“You can’t cut costs enough to make up for those losses,” said Brian Frons, president of daytime programming for the Disney ABC Television Group. “There comes a point when you can no longer justify the expense. Soap operas are an expensive way to program a network and unless you have General Hospital- or Young and the Restless-sized ratings, it’s really not a business.”
Now, I'm going to "weigh in"
--GENERAL HOSPITAL Size Ratings? Uh..hello...OLTL beat GH last week.GH is routinely at 1.8-2.0... OLTL and AMC are fractions of a percent behind. So cut the bullshit. GH isn't in the 3.0s like Y&R is. Saying that these shows are going based solely on ratings compared to GH? What about the fact that OLTL is under budget ???
So tired of the Spin. GH has Guza, Benard, Burton, Geary and the mob-wanna be stories that someone somewhere seems to love. Do I want GH canned too? HELL no, my website is based on that show--but I also don't think it's fair to make it look like AMC and OLTL suddenly got all sheezious in the ratings, cause they didn't Blanche, They didn't.
OLTL has gained viewers the last three weeks, and it just keeps getting better!! This is truly the best soap. In my opinion better than Y&R , and certainly much better than GH.
ReplyDeleteAmazing, I have written to both of my local papers asking if they plan on doing a piece about the demise of the two long running daytime staples, I'm so angry and sad at the same time. I spent the whole month of rumors trying to save them and now all my energy is focused on trying to find them a new home. I fear GH will be next gone by 2013 for sure. PLEASE help SAVE THE SOAPS www.tinyurl.com/soapsonOWN
ReplyDeleteI Frankly think that Brian Frons should be fired for unethical business practices because it seems he has favored his Friend Bob Guzza. It is clear in his handling of the situation that the only smart Decision for ABC/Disney is to let him go and feed his salary into the Budgets for both AMC & OLTL!
ReplyDeletePlain and simple, Guza is a liar. I do not believe a word out of his mouth.
ReplyDelete^^Oops. I meant Frons is a liar - although Bob Guza is a liar as well.
ReplyDeleteGH is the ONLY show that i like and am glad it was not canceled but i think it will be gone in a year or 2 so i will enjoy it while it lasts.
ReplyDeleteWhat a crock!! He will never get the same ratings out of the Great American Cookoff and besides we already have the Biggest Loser. The View sucks. Who wants to listen to those women, one who's claim to fame was eating insects on a deserted island, bitch and bicker??? Not me and I certainly do not want to watch that slob talk culinary skills.
ReplyDeleteahahaha... BOB GUZA. Too funny, there's a slip up!
ReplyDeleteI hate it they ae going and I asked if Anne Sweeney if frons is getting some kind of kickback for getting rid of AMC and OLTL somebodys hand is in somebodys cookie jar
ReplyDeleteHonestly, with the way they've handled it, they might as well just got rid of all 3 shows at the same time. GH is a sinking ship. It's ratings are going to get worse with those two new weak lead-ins and without Oprah following it like it's had in most key markets for 25 years now.
ReplyDeleteI don't see it lasting another year or so before Frons trots out the same press release of excuses for cancelling it.
A follow up to an earlier post, "it's" means "it is," if you want the possessive (such as 'its ratings'), the word is "its." (Again, please don't kill me, I used to be an editor, so forgive me.)
ReplyDeleteIf their reason is all about ad revenue, why couldn't they have tried integrating products into the show the way some evening dramas have? I wouldn't mind seeing Star using a Mac or watching Ryan drink a Bud Light.
ReplyDeleteProduct placement would have been a brilliant idea, I agree.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why OLTL was canceled and not General Hospital is because GH does better among women aged 18-49, the "prime" advertising demographic. OLTL has an older audience that ABC doesn't want, apparently. CBS doesn't mind having an older audience, because if you ever watch "The Price is Right," it all ads aimed at the elderly. I guess Frons didn't want to go that route and court advertisers that cater to the older viewers of OLTL. Maybe less money in those ads? I don't know. He also painted himself into a corner by choosing to move All My Children to a modern HDTV studio in LA and leaving OLTL in NYC with old-style video cameras. He obviously had always intended to cancel OLTL first. He even tested a new talk show to replace OLTL a couple of years ago but it tested so poorly with sample audiences he didn't cancel OLTL at the time.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder if the two new talk shows are also designed to appear on the new network that is replacing the Soapnet network on cable. The new network, coming in 2012, is described as "for preschoolers and their parents." Preschoolers aren't going to be watching that channel after 8 or 9 at night, so these new talk shows might run repeats at night on that new cable channel so parents can watch them when the kids are in bed. If they didn't already watch them during daytime TV on ABC.
I honestly think Disney deciding to cancel Soapnet has much to do with the soap cancellations. I can see General Hospital be canceled soon due to that, also.
I doubt GH will make it past 2012 and I mean early 2012. They should have just canceled all of them instead of delaying the inevitable. As the LA times article says soaps cost 50 mil to produce a year 30% more than talk shows. As a business person you do the math.
ReplyDeleteIt can't work in fact, that is exactly what I believe.
ReplyDelete