ABC Daytime has decimated their daytime format and is now, singlehandedly killing the daytime serial. Again, I don't think these guys are very bright. I don't think they imagined there'd be as much of a reaction as they've gotten. They saw people upset about GL and ATWT, but I don't think they thought there'd be all out campaigns, national coverage, and anger like these cancellations got.
I think the real mistake, regardless of my long term affection for AMC, is cancelling OLTL which was still a profitable program. I really think they didn't understand that it would be as big a blow to their line up as it's been and will be in the future. I think they thought the daytime audience was as they described. Ignorant house fraus who would watch any crap put in front of them. I doubt they imagined that we made an EFFORT to watch. My television now stays off all day if I'm home- which is rare. I'd turn it on if OLTL was on, but not in general.
Running shows five or six times a day maybe hid the actual viewing audience, muchless those who DVR the show. If almost four million people watched the ABC feed of the finale, how many REALLY watched and did so daily? People with six figure incomes? People with a lot of disposable income? People who were in their teens and tweens who would become lifetime viewers? People who would watch OLTL over anything else, like me? I'd say there were a lot!!
They really never thought this stuff was as popular as it was and that many people would watch it because THEY LIKED IT!!!Not because we're moronic sheep who need to fill our days.
I think that daytime and primetime may be merging and there may be no distinction soon. If these "men" had a braincell between them, they'd see they have a marketable product and get those rights back from PP- if they ever really handed them over to begin with- and see if they could fashion some nighttime programming out of them. GH is fine but it isn't the best one of the three.
But, it seems to be me, that if this primetime rumor is true, it won't be your current GH. It'll be looking a lot more like Llanview and less like Mob Wives.
ABC has affiliates to deal with in this matter. Yes, on ABC's owned and operated stations, they can handle the hit in ad revenue to some extent due to the show's being produced on the network level. The show is cheaper and brings in less- the ratios may work of cost to profit. The network's losing less money and can therefore support the lower income on the station level. In other words, the network makes more money in one area but loses it in another. They could see it as a wash. The loss is made up for in cutting production costs.
However, the affiliates don't have that option. They aren't producing the show, just running it. And if the numbers are in the toilet, they can't sell ad space. They then lose. They don't have anything to absorb that loss or make up for the deficit. If the affiliates want the time back, which may be starting VERY soon as these numbers may be going down, down, down, there will be a real problem. It's the Jay Leno/Conan situation all over again. ABC may want to give them the time back and therefore ABC daytime will not exist on a network level at all. I don't know. Maybe that's the intent.
Also, if the loss of OLTL's audience hurts the show before it and the lead in, then everyone loses. There's this concept called "flow" which means that all the shows work in a kind of a continuum that keep the audience watching all day. Each show kind of blends into the other and then there's a stream of viewers consistently who keep the TV on one station. Cutting OLTL broke the flow. Cutting AMC would have hurt the numbers for OLTL if it hadn't been strong enough to bring it's own audience. It seems that maybe OLTL was bringing in an audience for AMC and definitely The Chew as people had the show on as they were waiting for OLTL. Then viewers may have stuck around for GH after OLTL. That's how flow works.
Taking OLTL out of the equation could potentially hurt the whole line up, save The View. The View can't hold the audience as a lead in. That's obvious or AMC would still be around. It seems that OLTL was appointment television for its audience, not something we just "had on" during the day. Much like their insipid comments about the demographics of the soap audience, ABC has miscalculated in a MAJOR way. We aren't a bunch of fat, lazy losers with no lives who don't read books. We're educated, successful people who made it a point to watch a certain program and type of program. And we're incredibly loyal. Throwing away that demo is an instance of stupidity at it's finest. It's also ignorant snobbery. I'd put my degrees, experience, and IQ up against any network exec any day. "The guys just aren't very bright". But we are!
We'll see but, all kidding aside, this is a major fuck up for ABC but a fascinating case study for those of us in academia. The actual implosion of a network. But will they recover? That's the cliffhanger. Tune it tomorrow...or not.
Oh, and I'm being too professorial. ABC can BITE ME!!! There, I feel better.
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