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While inside Avery Fisher Hall the ABC brass were touting the network’s new primetime schedule, outside, fans of All My Children and One Life to Live protested the network’s new daytime lineup, which will soon have reality series The Chew and The Revolution replace the two daytime dramas. “Save our soaps,” demonstrators chanted as advertisers were filing into the Lincoln Center, although the group of a couple of dozen was far across the street, so some upfront guests confused that with “Save our shows.” (ABC recently canceled several primetime series, including Brothers and Sisters & V, so that would work, too). The brochures distributed by the protest’s organizer, SoapFansUnited.com, urged advertisers to boycott ABC and called the programs replacing the two soaps “glorified infomercials appropriate for late-night basic cable channels, not for a major broadcast network.”
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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All for a couple of outdated soap operas? Jesus Christ…
That’s what I was thinking. lol
Oh grow up! It’s amazing the condescension people show. If you’ve never watched One Life to Live recently, how can you say it’s outdated? The writing on the show can be incredible, it mixes drama and, occasionally, raunchy humor splendidly.
What people like you also fail to understand is that soap viewers have been watching these programs since childhood. They started watching with mothers and grandmothers. The shows have a deep emotional attachment to their lives.
Where is the creative network executive who has the brains and chutzpah to figure out how to better package daytime dramas and leverage viewer loyalty and passion? Where’s the inventive product placement, international licensing, or product/character licensing?
Yes, advertisers want the demo, great. But where did all those baby boomers who have all the money go? Did they suddenly disappear? They certainly have more money than GenX and GenY.
Many viewers timeshift soaps using their DVRs, VCRs, and web clients. (Hell, I just got off a plane and watched yesterday’s episode of the Young and the Restless on my Android phone on the cab ride home!) Again, why is the TV industry still failing to understand that viewers can will watch what they want when they want regardless of the original airdate and time.
The reality is that many of the most successful network and cable shows are all soap operas from Grey’s Anatomy to Smallville to True Blood to Game of Thrones. They’re all soaps operas. Did you watch 24? Total soap opera. Jack Bauer’s constant angst. His tragic loves. The serialized nature of the program! Soap. Have you watched the Walking Dead? Yeah, it’s a horror soap.
Univision and Telemundo have been kicking butt with their soap operas. The programs may be in Spanish, but English-only viewers are tuning and turning on subtitles.
How many times have we seen fanboys lobby to save a genre show like Chuck or Jericho, etc.? Plenty.
A good rant Jenny, I applaud you.. but you’re preaching to people who obviously do not have the heart and soul and imagination to understand what a good story, and good storytelling is all about. “Outdated” is code for “I consume reality TV on my smartphone while walking down the street or driving my car on Sunset Blvd and how dare people not get out of my way, don’t they know who I think I am?”
I agree 100% with you. I am a “baby boomer” and have watched these two dramas since their inception. I am NOT a welfare mom, but a career woman who enjoys the soap genre. Has ABC not heard of VCR’s and DVR’s? One Life to Live’s storytelling and acting is exceptional. Why don’t the “nay-sayers” tune in and see for themselves.
Not all of us work, some have retired,but don’t play bridge, golf or any other of the daytime distractions. I have to have my back rebuilt and will be laid up for several months. If I wanted to watch cooking, or “educational” programs I would watch cable.
My husband hates all soaps, but he can tell you most of the names and story lines. {He stands in the kitchen and peeks!)
I won’t be watching any of the replacement shows. I wonder if the current story line is supposed to get us off our butts to save the show
It’s about more than just a bunch of soap operas, its about saving thousands of jobs.
Not every show can be a forensic mystery, or a song and dance show, or a reality show with a bunch of no-class drunks. Network TV doesn’t know what it’s doing, hence the continuous cancellations. They’re grasping at straws right now because the majority of network TV is crap anyway. Soaps still have a lot of fans and a lot of viewers despite the writers’ insistent pandering. If the writers and producers would just go back to writing good quality shows instead of continuously pushing their own agendas, soaps wouldn’t be an issue, and they would be gaining viewers as opposed to losing them.
Why cancell these shows old is not bad and out dated never!! I am 37 and been watching these shows since I was in moms womb. I work full time single parent not to mention a full time college student the only enjoyment I have is my Soap Operas please do not take them off the air. Please please please
You have alot of nerve judging what other people find entertaining. I could care less if football went off the air but I would totally understand if footballs fans were upset. Are you that limited?
who the HELL do you think you are these are great shows with many talented people I have been watching OLTL since 1975 I go to work and set my VCR now it is my DVR. These shows will be greatly missed and who the HELL wants to watch another Reality show or a cooking show I for one will boycott ABC since they have a bad habit of cancelling show worth while watching. ABC puts on stupid shows in replacment of good quality shows. Keep it up ABC you won’t have no one watching your channel
When will the madness stop? What’s next,sending bars of Soap to ABC.
