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All My Children star Susan Lucci has some blistering parting words for ABC Daytime president Brian Frons as her soap ends its 41-year run on ABC this month. In a freshly written epilogue to the upcoming paperback edition of her memoir “All My Life” obtained by the New York Post, she blames the show’s cancellation squarely on “some very bad decisions by” Frons. Among them, according to Lucci, the 2008 hiring of Chuck Pratt as head writer, which led to “subpar” writing on the show (he was let go a year later), the 2009 relocation of the show from New York to Los Angeles, and the pushing out of AMC creator Agnes Nixon. “I watched Brian Frons’ decisions destroy the production of our show and the lives of people on both sides of the country,” she wrote, adding that he has “that fatal combination of ignorance and arrogance.” As for the soap’s cancellation to be replaced by a cheaper unscripted show, “an iconic show was losing out to greed,” Lucci wrote. “I cannot fathom any network executive choosing to alienate millions of loyal viewers in these economic times.” Frons recently told Deadline that the protests over the cancellation of All My Children and fellow ABC soap One Life to Live demonstrate that “we actually did a good job for all of these last 40 years. I think we’ve spent 40-plus years trying to keep the soap-opera audience happy. So in an odd way, (the outcry) is actually good. It’s just sad that we don’t have a solution.”
Lucci herself has yet to commit to continue on All My Children, which company Prospect Park plans to produce for online and possibly cable TV distribution. Lucci was approached a couple of weeks ago with a financial offer identical to her current salary on ABC but has not accepted yet, and I hear she has been pushing for a raise. As for her comments on Frons, “we have all the respect in the world for Susan, and are sorry she felt the need to write this epilogue to an otherwise incredible career,” ABC said in a statement.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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In the end this whole thing will blow over, and be a distant memory in a year or so. I really doubt AMC or OLTL will ever see the light of day. You can’t make it online and the profit just isn’t there if the quality stays the same. Talk is cheap.
If The Chew just gets Food Network numbers it will do ok, basically its Food Network on ABC. Look at who’s producing it and who’s in it.
they may want to get Food Network numbers, but “reality” is going to catch up with the Food Network very soon. They have basically gotten rid of most real chefs, and replaced them with these “artificial” tv chefs…….think about it, has anybody tasted Rachel Ray’s food? We’re supposed to believe it’s good, why? and Guy Fieri’s? These are actors….tv personalities, not chefs. Most of the people I know have stopped watching Food Network, I’m sure the Chew will be a flop….
Bravo Susan!
You may think people have stopped watching but they are more popular than ever. Check the numbers, and then check out another Food Network Channel they had to create because of the popularity of the first one. The Cooking Channel.
Must be nice to have more advertisers than you have slots and you have to create another channel. Scripps Networks are doing just fine, The Chew is produced by Food Network’s Gordon Elliot, and starring Food Network’s Mario Batali. Even ABC’s The Chew website resembles Food Network’s.
Television is all about profitability not keeping shows on far past their prime, why do you think Proctor & Gamble got out of the business?, Why do you think NBC canned some of their Soaps as did CBS? they like ABC/Disney saw the handwriting on the wall. Maybe General Hospital will be next, we can only hope.
Soaps are a drag on profits.
Mario Batali hasn’t been part of The Food Network for about three or four years. He got the boot around the same time as Emeril (2007). They’re now trying to make up for it by giving Emeril a new show on The Cooking Channel, but it’s too little, too late. Emeril does better with a live audience.
I do agree that producing soaps is much more expensive than producing talk shows. Look at the Prime Time line up to see how many “reality” shows there are vs. scripted shows. Cheaper production = more profits. And profits rule!
I agree Chris. I when Food Network got rid of Emeril, Batali and all the other REAL chefs it became a joke. Maybe I’m elitist because I am a chef, but to “dumb-down” Food Network with hacks like Rachel Ray, Paula Deen, Sandra Lee etc. may be a mistake, but on the other hand, America has more viewers that fit into the “lower common denominator” category than it has chefs. So, although you and I may never watch FN anymore, there a millions of others who will. I think it’s kind of sad.
