ABC Daytime

[JoeCool]

YES ABC could have done more. ABC never pushed to get more affilates to air Edge. When Loving premiered, it should have sandwiched between AMC and OLTL. AMC at 12:30PM. Loving at 1:30PM, OLTK at 2PM and GH at 3PM. Then have RH at 12 Noon and Edge at 4PM.  ABC botched Loving with the 11:30AM slot when it premiered in June 1983. Then RH got moved to the morning and/or noon from 12:30PM. ABC really did not figure out its late morning/early afternoon schedule. Moving AMC to 12:30pm directly against Y&R would have stunted Restless' ratings in the 12:30PM slot. YR would have not have dominated the 12:30PM slot against RH and Loving.

[GLATWT88]

I think pushing AMC to 12:30 and sandwiching Loving between AMC and OLTL would have been beneficial to Loving and the network as AMC was on fire and would have been a much better match up against YR (also doing extremely well) instead of a new soap trying to establish itself. I am curious to see what the affiliate numbers will be for Loving in the ratings thread. I feel like affiliates would have been less likely to preempt Loving if it was between AMC and OLTL as placing local programming between the two soaps just seems unlikely but who knows. 

[cityfan01]

Didn't they almost do this with Port Charles before cancelling it?  I remember they aired a special 1-hour episode in One Life's time slot in early 2003 and, while they got higher ratings than normal, were not at the same level as OLTL.  Rumor at the time was that Port Charles would be moved to either 1:00 or 1:30 central and OLTL cut back to a half hour, creating the 3-hour ABC soap block and giving the 11:30 time slot back to affiliates.  When the ratings for the special didn't pan out, I think that is when they decided just to outright cancel PC and keep OLTL as an hour. 

Edited August 23, 2023 by cityfan01

[GLATWT88]

Wow, I never heard of this supposed cut to OLTL. Seems like a really bad move. The obvious choice would be to drop PC and return the half hour, instead of cutting OLTL which was fine (as fine as soaps in 2003 could be) and putting PC which was showing little to no signs of life and had been weakening for a few years in the other half hour. I mean the networks have made poorer choices...

[SteelCity]

I've always thought that it was cool that the ABC soaps were for the most part one universe.

[Contessa Donatella]

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[GLATWT88]

I would say a 2.9 is actually a great improvement. Whether or not that would have maintained in the long run is difficult to know. It also helped that the PC one off probably got the same clearance as OLTL at the time. 

[Contessa Donatella]

It's unfortunate that it was not tried for a period of time. 

[cityfan01]

Weren't there also rumors at the time of Another World's cancellation that they would cancel PC, cut OLTL to a half hour, and then move Another World to ABC?  Then it changed to taking Felicia Gallant from Another World to ABC Daytime.  Then Gretel Rae Cummings? 

[Contessa Donatella]

5 different entities tried to either buy AW or partner with P&G for AW to air in 1998 & in 1999. Angela Shapiro was ABC's envoy to P&G. She wanted to buy the show. Some said she was prepared to run 5 soaps a day. Not sure about that part. Apparently then after they said no, she wanted to buy the character "Felicia Gallant", which was another no. So, she came up with what I call "Shapiro's Folly", that because I believe she could've had Linda Dano as a successful character on ONE SHOW instead of the failure of Rae searching for that child on each show. I talked to one of the show HWs after the fact about what they thought about it. No surprise they all hated it being thrust upon them & having to work it into their stories. 

I was one of Tom Freeman's AW Fan Brigade, even though Tom was gone to another country by then, and we were bitterly disappointed that these opportunities showed up in the business news & none of them came to pass. Personally I thought that ABC & Fox would both have been great chances for continued life for the show. 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges

[Paul Raven]

Dec 1990

ABC RESTRUCTURES TV GROUP Swanson, Beuth divide up programing duties of departing Brockman

With Michael Brockman out as head of daytime, late night and children's programing, executives at ABC say program changes are almost certain to occur in some of those dayparts, particularly daytime.

Last week, ABC restructured the network television group. Dennis Swanson, president of ABC Sports, assumes responsibility for daytime and children's programs as well. Philip Beuth, senior vice president, ABC Television Network Group, assumes responsibility for late night programs. He will continue to oversee Good Morning America.

In an interview last week, Swanson suggested strongly that the The Home Show, which kicks off ABC's daytime at 10 a.m., would be canceled. "We've got to take a look at how we start our day," he said. "That has been a weakness and we have to see if we can improve that time period. "We need to find the most effective programing we can put in there." The show is a distant second in the ratings, behind CBS's hour -long game show, The Price is Right.

A little over a year and a half ago, ABC, in an unprecedented move, split off three entertainment dayparts into a separate Hollywood -based division run by Brockman, who had been recruited from CBS, where he had been in charge of the same dayparts. At the time of the reorganization, ABC executives said it was being done to enable newly installed ABC Entertainment President Robert Iger to focus exclusively on prime time. The thinking also was that daytime, which yields the highest profit margins of any daypart, needed full -time attention for two key reasons. First, the network daytime revenue pie was shrinking, from about $1.6 billion in 1985 to $1.2 billion in 1989. Second, ABC was losing ground to CBS fast. By the time Brockman took over at ABC, CBS had already taken over the daytime household ratings lead and had closed to within one rating point of the key women demographics. And since Brockman's arrival, CBS has narrowed the gap even further -to within about a half a rating point in the key women demos so far this season.

ABC's share of daytime viewing, and revenues, continue to shrink. Season to date (through November), ABC's average daytime rating is off 13% to a 4.6. (CBS is off 2% to a 5.5, and NBC is down 16% to 3.1.) According to Broadcast Advertiser Reports (BAR), for the third quarter of 1990, ABC's share of daytime revenue dropped to 35% from 38% the previous year. CBS's share of daytime revenues rose a percentage point to 36% and NBC's climbed two points for the same period to 29 %.

[Jdee43]

Wasn't ABC considered something of a joke through the 50s and 60s, for their lack of stations and programming? In 1955-56, their only daytime show was The Mickey Mouse Club. Then 1957, they brought in American Bandstand. 

What was ABC's first attempt at a soap opera? Was it General Hospital in 1963? I think they had scripted daytime shows earlier, but that they were in the anthology format. Can we say that GH was their first continuing, serialized daytime drama?

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by Jdee43

[Paul Raven]

ABC had neither the finances or affiliates to mount a daytime schedule in the 50's.

Mickey Mouse and Bandstand were used to try and mount late afternoon programming block includinng 'Do You Trust Your wife? 

Finally in Oct 58 they mounted a full daytime schedule including Liberace, Day in Court and Beat the Clock. All pretty cheap and cheerful. But no soaps.

They got close to airing a soap called Hope Springs with a western format but it was dropped at the last minute.

The nearest they got to a soap before GH was Road to Reality which dramatized group therapy sessions.

[Jdee43]

Thanks! It would have been interesting to see a soap with a western format! TV westerns were so popular in the late 50s, and the networks were always eager to bring what worked in primetime to daytime. A soap opera version of Gunsmoke would have been interesting!

[te.]

The issue with anything that's of a certain "period" is that it's always inevitably more expensive due to not being able to just buy things like clothes off the rack etc. so I can see why ABC, if they were having issues with money, would ultimately back out, likely when the reality of the costs came back.