At least these soaps were given plenty of time to wrap things up. DARK SHADOWS back in 1971 only had a few weeks to do so.
It’s not like soaps are high-art…
“High art”, Tyler? Oh, you mean like THE CHEW?
Can any TV show really be considered “high” art?
great job — if anyone is interested in helping us save CBS’s sitcom MAD LOVE — please like us on Facebook — search savemadlove
we need your help!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Mad-Love/186490654731728?sk#!/pages/Save-Mad-Love/186490654731728
also twitter at cbstweet
let’s show cbs how much we love this show! Help us with ideas on how to save this show!
One life to live is ABC not CBS and my wife is not happy either
Wow, that’s pretty sad and pathetic. Really? It wasn’t being done ironically?
Yeah, 50 people went out in the rain IRONICALLY. Actors and interviews took time out of their week IRONICALLY. yeah. Ironic.
There were 50+ protesters in attendance, although some came and went at different times.
There IS a market for the soap opera genre and ABC’s present three soaps in particular. If ABC cannot understand that, perhaps an up and coming Cable network, or something like Netflix, will realize the value in salvaging these canceled shows. With determination and creativity, these soaps will continue because television consumers demand it.
If you air it, soap opera consumers will come!
One thing is certain. Both of the reality/self-help replacement shows will fail, and fail quickly due to an already over-saturated market of such programming. Consumers of daytime television, in particular, want MORE quality programming and that means MORE scripted shows, not less.
Wow – that’s some big protest! How ever will ABC manage to survive without those 15 viewers?
Those 50 viewers represent the thousands/millions of us who were unable to take off of WORK to attend the rally. ABC WILL regret alienating longtime, once loyal daytime viewers.
I don’t know how many people were there in support of our soaps today. Let me tell you – people have jobs and are trying to earn a living. We TIVO or DVR or tape our stuff, and we watch our soaps when we are cleaning or relaxing. I prefer to watch mine in a block, as I get a really good dose of the show that I’m watching. Sometimes, I will watch the daily stuff that I’ve TIVO’d when I’m cooking dinner. I LOVE the option to watch when and how I want to watch them! I’m 45 years old and have been watching soaps since I was a kid. I watched them with my mom and I developed my own tastes. Do not take this away from us!
There won’t be any soaps at all in 2 or 3 years except the prime time ‘soap-like’ shows… there aren’t any network radio dramas or comedies anymore either… and the kids aren’t writing on little chalk boards at their desks at school. Times change.
A big thank you to all the soap fans that went to the rally! I wish I lived nearby so I could have attended too. Soap operas are a wonderful form of storytelling, and like so many, I love watching them. It’s shameful that ABC execs are trying to kill the genre. I’m so sad for the talented actors and crew who will be out of work if ABC doesn’t reverse this horrible decision. Save our soaps!!
This is why soap operas are going off the air:
Susan Lucci to play Erica’s evil double on ‘AMC’
http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/10/susan-lucci-to-play-ericas-evil-double-on-amc/
Really? In 2011 they’re still peddling this same, tired, worn-out evil-twins storyline? And I love reading all the hysterical, neighing, braying responses from these bon-bon eating, Oprah-worshipping, refuse-to-go-to-work, television-addicted housewives. Get over it! There are more important things going on in the world today than the loss of some piddling, insignificant soap opera.
What planet are you from? I’ve never eaten a bon-bon and do not watch Oprah. I am a career woman who has worked all of my adult life and enjoy the scripted daytime dramas in the evenings via VCR or DVR. All of us fans simply do not want the soap genre to disappear.
As a well-educated, working mother who does not eat bonbons, nor watch Oprah, your comment exemplifies your misunderstanding of who is tuning in to watch. Serial entertainment, and its viewership, is not new. Allowing one to live vicariously through a purveyor of drama/entertainment is a welcome reprieve from the onslaught and barrage of global issues that permeate society. Perhaps you should limit your rash generalizations and personal attacks towards a wide viewership.
“I love reading all the hysterical, neighing, braying responses from these bon-bon eating, Oprah-worshipping, refuse-to-go-to-work, television-addicted housewives.”