I think the Chew stinks! They were so wrong to take the soaps off. there are too many Food shows on already. Will not watch Channel 7 anymore.
Don’t matter who’s in it! I won’t watch it!
i agree you can only have so many food shows or talk shows they couldnt even come up with a better name? i wont be watching abc on that time slot any more
i absolutely will not be watching. do the morons at abc know there is a food channel? I am implementing a full boycott of all abc programs in my home. really bad decision to cancel iconic soap for a show that is destined for failure.
I agree. I refuse to watch the Chew.
I too have been a fan of AMC since it began. And if it isn’t available somewhere, I will miss it as much as I would food. Watching this continuing story was like reading a saga of an American family, a community of people living , working and loving together, worts and all. The members of the cast are all execpional actors. I often wonder how they can say some of the lines they are given, without bursting out in laughter. Maybe they did but, we didn’t see it. They, the actors and the people behind the cameras, manage to give the audience some unbelieveable story lines. But, mostly we watch to see how these people navigate through life. It’s a diversion from everyday life. And I will miss it.
As much as Susan Lucci protests on the side of the fans, she’s at the same time asking for a riase in salary when AMC and possibly OLTL goes online! Always looking out for herself. This being about money so it may not be the right time to ask for this raise! She has the fans to thank for her success all these years…so please, Susan try to remember this! And thanks to all the actors who are trying to save our beloved soaps!
A very long time (sad) fan of soaps!
You cannot replace our beloved soaps with a cooking/food show! There are too many as it is…and not popular any more. The very many soap fans will not forget this…many are already boycotting ABC as well they should. No understanding or caring of fans’ feelings! A big mistake, ABC!
I will not be watching the cooking show or any other cooking show, will change channels and watch something else instead.
Hope your show folds.
Good for her! Fons destroyed ABC Daytime
Amen to that, have been saying that for years. From killing off Cady McLain, losing Sarah Brown to CBS, laying off Julia Barr and Becky Herbst (only to being forced to re-hire her due to public outcry) shows just how out of touch Frons is with viewers and the entire genre in general.
I hope Lucci demands the show be relocated back to NYC, AMC won’t be worth watching if it isn’t as it is part of the soul of the show.
Lucci is right, and the use of the word “epilogue” is rather self-serving and dismissive on the part of Frons, who stupidly chose to destroy ABC’s daytime line-up in favour of rather daft & derivative fare that has no appeal to me, and most of ABC’s daytime viewers, whatsoever.
I’m eager to see how Prospect Park re-works the two shows, and possibly GH, as it seems their timeslot has been given to Katie Couric in another odd move.
ABC’s statement is so insulting, implying that this is the end of Lucci’s career.
Lucci is only articulating what we all know about the television end of the entertainment industry …it’s run by NETWORK executives who don’t know a thing about creating good TV and only care about their margins. I watched AMC with my mom and her lady friends as a teenager. It was hilarious and also mesmerizing in the words of Gary Marshall’s “Soap Dish.” The plots were twisted and the writing campy and it all worked. The genre is hard hit because you can get off cheap with reality TV soapish crap – but the Kardashians (those untalented, boring, greedy …) can’t compare to Agnes Nixon’s team of talented soap writers that kept an entire generation watching and yakking on the telephone about the characters every day. Christ my mother would talk to her sister-in-law about the AMC clan and you’d think they were part of our family. It was a daytime distraction for a lot of women who wanted a little drama in their lives besides the dishes and another load of laundry – no harm; no foul.
Jeff Zucker destroyed a network and Lucci is pointing the finger at Frons who, in all likely hood, did exactly as she reports it. Destroyed AMC with bad choices probably at the behest of some overload that wanted to run it into the ground to put another stupid talk show on the air to fill the slot.
Shame on ABC for admonishing her for her honesty. Better to have said nothing about her comments … as my soap opera watching mom would say, “You must be guilty if you have something to say about it.”
