2 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

My guess? Sometime in the next 12+ months, if not for this fall.

Im betting 2025

The City and Port Charles were relatively quick from announcement to production, no?  But then, they were spin-offs with more of an existing infrastructure. 
 

How long was the Passions development process? 

9 minutes ago, John said:

Im betting 2025

That should really and hopefully give MVJ time to craft a well thought out Bible. 

Edited March 7, 20241 yr by BetterForgotten

1 minute ago, BetterForgotten said:

That should really and hopefully MVJ time to craft a well thought out Bible. 

I'm going to say it: Michele Val Jean wouldn't leave a promising, secure gig for something she didn't have a Bible for already.

It’s so funny P&Gs involvement in this…I noticed a few weeks ago they were posting about their soap past on their social media a bit…in fact at the beginning of their bio on instagram it says “We invented the soap opera”. Made me want to bitch them out…because that was actually Irna Philips who invented soaps! And, you all spent the better part of a decade erasing your soap past, even though it made your company what it is today and you still benefit from its advertising dollars. 
 

Also, if The Talk is cancelled and replaced by a soap…I say that’s great justice for GL fans! 

1 minute ago, cody_1990 said:

Also, if The Talk is cancelled and replaced by a soap…I say that’s great justice for GL fans! 

It would more so be World Turns fans since The Talk replaced World Turns. Let's Make a Deal replaced Guiding Light.

1 minute ago, cody_1990 said:

 

Also, if The Talk is cancelled and replaced by a soap…I say that’s great justice for GL fans! 

Why is that?

CBS owns The Talk outright, no? I assume they’re still making some type of profit from it and it’s cheap to produce. 

5 minutes ago, cody_1990 said:

It’s so funny P&Gs involvement in this…I noticed a few weeks ago they were posting about their soap past on their social media a bit…in fact at the beginning of their bio on instagram it says “We invented the soap opera”. Made me want to bitch them out…because that was actually Irna Philips who invented soaps! And, you all spent the better part of a decade erasing your soap past, even though it made your company what it is today and you still benefit from its advertising dollars. 
 

Also, if The Talk is cancelled and replaced by a soap…I say that’s great justice for GL fans! 

Symbolically, I think it would be for more even than GL. Soaps vs Talk Show, new round, Soap wins this time!

2 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

CBS owns The Talk outright, no? I assume they’re still making some type of profit from it and it’s cheap to produce. 

 

I know it's early, but where would this be filmed? As much as I would love a NYC soap, I think financially west coast or Atlanta would make the most sense. 

Back when GL and ATWT were canceled, I mentioned scaling down to a half hour and relocating both soaps to Atlanta which was beginning to boom in film and TV production at the time and giving companies great incentives would save both soaps a lot of money. May have been a challenge to convince casts to move out there though. 

Not sure if this analogy makes sense, but let's try:

If you spend $20 because you are cheap and get $2 back on your purchase/investment, you've now lost $18. However, if you spend $30 and get back $18, you've only lost $12.

In the end, cheap is cheap, but if you lose more money than you've spent, what have you really gained?

17 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

It would more so be World Turns fans since The Talk replaced World Turns. Let's Make a Deal replaced Guiding Light.

Right! Very true. Shows how much interest I had in either of these shows since they stated lol 

47 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

How long was the Passions development process?

This was from an interview in TVGuide from around May 1997.  Passions' first airdate was July 5, 1999. 

Michael Logan: On one hand, I can see you wanting to hang in because you're so attached to Days. But on the other hand, why would you want to split your focus? You have a new baby that needs your undivided attention.
James E. Reilly: As soon as my bible is written, there's less day-to-day work for me. It becomes time for fine-tuning. There's a lot of waiting around for decisions to be made. I mean, they don't have to give me a decision about the show for two years. I should have lots of time to work with Days.

Michael Logan: Two years from when?
James E. Reilly: It works this way: I have from Nov. 1 of '97 through Feb. 1 of '98 to write the bible. They have two weeks to read it. They give me notes. I give them the finished bible March 1, no more revisions. Then there's a period where they can ask me for outlines. Then, on April 1, I go under salary -- as opposed to the money I'm making for developing the bible -- and they have a year and a half from that point to decide whether or not they want to do my show. So they have me until November of '99.

Michael Logan: : I've seen it in print a few places that January of '99 is the likely air date.
James E. Reilly: I don't know [if that's true] because, see, I'm not allowed to talk to the network about the new show.

Michael Logan: What?
James E. Reilly:Ken did not want me talking about the new show until I finished working for him, and we really have honored that. So I have not talked to them and therefore I do not know what they're thinking.