Believe me,I am far from hysterical or bon bon eating. I go to work, I catch up on my shows either on Soap Net or on ABC’s website. As for the “Oprah worshipping”, I personally cannot stand the self loving…..never mind.
What people like you are failing to see is the loss of jobs, thus, the loss of revenue for New York. Think on that.
Oh, do come on now! We all know you’d take these soaps back in a heartbeat even if every single person behind the scenes lost their job. This is NOT ABOUT JOBS. Granted, New York may be losing some revenue, but have you ever considered the possibility that some of these people will move on to other lines of work?
Susan Lucci already has her next acting job lined up; several actors have already been signed onto the other soaps. Some of the stage hands and behind-the-scenes talent may get hired elsewhere or finally retire. This isn’t the apocalypse. And, quite frankly, with the deaths of AMC and OLTL, and the continuing consolidation of the soap opera landscape, the remaining shows have an opportunity to look at what killed those shows, and the ones that preceded it, and make a course correction. I would also suggest that GH, YR, BB, and DrOOL’s positions have slightly improved by having less competition, but they have to actually do something to earn the bump in viewers they’re likely to get when OLTL and AMC goes off the air, or the remaining soaps will get cancelled in the long run as well.
While I agree that the new programs ABC is about to broadcast will probably be as putrid as JERSEY SHORE, ultimately the free-market capitalist in me has to agree with, and support ABC’s right to put out product that earns a profit.
If you want to “Save the soaps” you need to first give up on the idea of saving AMC and OLTL. These campaigns did nothing for Another World, Guiding Light, As The World Turns, Passions, Sunset Beach, The City or Port Charles. Next, focus on improving what’s left. The remaining four shows can shore up their cast line-up by raiding the casts of OLTL and AMC and getting some of the top talent. Think of it as free agency, or an NFL draft. Then focus on creating interesting, compelling, but MOST OF ALL UNIQUE storylines. Pretty faces, big tits and hard abs aren’t going to keep people coming back to the show. They need a hook; a reason to continue watching in a world where there are exponentially more distractions everyday.
It’s not too late to save General Hospital or Young and Restless, or Bold and Beautiful, or, God help us, Days of our Lives, but it is too late for All My Children and One Life to Life. Don’t cling to them. Let them go gently into the good night. They’d want you to live on and remarry with a new soap opera; they wouldn’t want you to feel alone and bitter for the rest of your life.
Take some time to heal. Then start watching the other shows. Then start doing some peremptory groundwork. You need to begin campaigns to improve the show and the ratings waaaaaaaaaaaay before cancellation ever becomes an issue. If you do that, I’d say you have a decent shot of holding on to the rest of the shows for a much longer period than one would have imagined.
Look at it this way: 6 soaps are in a lifeboat with limited provisions out in the middle of the ocean. Two soaps die while the boat is out to sea. That means the remaining four soaps can split the dead soap’s rations amongst the rest of the living, and perhaps the 4 living soaps can eat the two dead soaps for nourishment and protein until their bodies stabilize and their situation improves. By AMC and OLTL being cancelled, it helps, somewhat, the prospects of the remaining four. But don’t get lazy or apathetic. Get moving. You’ve got some shows to save!!!
is that u brian frons the man who smirked at the soap opera protest?? what goes around comes around you dog & when u get yours i hope your reality camera’s are rolling..i am a career woman who loves her soaps, has a life & have been watching for over 40 years…& yes i do need the escape from a stressful reality concious society….condescending people who don’t understand the lure of the soap don’t understand that those who view are intelligent, mindful & have many interests..too bad for them.oh yeah we have consumer dollars to spend also & i won’t be spending any of mine on abc’s commercial sponsers when my two favorite soaps go off the air.
Are you serious? You really think the only people who watch soaps “sit around and eat bon-bon’s all day, watch Oprah, and refuse to go to work while there are more important things going on in the world?” And yet I find it ironic that you put soaps and soap fans very high up on your list of things to talk about. I mean if there are more important things in the world to worry about then what are you doing hear commenting at all? It’s evident that you are not at work, if you are then you are not actually doing your job right now.
For your information, not that you really deserve any info, most of us do have jobs. Most of us have college degrees, and yes most of us have children. We tend to record our soaps or watch them on Soapnet in the evenings while we do house work and the rest of the family is sleeping. You want to know why the ratings have gone down? Maybe because they openned up so many new avenues to watch them. We no longer just watch them on ABC, we watch them on soapnet, on the internet, on DVR, so there really is no accurate way to say how many people actually watch them. If they keep putting shows on the internet and in other media, then the rest of there shows ratings will fall as well not just the soap opera.