Semper Fi
Nice said.
Semper Fi:
Your well-written comment really conjures up nostalgia about the magic that soap operas use to have on the general public. Like you said about your mother, some of my family members were exactly the same (in their case, talking about the Y&R clan as if they were members of our family).
Somehow over the last decade or so, that magic has vanished. I don’t know that you can completely blame the Kardashians et al for offering a cheap, sopay alternative. I would venture to guess, however ideaistically, that most Americans are smart enough to draw the difference between fictional soaps and a supposed “reality” show about bored (and boring) rich girls.
In fact, I never considered daytime and reality has being in competition with each other simply because of the vast airtime differences between the two mediums.
But “smarter” folks than I have declared soaps to be either a dead or dying medium. While I’m not a fan myself, I still recognize the trememndous impact that these shows have on so many lives. Or had, at least.
What an excellent post. Thank you.
Semper Fi, I wholeheartedly agree with your comment. ABC’s admonishment is a sign of their guilt.
I agree with what you have to say Semper Fi but this is one time Jeff Zucker should be hands off. I don’t see how that baboon is relevant to your slam against Frons.
I, too, agree with everything being said here. I have been watching AMC for 41 years as did my mom & sister. Till this day
my girlfriend will call me at the end of the episode and we
would talk about it! I can also say that I will boycott anything
on ABC from now on, I don’t care how badly I want to see something.
ABC did a grave injustice to all of those hard working actors.
I know any of the friends that also watched AMC will be boycotting
ABC also.
Right on Semper Fi & AMC fans! ABC & Frons have really screwed up and made a lot of loyal viewers pissed off! I watched AMC & OLTL for many yrs, am really sad to see them go. The Pooh,oh I mean The Chew will be dropped soon! Susan Lucci has the right to say ANYTHING she pleases, and is totally right! Also about that raise business…Did everyone forget that ABC spent God knows how much $ to move AMC to CA.and for what?This fabulous cast either flew back and forth to NY or uprooted their families & then the network screwed them all over by cancelling/selling the show! Keep the ABC boycott alive!!!
Isn’t Paul Lee in charge of the network? How come he can’t say no to Brian Frons?
I guess Paul Lee has no balls. Brian Frons ruined ABC daytime. And one thing I won’t be watching is “The Chew”. “The View” should also be retired. As for Katie Couric, ugh!
And the rest of the long-running daytime soaps that have bitten the dust in recent years, is Frons responsible for killing those off as well?
With all those absurd women who populate “The Housewives of…” and Kardashian shows acting nuttier than the daytime characters, who needs soaps? Times have changed, the TV landscape has changed, and their time has past. That’s not his doing.
Frons isn’t responsiblie for killing them all but there were executives like him at both NBC and CBS who had that same thought process. On CBS you had Guiding Light and As the World Turns and on NBC Another World, Santa Barbara, Search for Tomorrow, Passions, etc. I mean, heck, NBC got rid of their 10 PM weekday programming because it would be cheaper to have a talk show Monday thru Friday. Does anyone remember how that worked out?
So why does everyone think that Frons is any different?
So true, Frons is just another example of an executive killing network TV. Why produce a scripted show that people will enjoy when you can fill air time with a talking head? Soon they’ll just leave static on the screen. It’s cheaper!
Bravo to Susan, for echoing the words so many of her fans were saying for years. Can’t wait for The Chew to fail, like so many other decisions Frons has made in his position of power.
I never heard of The Chew and I definitely don’t want to know.
Give em hell Susan! Frons, besides beind the most hated man in the entertainment industry right now,is an idiot who will be unemployed in a few months.
If she’s so dedicated and concerned for the show, why is she taking so long to sign on?Also, how is she going to say she can’t fathom an exec choosing to alienate loyal viewers in these “economic times”, yet she’s supposedly holding out for more money in these “economic times”?
Hey, stop thinking reasonably and logically.
Thank you!!!
