I'm not surprised; If you get Ellen Wheeler heaven help you guys, and the other GL writers. The slayers are out for blood.

That don't even make sense.

Beginning of the end kids...

That sounds bad, but if it is a legitimate way for them to save money and to do so without affecting show quality and ultimately helps them keep the shows(OLTL) on the air, then it is a solution that I would be willing to live with.

I'd be totally okay with this as long as it keeps all 3 shows on the air, even for a little longer.

I also think if they are going to air classic examples, they should air some hallmark episodes...not just episodes that promote key couples.

But this is totally okay by me. It might even force the writers to streamline some of the stories and jam more into the episodes they actually air.

I don't know what to think about this. On one hand it could help keep ABC soaps on longer than predicted, but on the other hand they would have to get rid of some of the cast to make it work and that would piss off a majority of the audience.

So, we will have to watch Sonny shoot Dante again and again and again..........................

I am for anything that saves soaps as bad as it is. I wish that CBS & P&G would've given this deal to ATWT and GL. This isn't common as Australian soaps take a hiatus in December and come back in January. Some soaps in the UK come on 3 days a week, which I would support our soaps of doing if it meant them remaining on air, saving money, and keeping that nice "soap" look to them (cannot do the "shaky cams" no more). The showing of old episodes could also be good for newer fans can watch older episode to learn the history. But that is my take on it...

Beats being cancelled and having nothing air.

That´s not bad decision at all. There is a lot of daytime soaps around the world which don´t air on summer vacation and christmas and it doesn´t hurt them. And judging from the ratings the summer is already dead for soaps. It used to be time when young viewers could be attracted but nobody from that group watches TV during day nowadays. They DVR or download even primetime shows, let alone daytime. So business way it makes a lot of sense.

I wonder if DAYS will follow the trend. They already put most of stories on hold during summer knowing very few still watches. And it certainly would help them, as they are now taping 50 weeks of shows just in 35 or so weeks which is crazy. It would also helped the writers, as they could have some calm preparation time for longterm planning and the shows could work more around the seasons, making storylines more compact and introducing something resembling a season finale.

It could work quite well for the shows.

Hmm. Well I hope all the workers have other side projects going on or they will be severely screwed financially.

Other than that, I welcome this idea. I always thought soaps running 365 (minus a few holidays and preemption's) days a year was too much.

I agree if this means keeping all 3 soaps on air I would be all for it, but the casts would have to get a lot of side projects. My only thing is that would this mean cutting the cast on these shows.

If it keeps all three shows on the air I have no problem with it.. Mind you the actors might have a problem if they have to take a pay cut... I hope if they do show classic episodes they are much older and show some the history of each show!

It's only 6 or 7 episodes per show, or once every other month. If it keeps the shows on the air, I'm OK with that. And the actors, directors, etc. better be, too... or else they could be out of jobs COMPLETELY.

Look at what they've done to CBS soaps, they have downsized and dumbzied them so much. Is this what's in store for ABC? Haven't they've already cut cost? Moving AMC to LA.

20 episodes a year essentially means cutting four weeks of new programming. It's not an entirely bad idea, especially if some of the cuts come at times when ratings are already expected to be lower, like the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year holidays. The problem that I have with it is that the network's idea of the couples they want to showcase/promote aren't necessarily going to be the couples that I want to see. AMC is currently clearly pushing towards Greenlee/Ryan, Part 10,596, which is the last thing that I want to see. Same for Rex/Gigi on OLTL. Same for any coupling at all on GH that involves Carly, Sonny, or Jason in any way, shape, or form. If I'm going to watch repeat episodes, I'd rather watch classic episodes like the marathons that Soapnet used to show back in the days when it was actually about soaps.

It's 20 episodes per year, per soap.
 

What about cutting them down to an half hour, would that cut cost, but would people be up for that? B&B been an half hour soap, but sometimes feel like watching it an hour. They were once wanting to make it an hour but not with all the cost slashing they are doing now.

I think it could work, but I hope they don't have all three soaps air classic episodes at the same time. AMC should air classic eps while OLTL and GH air new eps, GH should air classic eps while OLTL and AMC air new episodes, and OLTL should air classic episodes while GH and AMC air new eps. A week with three hours of repeats would do more damage than good.

As much as I wish this was done in the best interest of soaps. I think its ABC's way of getting us used to non soap programming. Think about it 20 days of each soap is going to be filled with basically a rerun, they will see how well the ratings do on those reruns if they do just as well as the current soaps that have new episodes they have a clear reason to cancel the soaps that are on now. They can say look its cheaper to run soap reruns and get the same ratings than to pay all of these people to put new episodes on and get the same result.

Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want.

If it keeps all 3 soaps on air, great! Guess this is what happens when SoapNet becomes Disney Jr.

to help Save DAys of our lives i hope they go this route cutting 20 episodes a year. everyone needs a break so im all for this...id even be willing to let the shows go to 1/2 hour to be able to save them.giving most shows 60 mins they seem to drag things out the entire hour.

The ratings could increase if they show truly classic, memorable episodes from the 80s and 90s. But if they're simply showing repeats of episodes that aired a few months ago (like they currently do on the holidays), the ratings will probably suffer.

This is ABCD version of P&G canceling ATWT & GL. It's all about stalling the inevitable. I bet these "classic" reairings (possibly except for GH given the HBIC's return) will unfortunately be from last decade. Sigh. I do have hope that the holiday episodes are truly classics reruns.

BYE BYE ABC SOAPS!

We are being manipulated, trained as it were a la Frons. There have to be other means of saving money than reshowing some of the worst examples of GH storytelling some 20 days a year. I don't see or hear about the suits at ABC daytime taking a salary hit to help the network. An across the board 5% pay cut would save millions and millions. Teachers and state employees are asked to do it, why can't the execs give up some of their salaries too?

I think I would almost prefer that the show not be on for a month, a hiatus, that I can prepare myself for well in advance. Of course, the local affiliates will then fill those hours with those gawd-awful, cheap reality garbage shows.

Does anyone know if viewers who DVR the show to watch later, or watch online, or on SoapNet are counted in the viewer numbers?

This doesn't surprise me, especially in light of the announcement we got a little while back about Soapnet's demise. ABC (and most people) see soaps as a dying industry. As someone who grew up watching soaps and is in that coveted 18-34 demo, this makes me sad, but I've also come to accept it. But I do think ABC has made some poor decisions over the past decade that have sped up the demise of their soaps (like doing expensive stunt casting when they don't even use half their expensive bloated casts).

Also, note to ABC. Classic episodes are not episodes from 6 months ago. If you're going to show classic episodes, I want to see a good mix of stuff from the 80s, 90s and 2000s. I don't want to see Sonny shooting Dante over and over again.

Did anyone watch the "classic episodes" played on July 5th? I most definitely did not and I don't think many other people did either! The same three episodes were already rerun once or twice before and I felt no desire to watch Sonny shoot Dante for the fourth or fifth time! Maybe soaps should be on Mondays-Thursdays including holidays? That would save them 52 episodes a year. Whatever they decide either ABC wants all three soaps and should act like it or it doesn't so this is ridiculous! I wish they would make up their minds already!!!

I can live with this, as long as I don't have to lose AMC or GH anytime soon. There has been enough bloodshed over the past few years where soaps are concerned.

RIP, GL and ATWT!!!!!

(Sniffle, sniffle!) ( ( ( ( Sorry, nostalgia kicking in!!!

I'd rather see the writing improve (give the loyal viewers what THEY want, not what some tree-peeing executive thinks we need-HINT HINT).