BRAVO to everyone who turned out in the rain to get the word out about ABC destroying daytime tv!!!
Wow, I can think of like, a billion better causes in the world to be protesting about…
Like, the cancelation of “Brothers and Sisters”, for instance.
I want to thank all the people who could and did show up! I would have if I didn’t live across the country,and so would the millions of people that watch these shows everyday! We are working hard to do anything we can to help these legendary shows stay on air! We are smart,informed,multitasking people and we aren’t going anywhere!
abc will see these new shows won’t get the ratings the soaps get. they won’t last a year…..
The soaps can’t be THAT expensive to produce. Why isn’t cable looking into picking up these shows?? They have a built-in audence much like today’s comic book movies for the big screen or the rebooted prime time shows of the past that are recycled today.
Have Fox or CW pick up these soaps for primetime and give them all a realistic budget and an expanded scope to work with instead of the stupid constant in-studio look they needed to use.
People from Oprah to ABC have said it best; there isn’t any money in it. Disney isn’t a charity company it’s a business that has to make money for its stockholders. If its not profitable in the media world your out.
You are going somewhere because your shows won’t be here anymore.
And stop wearing pajamas and bathrobes to protests. It unfairly represents the large audiences in prison and mental institutions.
Great job soap fans!! Thanks for speaking up for all of us who live far from NYC and couldn’t be there with you! I love All My Children and One Life to Live, and I’m tired of ABC cancelling great scripted shows for garbage.
Please learn about the impact and enduring influence of soap operas before insulting them: http://www.agnesnixon.com/about/
Please learn about the impact and enduring importance of earning a profit before insulting capitalism and free markets by insisting that companies underwrite and subsidize poorly-performing, money-losing shows.
It is not an “insult” to point out that asking Susan Lucci to do an evil-twin storyline, in 2011, with only 4 months left for the show, is part and parcel of the problem with daytime soaps. Once the casual viewer has watched for 3-5 years they’ll start to see the same storylines repeated. How many times can a show have a character come back from the dead (Stefano from Days of Our Lives)? How long can a show drag out a love triangle (Jack, Nikki and Victor from Young and Restless)?
As for someone else’s comment that True Blood and 24 are soap operas….my answer would be: So???? How many people did you see standing outside of the Fox Network protesting the cancellation of “24″??? Anybody? Did even one person stand outside and protest?
The comments I’m reading from “loyal soap viewers” sound like bitter, delusional, intellectually lazy couch potatoes who are in deep denial and refuse to go out, get a job, and live in the real world. The reaction has been hysterical and over-dramatic; accusing ABC executives of having “blood on their hands” and ‘murdering’ soap operas is ridiculous.
Almost to a single post I’ve yet to see any of the so-called loyal soap viewers actually give a fair, honest critique about why their shows are hemorrhaging viewers. Instead, it’s all me, me, me. You all want ABC to keep a show on because you want it on…because of it’s “historical and cultural impact”…because you have been watching it since you were a child…it’s about “saving thousands of jobs”…because the networks are too stupid to figure out that viewers are watching their shows in a variety of different ways instead of just the traditional television set…
I’ve never seen such a bunch of braying ninnies like this before. 40+ years on the air, losing money for the past 5 – 10 years, and still that’s not good enough for some of you. Why don’t you all go out and start up a business and see what it’s like to try and make a profit, and then give us a reasonable explanation as to why your company should continue to invest in ventures that are losing money and will never be profitable again? You wouldn’t accept it and neither should ABC.
For your information, I have a great job making more money than the average person and do in fact, live in the real world. I have a Bachelor’s in Education and a Doctorate in English, and I happen enjoy One Live To Live a lot. I believe that you shouldn’t stereo-type every person who enjoys soap operas. I think it is wonderful that people are passionate about saving such a legendary genre and for you to discourage those people’s dreams are just wrong. Perhaps you do not understand what it’s like enjoying some relaxation every now and then instead of being such a heinous woman. It’s not just about these extraordinary shows it’s about saving television shows as a whole. Have you not noticed it’s all about reality shows like Jersey Shore polluting children’s minds and singing and dancing competitions, it’s not about being out there anymore. I believe that the soap opera genre should live strong.