With all due respect to the lovely and talented Susan Lucci, it’s a bit late in the game to be point fingers and airing the family’s dirty laundry now that the show has been cancelled. That kind of refreshing honesty may have been worth something a year or two ago, but now it’s just irrelevant.
I’m also baffled at what some of these soap fans consider the cause-and-effect relationship going on here. Maybe Frons made Hail Mary-type decisions in response to what he saw going on in the daytime drama genre (eroding viewers at an alarming pace) instead of the other way around. Some of these soap fans act as if AMC was a ratings powerhouse….a stable show that was one huge loving family living in Eden…and that Brian Frons, like the Devil himself, slithered onto the set of AMC to deliberately destroy all the wonderful accomplishments that the show had made and to get it cancelled.
The opposite is probably true. If the man is even half as greedy as we are being led to believe by the squawking hens who allegedly watch AMC everyday, you better believe Frons was doing anything and everything he could to wring every last penny and dollar out of AMC and make it profitable. *THAT* he could not turn even a one-cent profit on AMC shows how desperately bad the state of the soap genre is in these days.
And we have parasites, takers, looters, and moochers who sit in front of their television sets all day doing nothing but vegetating to shows like AMC, Real Housewives of Atlanta, and The Kardashians and continue to demand that ABC fund and underwrite a show that can no longer pay its own bills, as if ABC has some sort of moral imperative or obligation to provide free, cost-ineffective, loss-leading entertainment to the dumb-downed masses.
No actors are signed on yet because Prospect Park is working out the details with the unions. Hopefully the actors will be signing on soon!
Brian Fons is the Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) character in Network. He makes his living going from network to network cancelling their soaps.
This Frons sounds like a grade A ego-fueled moron. Unfortunately, the biz executive ranks is filled with them. Back to therapy, Sir, to deal with your childhood issues.
mmmmm, i think the same could be said of Lucci. She had better sign on quick to this new incarnation and stop holding out for a raise. it inst like there is really anything else for her to be on. No Matlock or Love Boat type shows on which to guest. She isn’t a real actress to be in any other tv or movies (maybe bad Lifetime movies). She will find herself guest cohosting The Talk and its ilk soon enough.
Soap opera actresses are dedicated professionals. Of course Susan Lucci is a real actress. She’s been dedicated to playing an exceptional character for 41 years!
Frond will be on the street sooner than later. Sadly, the damage to ABC Daytime will be unrepairable. CBS Daytime is a mess since they canceled As The World Turns & Guiding Light. Where’s that “genius” Barbara Bloom now?
Every generation has its James Aubrey and Fred Silvermen (the guys who killed off all the hit rural TV series, most at the height of their success and replaced them with gritty urban shows. It was said at the time that “CBS killed every show with a tree in it.” The networks were courting “a younger audience.” Sound familiar?) The shows they killed off have become the biggest and longest lasting series in syndication.
And Fred *Silverman* (get it right, moron) went on to put ABC at the top of the heap for the first time in the history.
And please tell me where you can find “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Green Acres” TODAY besides TV Land and digital subchannels, out-of-touch moron? That’s right, you can’t. Name me the OVER-THE-AIR stations that are airing those shows in the 5-8 p.m. and 11 p.m.-1 a.m. key time slots for syndication. Oh, that’s right. You’re not a professional broadcaster. You’re a whining old bitch who can’t accept the fact that DAYTIME SOAPS ARE DEAD! DEAL WITH IT!
Wow, sounds like the daytime soaps must’ve crawled up your butt before they died. There was no need to sling names at the previous poster. That was a complete–and cruel–overreaction. Are you Fred Silverman’s relative or something? I don’t watch, nor have I ever watched soaps, but I and a lot of my friends grew up watching scripted shows like the ones you just named…in syndication reruns. They aren’t all on tv because some of them were pulled to make the dvd releases more appealing to fans. If they can get it for free on tv, they might not bother to buy the special anniversary boxed set. I’ve seen several examples on the shelves at retail stores and on Amazon. As far as the digital subchannels you’re referring to, they’re one of the things network execs gripe about when asked why ratings aren’t what they used to be. Someone’s watching them. I can understand the logic of considering the margins, but that doesn’t make it a good idea. Serving the immediate needs of the shareholders weakens the long term brand of the networks and ultimately costs money, but of course no one wants to be fired, so they opt for whatever can kick the can down the road the longest for the least expense. Nobody should do that and expect to be called a hero. All they’ve won is a pyrrhic victory.
