Worst Executive Producer...

[Khan]

 

I don't think so.  I'm not sure the ratings went DOWN during his tenure, but I don't think they rose significantly either.

[Contessa Donatella]

Conboy's tenure where?

 

[Dan]

Has to be GL. Khan is right. Just checked the Ratings archive for 2003-2004. There was no major hemorrhage of viewers during that time but it came nowhere near the 1997 peaks where I believe the show added like a million viewers and was saved from cancelation. Nowhere near where the ratings had to be for PGP to be satisfied with paying additional budget for Conboy's pet projects. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Gotcha. I was thinking they must be referring to his tenure at GL. What a nightmare he was for us to have then. And, I still say thank goodness it was only for a single solitary year. As it is, he just might have been what killed us. I always hate to speak ill of the dead but I just detested "ConWest".

[EllenP]

These last few posts made me go look at the 2003 and 2004 ratings. Remember, this was also Barbara Bloom’s first year as head of CBS Daytime. All of the CBS shows started to tank in the ratings in fairly short order after her arrival. ATWT and Y&R’s collapses were most alarming. Hemorrhaging 700,000-1,000,000 viewers year-to-year. Weirdly, GL’s demos were not terrible relative to the show’s past performance.

 

Barbara Bloom caused irreparable damage to those shows and other than a few peaks here and there, the shows began their downward descent under her watch.

[Contessa Donatella]

Barbara Bloom was a part of the abc-ification of CBS, right? Didn't she come over from ABCD? Geeze Louise, thanks so much for that.

[EllenP]

Correct. I liked the ad campaigns for the first few years of her tenure, but that’s about the only nice thing I could say lol.

[Contessa Donatella]

Remind me what the ad campaigns were like. She started at the very beginning of her career in advertising.

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Not that I think EW is the worst, but here is a Michael Fairman interview with her.

https://michaelfairmantv.com/the-ellen-wheeler-interview-inside-guiding-light/2008/12/24/

[EllenP]

The campaigns should be easy to find on Youtube, but here’s a few:

 

Hot Enough for You, 2003

The Look that’s Got You Hooked, 2004

The Drama is Always On, 2005

You Know You Love It, 2008

 

The campaign for 2006 and 2007 escapes me, but the same shots were used for each of those.

 

Some of you may remember that under Wheeler, GL incorporated some of the 2004 promo shots into the 2005-07 opening (one of my faves from the last couple of decades, I wish it had lasted longer).

[Contessa Donatella]

I liked those openings.

[chrisml]

Thank you for this. I'm glad I remembered correctly. I thought it was Nipplegate that doomed him; quite ironic considering what the new head of CBS (Moonves) was doing behind the scenes. I think Conboy would have been great for GL if he had been paired with a headwriter who honoured the history of the show. During his tenure, you would have individual episodes that were fantastic, but the short-term/long-term stories just didn't work. However, I'd take his tenure over Wheeler's pre-Peapack days.

[Contessa Donatella]

Nipplegate? What was Nipplegate? I can't imagine how Conboy could have been good for the show and overspent the budget, such as it was. He had no money. But, he spent it anyway. Totally irresponsible. And, I think the writing team did honor the show's history.

[Contessa Donatella]

My favorite PGP promos:

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[kalbir]

How does this board rank Y&R's big three producers: John Conboy, H. Wesley Kenney, Ed Scott.

[Contessa Donatella]

I cannot stand JFP. Flat out. She fired people at AW over their age. On her first day at AW she proceeded to fire more people than the last EP Charlotte Savitz had! It was as if it was a competition. She murdered Frankie Frame at AW, one of Harding Pete Lemay's creatures, the Frame family. She murdered Mo, Maureen Bauer at GL, Reardon by birth, Bauer by marriage, tentpole character of the upcoming generation, legacy character, Roger's only friend, Michelle's mother by circumstance, ... Yet, I also know that it is a fact that JFP is a woman in power at various soaps who supports & mentors other women. Dang it. She is very annoying. Why couldn't she just be bad to the bone?!