Michael Logan: How weird. You mean, you're having to read about this yourself?
James E. Reilly: That's why I love reading the soap magazines -- to find out what I'm doing. [NBC daytime president] Susan Lee has said in interviews that the show could air in the fall of '98. I'm going, "Hello?"

Michael Logan:  But it would be possible?
James E. Reilly:Yeah, I guess. But there's been a lot of focus-group research about the best time to start a soap -- people change channels in January; they channel-graze then, sampling new stuff, more than at any other time of the year. And I think NBC was very happy with the initial response to Sunset Beach [which debuted in January 1997]. They got a good tune-in, a good sampling. So when I heard they were happy about that, I then imagined that the earliest would be January of '99.

Michael Logan: You have no guarantee it'll even get on the air, right?
James E. Reilly:The new show may go or may not go. Who knows what Sunset Beach will do to the reception [a new soap would get from] the affiliates? I have no clue. Who knows what affect [the recent departure of NBC Enterprises president] John Agoglia will have? When you have changes in the corporate structure, you don't know who's for what and against what. And who knows what effect the ratings of Port Charles will have? There was a focus group done on Sunset Beach in which some viewers said they did not want to give another hour to a new show. They felt guilty doing it. The show's future can also depend on how much money the network can make on it overseas. They have until November of '99 to decide what they're doing.

17 minutes ago, Toups said:

This was from an interview in TVGuide from around May 1997.  Passions' first airdate was July 5, 1999. 

Michael Logan: On one hand, I can see you wanting to hang in because you're so attached to Days. But on the other hand, why would you want to split your focus? You have a new baby that needs your undivided attention.
James E. Reilly: As soon as my bible is written, there's less day-to-day work for me. It becomes time for fine-tuning. There's a lot of waiting around for decisions to be made. I mean, they don't have to give me a decision about the show for two years. I should have lots of time to work with Days.

Michael Logan: Two years from when?
James E. Reilly: It works this way: I have from Nov. 1 of '97 through Feb. 1 of '98 to write the bible. They have two weeks to read it. They give me notes. I give them the finished bible March 1, no more revisions. Then there's a period where they can ask me for outlines. Then, on April 1, I go under salary -- as opposed to the money I'm making for developing the bible -- and they have a year and a half from that point to decide whether or not they want to do my show. So they have me until November of '99.

Michael Logan: : I've seen it in print a few places that January of '99 is the likely air date.
James E. Reilly: I don't know [if that's true] because, see, I'm not allowed to talk to the network about the new show.

Michael Logan: What?
James E. Reilly:Ken did not want me talking about the new show until I finished working for him, and we really have honored that. So I have not talked to them and therefore I do not know what they're thinking.

Michael Logan: How weird. You mean, you're having to read about this yourself?
James E. Reilly: That's why I love reading the soap magazines -- to find out what I'm doing. [NBC daytime president] Susan Lee has said in interviews that the show could air in the fall of '98. I'm going, "Hello?"

Michael Logan:  But it would be possible?
James E. Reilly:Yeah, I guess. But there's been a lot of focus-group research about the best time to start a soap -- people change channels in January; they channel-graze then, sampling new stuff, more than at any other time of the year. And I think NBC was very happy with the initial response to Sunset Beach [which debuted in January 1997]. They got a good tune-in, a good sampling. So when I heard they were happy about that, I then imagined that the earliest would be January of '99.

Michael Logan: You have no guarantee it'll even get on the air, right?
James E. Reilly:The new show may go or may not go. Who knows what Sunset Beach will do to the reception [a new soap would get from] the affiliates? I have no clue. Who knows what affect [the recent departure of NBC Enterprises president] John Agoglia will have? When you have changes in the corporate structure, you don't know who's for what and against what. And who knows what effect the ratings of Port Charles will have? There was a focus group done on Sunset Beach in which some viewers said they did not want to give another hour to a new show. They felt guilty doing it. The show's future can also depend on how much money the network can make on it overseas. They have until November of '99 to decide what they're doing.

Fascinating! Thanks so much for sharing.

Thanks @Toups

 

Here I was thinking "in development" meant a Bible was written. But MVJ only just announced her departure from B&B, so she clearly hasn't been at the point Reilly mentions where he goes on salary. It sounds like he wrote the Bible and outlines as independent contractor... but MVJ's B&B contract may preclude her working on projects like a competing soap? So they may be only starting to write the Bible just now, but there must have been some kind of pitch, if not a full Bible?