Hey Mark, you need to watch Dr Oz and get your anger management under control. You don’t need to yell….or perhaps Mark Jeffries is really Brian Frons? Actually, Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies have huge fanbases even today. Where are the fans for the shows that replaced them? In fact, what were the shows that replaced them? CAN YOU ANSWER THAT MARK? Take you meds before you post next time, OK Mark?
Frons recently told Deadline that the protests over the cancellation of All My Children and fellow ABC soap One Life to Live demonstrate that “we actually did a good job for all of these last 40 years. I think we’ve spent 40-plus years trying to keep the soap-opera audience happy. So in an odd way, (the outcry) is actually good. It’s just sad that we don’t have a solution.”
This proves his ignorance & arrogance.
So true, Frons’s comment proved he has no sense whatsoever. How can he congratulate himself on destroying and cancelling legendary TV shows?
ABC’s THE CHEW will be cancelled in less than a year from its debut.
She’s absolutely right and I’m glad she spoke out. But Anne Sweeney’s the one pulling Frons’s strings, so he’s not the absolute villain in the end. And I agree that The Chew will not be on the air in a year. What sad garbage.
What??? ABC “feels sorry” Susan Lucci told the truth? Excuse me…boy did she ever! She was being nice calling Frons ignorant and arrogant. “Annonymous” hit it on the head. …a grade A ego-fueled moron!.A mean,sadly unhappy person. How do I know? I unfortuantely worked at ABC and this man was not only hated but a complete joke.We laughed at him behind his back… And why didn’t Paul Lee just say “no”? Because He’s next in line as being equally incompetent.He’s so over his head!Both won’t be there next year!
Nice to hear from someone with personal knowledge of what is clear from Frons’s quotes — that Frons (along with Sweeney and Lee) are jokes.
La Lucci can squawk all she wants. The fact remains the cost of soaps continues to rise while the viewership continues to decline. Within 5 years there will be no soaps on network daytime at all.
Having worked in soaps for a decade and seeing the ratings decline as costs go up, Walter’s comment is right on the money. Five years and counting.
How have costs on soaps gone up when their budgets have been slashed? For instance, Days of Our Lives’ budget is about 50% of what it was 5 years ago.
It’s amazing how people lie when facts to counter those points are widely known and easily available.
The Chew is going to fail miserably…isn’t it being produced by that one time Aussie talk show host Gordon Elliott or whom I refer to as Gordon Idiot?
it always sucks when tv shows are cancelled and there is still a loyal fanbase there. however, i really wish people would understand the “economic” (a little buzzword there for ya, ms. lucci) reasons behind his decision. he’s not this evil, irrational entity like a lot of people are making him out to be. he made a decision that will likely save the network a lot of money. if lucci wants to point fingers maybe she should be pointing at herself. its no secret that she, along with some other veteran cast members (cameron mathison, rebecca budig, et al.), have renegotiated their contracts in recent years to receive larger salaries. maybe if the show was more cost effective, with lighter actor salaries (among other costs), the many people behind the show wouldn’t have lost their jobs. there were a lot of hands involved in the deaths amc and oltl, and ms. lucci’s holier than thou attitude doesn’t suit her well.
You’re wrong about that. Lucci took a pay cut and stayed with All My Children.
There may have been outside changes in society that made the environment more challenging for soaps. But it certainly didn’t help to have people who believed the genre was dying or dead running the ship. Yes, the audience was contracting, but there are still enough potential viewers for soaps to thrive. Having more Latino, black, Asian and gay characters might have helped.