Right on the money, Gravity’s Silhouette. If soaps do stay on the air, they can rightfully be condensed to a half hour, to save money and to refrain from writing/shooting filler. Sometimes the soaps just seem to be something to put on the air between commercials…
Why shouldn’t viewers complain? You just admitted yourself that these shows have been on for 40+ years. How many of these viewers that you have so callously (and ignorantly) denigrated have been watching for that long? Do you have any idea how many soap viewers grew up watching these shows? Who is television for if it’s not for the viewers? The advertisers? How many of them actually watch the crap they put on our TV’s? These networks make their money off the backs of the very people you are trying to quiet. So if it’s money they want, then they better start pleasing their customers or they’ll all find themselves out on their asses.
Another soap fan unable to respond with a coherent, logical point of view.
Keno wrote:You just admitted yourself that these shows have been on for 40+ years.
Yeah? So? Fact: everything alive right now will, at some point, die. Plants, animals, humans…and even television shows. And, truth be told, it’s only because of its history that some of these soaps didn’t get the axe sooner. The ratings have been dropping for years; most other shows would have been cancelled much sooner.
Do you have any idea how many soap viewers grew up watching these shows? Who is television for if it’s not for the viewers?
Yes, I do have an idea of how many people *USED* to grow up watching these shows, but the one fact that you and your friends conveniently leave out of the discussion time and time again is that those viewers are long gone.
When ANOTHER WORLD was cancelled in 1999, it was averaging a 3.0 rating; ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE are averaging a 2.0 and a 1.9.
In 1999, AMC averaged a 3.9 rating. That means in slightly over 10 years, it has lost *HALF* it’s daily audience. 50% of the people who used to watch the show, or refer it to friends and family in order to create new viewers, no longer do so.
This format hit its zenith back in the late 60′s and early 70′s, (when there were up to 19 of these shows on at at the same time, and the top ratings earner was getting a 13.8 rating, and it’s been bleeding viewers ever since. What other format gets 30 or 40 years to get its ratings in order before getting cancelled?
I’m reading the same condescension here that many people have towards romance novels. Romance novels (see NYTimes, 12/8/10) are a 1.36 billion dollar industry. Given that, sneering at soaps as a waste of time or deriding them as old-fashioned seems more than a little misogynistic–and incredibly financially naive. I think this move’s gonna go down with New Coke and putting Leno on at 10PM.
ABC is going to score with “The Chew” and “The Revolution”? I think not. Apparently, “General Hospital” is on the chopping block now as well. ABC Daytime might as well be handed back to the affiliates. The new stuff will crash and burn quickly. Perhaps “Truth or Consequences”? might work, eh Mr Frons?
The advertisers didn’t know or care what was being protested. It also didn’t interfere with them. Just a waste of time, since the message didn’t come across. Also, a turnout of thirty (or a turnout of fifty, as one person here claims) is awfully low.
Yeah, you can say people had to work, but protests have been held for other shows in recent years and most of them did a lot better than low double digits in attendance. It just shows that there is not much of a fanbase left for soaps, which is sad. They used to be known for the loyalty of their viewers, and those same viewers have now mostly abandoned them.
Good support, I’m so glad these fans have yet to throw in the towel yet. Keep it going as I think someone eventually will have to pick these two soaps up.
what a waste of time are people really holding rallies for a cancel soap opera is this all these people have to do. It is a televised show get over it, move on watch something else or don’t, read a book, exercise do something else to fulfill the time you would have been suck sitting in front of the tv watching that crap.
No, this is not all these people have to do. We work, go to school, have families, etc. We choose to fight for entertainment that we enjoy and why are you even reading this if you don’t care?
I think that there is a good argument for soap operas as art. It’s an amazing achievement that these dramas have played continuously for so many decades. Every actor who has worked on a soap will tell you that it provides a better education and opportunity to hone their craft than any drama school could. It is also good, steady work for many actors, crew, writers and other professionals. The soaps are an industry of their own. I think that with new media outlets, the networks are unable to track the number of people watching and underestimate the fan base. If “ratings” are declining, they need to work on their marketing and improve the quality of the shows where they need it, not scrap them them! In the U.K., where soaps are aired at night, they regularly top the ratings. Re-think, re-brand, but don’t throw away the only assets that have survived for most of television history! ABC has been a disaster for years. Since they cancelled DSM, Pushing Daisys, and Eli Stone in one fell swoop, I stopped even trying their new shows (except Flashforward, and of course that got cut, too). Disney is so obsessed with hooking kids it has forgotten that it is adults who who have the purchasing power. It is as though they put fickle 4 year olds in charge of ABC programming (apologies to 4 year olds). There are far more than 15 people who are dedicated to these shows.