resume. 

 

Regardless of feelings for him, there is no way with this sea of bad rotating HWs that I would complain about a black person getting a shot at it. It would 100% be worth the risk and couldn't be worse than what we currently have. Especially at Y&R. That could be their chance to get their black audience back and could open the door to black writers. I would whole heatedly support that. 

[ReddFoxx]

It was a good show and the story lines made you want to tune in next week. It should have been scheduled on the same night as a Tyler Perry show. Like his shows or not, he has a strong, loyal audience and Ambitions could have picked up some viewers from that audience.

[VanessaReardon]

Giddens couldn’t even write 18 episodes of Ambitions and keep the audience tuned in. It lost more than half its audience from beginning to end. How can he write 250 episodes a year of Y&R? He doesn’t have the chops or experience. He should just go back to podcasting after this failure.

[DRW50]

So it lasted as long as the PP revivals of AMC and OLTL.

 

Funny that. 

 

Anyway, best of luck to Jamey and the cast and crew. 

[Cat]

 

Same. I know Jamey riles people, especially given his views towards the PP reboots back in the day. But the reason people are associating his name with Y&R is because a few years back he was asked by CBS (McDaniel, I believe) to pitch some ideas about Y&R. This was at a point when Y&R really was not doing well and the 'writing' (what there was of it) was even more underwhelming than it usually is. He talked about the ideas he pitched and I thought a lot of them sounded fresh and were a break from the usual soap stories we get force-fed. It helps that he has watched Y&R for decades, so he is not just pitching the usual soap archetypes but is very familiar with character history. Unfortunately, Sony/CBS put the kabosh on all that and settled for the same-old same-old.

 

I for one would be happy to give him the chance at Y&R. I mean, it is so dull some days. I think he would benefit from a good team around him, including Y&R writers from past and present. I think Michele Val Jean has definitely earned her spurs at Daytime and would be an invaluable co-writer. 

 

The problem, of course, is with the constant pitching of SLs to CBS and Sony who have final say on everything. They DGAF and just want things to putter along, with the same 2-3 HWs in their Rolodex, until Y&R quietly expires.

Edited January 24, 2020 by Cat

[DRW50]

 

Wasn't Daytime Confidential cheerleading Y&R during some of its nastiest periods (fetus in the fireplace and so on)? 

 

He may be a decent writer, but he and his site went so hard for such gross and offensive material on various soaps and tried so hard to glom onto the shows at that time that I just can't expect him to be much different if he's in the same position. 

[Khan]

 

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[VanessaReardon]

Didn’t the AMC and OLTL revivals last 40 episodes on PP? Ambitions had 18 and kept dropping dropping dropping viewers. 

[Faulkner]

He sucks up so much to Ron Carlivati. I wonder if he could find a place on DAYS.

[BetterForgotten]

Jamey and has minions on Twitter tried for months to spin Ambitions as some breakout success, like that was somehow going to pressure OWN into a renewal.

 

Really, it was clear that was far from the truth if you looked at the numbers. It benefited in the beginning from having THATHN as it's lead-in, without it, the show floundered. 

Edited January 24, 2020 by BetterForgotten

[VanessaReardon]

Ambitions failed. It got cancelled! Will Jamey go back on his podcast, where he ridiculed daytime EP’s and headwriters, and eat crow? He owes every daytime person that he criticized  an apology. It’s not so easy. #AmbitionsFailed #cancelled

[Chris B]

Since when do ratings equal quality? He was a journalist that critiqued shows as they should be. You clearly just don’t like him. 

[ChitHappens]

 

I don't care about Jamie one way or another, but yeah, he should have a huge plate of humble pie.  He raked Daytime scribes and EPs over the coals yet he was unable to sustain an audience from week to week.   As for the show, how could anyone tell what was going on with Givens eating everything in sight?  Raunchy sex scenes?  I reached out to Jamie a few months ago and told him to add some meat to these arcs.  Rondell should have been everyone's favorite but who the hell would want her around?  Jamie wrote a show based off of what he thought the black folks wanted to see instead of what an entire audience would/could relate to.  

 

Remember Empire before EC's other personality took over?  The first season was the entire package and had everyone watching to the point of disrupting the major networks.  Jamie tried and failed.  Now, he has to learn from it and move on to the next project.  Not many people get to bring their dream to life.  

[VanessaReardon]

I don’t like that he thought he was better than he is. He thought that he had a masterpiece in soap opera. Hardly. #Cancelled 

[xtr]

 

 

I agree with these statements. Especially the parts in bold. I think he could do well with Y&R and would utilize the characters better than what the current writing regime is doing. Unfortunately, though Black writers don't really get much of a shot with Daytime soaps, so I don't really think he would get the opportunity to really do anything there.

 

I do wonder if he will try and see if someone else will pick up this show. I could see it being on BET. I remember when Underground another show got cancelled a couple of years ago it was shipped around. Other networks turned it down, but I do believe that cost played a big role in that. I actually remember Oprah who was one person that they tried to ship the show to, said it was too expensive to produce. Maybe someone else might consider showing Ambitions, if it's not too expensive to produce. I believe some people from other networks have seen it. Perhaps they like it and are willing to give it a place. There have been other shows that have moved to various networks, so maybe that is a possibility for Jamey and the show.