Downtownla wrote: Having more Latino, black, Asian and gay characters might have helped.
Why? How? I guess the assumption is that if the show had more Latinos then Latino people themselves would start flocking to the show, as if having telenovelas on Univision, Telemundo, and Galavision. And if blacks wanted to see more soap operas and reality shows about themselves all they had to do was watch BET, VH-1, MTV and Bounce (starts September 26th, 2011). We all know that blacks didn’t support “Generations” when it was on the air, so there’s no reason to believe they’d come in huge numbers to watch a show where they were the token ethnic minority.
Asians don’t sit around watching soaps anyway; they’re too busy educating themselves and inventing useful products. And since they are only 2-3% of the American population, you would have had to have every Asian person in America watching AMC to even have a shot at maintaining decent ratings or even showing an increase.
You want to know why AMC was cancelled? You want to really, really, really know why? Because in 2011 AMC was still doing ridiculous story lines that should have gone out of style and fashion by the mid-80′s. Susan Lucci did an evil-twin story line this year, which is not only not unique to the format, it’s not even unique to the show. When AMC asks itself why it got cancelled, it needs to look in the mirror and it will find the answer.
What Susan had stated is true. Brian Frons has done great damage, and is it going to be unrepairable? If people will look at the picture as a whole, ABC is trying to be like cable networks, reality t.v., and this is not going to work. People are not as impressed with reality tv as Mr. Frons thinks. The Chew won’t make it 6 weeks. The companies that have admvertised on these iconic soaps ALL MY CHILDREN, AND ONE LIFE TO LIVE, are not going to by time on a very low rated shows,this is going to make ABC look like an ASS!THE REVOLUTION WON’T GET OFF OF THE GROUND. ONE LIFE TO LIVE IS HIGHLY RATED, AND RIGHT NOW IS NUMBER 3. Our country and families are under alot of stress, who wants to turn a tv on and look at cheap made, over rated, want a be actors, and actress. This is not tv, it is a joke. I applaude SUSAN LUCCI, AND ERIKA SLEZAK FOR STANDING UP FOR THEIR SHOWS, GOD BLESS ALL OF THOSE WHO HAVE WORKED ON THESE SHOWS, AND MAY SOMETHING CHANGE THESE WRONGFUL CANCELATIONS. I have monitored the internet, and I have never saw such a public out cry over these 2 iconic shows, but yet ABC STILL DOES NOT LISTEN. DON’T LEAVE ANN SWEENEY OUT OF THIS SHE IS A BIG PART OF IT ALSO. MR. FRONS, AND MISS. SWEENEY REMEMBER WHAT COMES AROUND GOES AROUND, AND WHAT GOES UNDER COMES OVER THANK YOU AND HAND IN ALL MY CHILDREN, AND ONE LIFE TO LIVE. TENNESSEE
Eric Dabbs wrote:“I applaude SUSAN LUCCI, AND ERIKA SLEZAK FOR STANDING UP FOR THEIR SHOWS”.
Yeah, it took a lot of courage for Susan Lucci to complain about the way Brian Frons handled All My Children 4 months after it had been cancelled and only has one or two weeks left on the air and she’s filmed all her episodes and picked up her last paycheck. The bravery just sends a tingle down my spine.
“…and I have never saw such a public out cry over these 2 iconic shows…
I agree. I haven’t seen any public outcry either, at all, over these two shows being cancelled. Other than the die-hard fan base of cackling hens and welfare queens, no one with a life and a job gives a spit about these cancellations.
Ever hear about contracts and publicly slamming your employer? Also, try to restrain your psychotic hatred of women because your mommy didn’t love you and no woman will look twice at you, but soap fans are a diverse group including college students, night shift workers and more. Even if they were solely “cackling hens” [is that rage-speak for housewives?] housewives are responsible for the bulk of household consumer purchases so they are far more valuable than bitter, worthless riff raff like yourself. And the new garbage shows are designed for the same demographic, yet you aren’t raging against them. You must not have a life or a job, because you sure do “give a spit,” actually sounds like you drool more than anything.
‘No woman will look at me twice’? I’m glad ’cause I ain’t no lesbian.
‘Psychotic hatred of women’? So I hate myself?
No wonder you can’t think; a steady diet of these mind-numbing shows such as AMC have completely dumbed-down an entire nation.
“I haven’t seen any public outcry either, at all, over these two shows being cancelled. Other than the die-hard fan base of cackling hens and welfare queens, no one with a life and a job gives a spit about these cancellations.”
I don’t consider myself a cackling hen and I have never been on welfare. I work full time and go to grad school part time. I have also been working for the “Save Our Soaps” movement. You may not have heard about a public outcry -but it is there. Our efforts have been publicized on quite a few networks (but not ABC), printed in magazines and even brought up on other shows. I take offense with your characterization of me as it is completely false.
CTWildheart wrote: I take offense with your characterization of me as it is completely false.
If what I said does not apply to you then there is no reason to be offended.
Amusing and ignorant comment. I am an educated woman with a busy, full life, a career, and a family – not a “cackling hen” or a “welfare queen”. I watch one television show for the most part, and it has been All My Children for the past 20 plus years. So, unless you know what you are talking about, please don’t speak.
I grew up watching AMC and OLTL. I looked forward to watching both of these shows on Soapnet after a long hard day at work and taking care of my elderly sick parents, a teenager and a husband. Please bring both shows back. These shows helped me escape from reality for a little while.
Chew on this: The Chew will be canceled within 6 mos of it’s debut. although boring, too, Rachel Ray is somewhat more entertaining.
Folks, ABC Daytime is a business. Frons didn’t kill the soap operas with bad decisions. Network television shares are lower everyday in prime time, in late night and yes, also in daytime. It’s not about the programs, its about the audience. The world has changed. So if you’re running a business and the revenue stream is dropping because there are less people in your available audience, you have no choice to reduce your expenses. Talk shows are cheaper than soap operas….period. Even if you cancel a talk show every year and replace it with another talk show….it’s cheaper. Stop holding on the an irrelevant past, don’t be delusional….accept the future.
Ok Mr. Frons, sure. LOL. The only delusional person, is YOU, and that’s evident with your ignorant decision to give the axe to historical shows with a dedicated audience in exchange for a news achor no one watches and a lame cooking show that wouldn’t even rival the worst shows on Cooking Channel or Food Network. Congrats though, I’m sure with the savings from reality and news programming instead of scripted television, you’ll get a nice big bonus this year. Just remember, you made your wealth off the backs of others losing their jobs and the audience hating you. Kudos!
It’s always interesting to watch soap fans accuse people who defend our free market economic system of actually being Frons. It proves how insular their world really is for them to believe that their issue is so important that it would cause Brian Frons to visit Deadline Hollywood and postr under an assumed name to defend himself from the 50 or less nitwits in this country that give a damn about this stupid show.
Gravity’s Silhouette, always interesting to see how you turn up to insult soap opera fans.
“Turn up”? I’m here every day. I have the first message posted over in the “Toldja: Sheryl Underwood joins The Talk” thread. Where are you? Do you have anything to say in the DH forums that doesn’t include soap operas?
I’m just trying to inject some common sense, ration, reasoning, and balance to the discussion; something that the braying ninnies and the cackling hens who populate these threads have no use for. Their p.o.v. is basically that, like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, ALL MY CHILDREN is a right and an entitlement and ABC should never stop giving it to them, no matter how broke ABC goes trying to make the show work, no matter how many resources ABC has to divert from other shows to keep this loss-leader afloat.
I’ve lost plenty of shows that never had 1/10th the staying power of AMC: Strangers With Candy, Arrested Development, Son of the Beach…you didn’t see me whinging on and on about how cruel and vindictive and stupid and ignorant and arrogant the network executives were who made the decision to cancel the shows. I didn’t come on these forums and blast people I’ve never met for trying to help their company stay afloat and earn a profit.
The soap fans on these boards are petty, thoughtless, and hyper-selfish. They’ve had 40+ years of AMC and yet it’s still not enough. They refuse to accept reality and they’re willing to cast aspersions against anyone who dares claim that these shows have lived on past their useful life. Soap fans should be hanging their heads in shame.
It’s true that reality TV, other genres, may be cheaper to produce. But when people claim Frons ruined the show and caused the cancellation, they are saying that his decisions led to ratings declines, etc., they are part of the reason the network can claim it makes more economic sense to cancel them.
I’m glad Susan is speaking out, but I am beginning to doubt that AMC and OLTL will ever even have an online premiere. No disrespect to Ms. Lucci, but why would you ask for a raise if they are matching your current salary? Most of the other actors probably won’t be so lucky. At least you could agree to come on board at current salary and then have option for more if the first year is successful.
It makes no sense to me that the actors would be trying to get more money out of a start-up operation. Oh well, I guess in the end it will be the fans who get screwed a second time.
Lucci told the truth and daytime costs aren’t rising. The fact is non union reality television is cheaper to produce and it is easier to break labor laws while filming it. Soaps are still profitable, especially when the are syndicated world wide like Bold and Beautiful. ABC reduced costs on AMC by 40% relocating it to Los Angeles. 3 million viewers and holding is better than most primtime series these days.
Susan Lucci was the heart and soul of that show and turned down many offers to stay with it, out of loyalty and integrity.
Two traits that are severly lacking in our Society Today. Mr. Frons and ABC and Disney promptly sent 600 employees to the unemployment line, without any regard for anything other than getting their bonus cash and keeping share holders happy! Maybe if everything wasn’t publicly traded and people wouldn’t try to invest money in lame stocks and save it, crap like this would stop happening.
You don’t send 600 people to the unemployment line for your own sheer greed and get away with it in this universe. KARMA.
I think a television show could be made that reflects the hysterical and ignorant reactions of “fans” such as yourself who pretend to know how much money is in ABC or Brian Frons bank account, or who want to lecture others on karma, or who like to pretend that they give a rat’s ass about those “600 workers” (admit it: you’d continue to watching every hour of ALL MY CHILDREN if it stayed on the air, even if they had to fire 590 of those people; you don’t give a rat’s crap about the fired workers), because THERE’S MORE DRAMA ON THESE MESSAGEBOARDS than anything that has been on these soaps for decades.
The other problem I see with you people is that you treat AMC like an entitlement program instead of the business that it is. You don’t have a right to be entertained and you don’t have a right to have AMC come on television. It’s a business pure and simple and now it is no longer economically viable.
And, finally, those 600 people who are being fired by ABC….should have known better and gone out and found other jobs. Anybody who was working on a soap opera should have used some common sense and seen the writing on the wall; this day has been coming for years. They took a gamble and lost. That’s life.
Well said, JR. ABC wants to avoid union costs and break labor laws.
Can’t wait for karma to come around.
Did I miss something here? The Chew and The Revolution aren’t hiring production staffs, talent, technical crew and stagehands??? Of course they are….or any by the way those shows are union too.
It’s the same thing that happens when primetime shows get cancelled. Some people lose their jobs and other people get hired. It’s a freelance business….that’s what we’re all used to. It’s just that the freelancers on the soaps forgot that part.
As an ad agency guy, She is right in one sense. Soap fans, are ‘real’ loyal brand buyers. Those couple million or so viewers were brand/product loyal to the core. Replacing the show with some ‘reality crap’ or ‘talk show crap’ might be cheaper to produce, but U get what U pay for, and the sponsors that advertise in that crap will get nothing. If ever there was a time for Netflix to produce their own programming this would be it.
Yes, Susan Lucci does make a good point about ABC alienating long-term and highly loyal viewers and consumers.
What do you mean about Netflix producing their own programming?