CHEAP CRAP: ABC Daytime's Replacement Shows to Cost Under $575,000 a Week
File this one under you get what you pay for. TV Guide is reporting The Chew and The Revolution, the two shows set to replace All My Children and One Life to Live respectively, will each cost "$575,000 a week or less" to produce, whereas AMC and OLTL cost between $750,000 to $1 million a week.
The article by Stephen Battaglio goes on to point out that CBS is reportedly making more money on The Talk, despite that show's ratings being lower than As The World Turns. Well of course they are! CBS owns The Talk, just like ABC owns their soaps. ABC will also own the two bargain basement replacement shows, however unlike The Talk, which actually boasts popular, ex-sitcom stars and recognizable faces. Most of us had to Google half the names of the hosts of The Chew and The Revolution.
Comparing the situation at ABC to CBS is apples to licensing fees, which Battaglio pointed out by citing that CBS renewed the Bell soaps at much lesser fees. Well isn't that the whole point of why ABC should have been better prepared for viewer erosion during the daytime? ABC doesn't have to pay licensing fees for AMC and OLTL, and hasn't for many decades. ABC Daytime Chief Brian Frons bragged about this factor when CBS gutted Guiding Light a few years back, so what gives?
Wouldn't it make more sense to transition AMC and OLTL to a more cost effective business model, as opposed to betting ABC's daytime lineups on two shows that are nowhere near ready for air, and will never inspire even a fraction of the loyalty and viewer engagement of soaps?
I'm sure ABC's response would be "We tried", but I am sorry, choosing to move AMC—which Julie Hanan Caruthers has had way over budget for years, according to sources, while a string of terrible writers creatively bankrupted it—to Los Angeles over OLTL, a soap which Frank Valentini reportedly keeps as much as $1 million under budget and has enjoyed more critical acclaim than any other daytime soap in recent years, was insane.
Can someone explain to my why Hanan Caruthers still has a job? After one so-so season, CBS is firing the showrunner of Blue Bloods, yet JHC has been cashing check after check while tanking a TV icon. No one in the mainstream press is talking about this factor though. Instead we're getting articles about how FarmVille killed soaps. Beats all I've seen and heard.
I sincerely doubt The Chew, a View-clone that will focuse on "all aspects of food" (Really, from the rooter to the tooter, or what?) is going to be even a fraction as entertaining as the template chatfest featuring pissed off women screeching across a table at one another. The View didn't get hot until it got political. What will Mario Batali do to spike ratings, start a heated discussion about gay rights or Libya while he waits for his canapes to cool?
As for The Revolution, that show is having to be completely retooled, because it sucked donkey balls, according to my sources. Instead of telling Frank Valentini, "Look man, I need you get the budget under $600,000 a week. I know it will be tough, but it is what it is," ABC is going to tear apart a show that is turning out stellar episodes and is Number 3 among women 18-49, for a show that wasn't good enough for the fall? I'm sad about AMC's fate, but what's being done to One Life to Live is flat out criminal.
Let's reflect again on the many, many failed reality/talk projects Brian Frons and Co.attempted to get off the ground at SOAPnet. There was Greg Behrendt's Wake-Up Call, originally developed for ABC's flagship channel, which smartly passed. Southern Belles: Louisville, Holidate, Bank of Mom and Date...need I go on? If the proof is in the pudding, Jell-O oughta boycott ABC next, because they're fresh out.
I don't care how many ways they try to spin it, I'll never be convinced it makes good business sense to allow Brian Frons to oversee the transition of ABC Daytime away from soaps to programming women are allegedly clamoring for more of. This is the man who was surprised by Kathy Brier's success on One Life to Live because she doesn't look like a Playboy Bunny. Guess what, neither do most American women. Now Frons wants to micromanage a weight loss reality show? Really?
We're talking about the guy who put amazing talents like Jackie Zeman, Leslie Charleson, Catherine Hickland and countless other veteran actresses out to pasture fo no other reason than they got older. I have a question for Frons: If actresses' freshness expires at the age of 50, what about executives? What's good for the goose oughta be good for the micromanager. I'd say Frons is well past his sell by date.
This is after all the same bozo who, when asked why he thought All My Children's lesbian storyline was doing better than Grey's Anatomy's a few years back, said to Broadcasting & Cable: "Our lesbians are cuter!" How can Anne Sweeney, in good conscience, allow a man who ok'd a stripper pole in an OFFICE setting for women executives on All My Children, to decide what women should watch on daytime, whether it's cheaper or not? Someone please tell me we're all being punked.
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Comments
14 January 2009
4 days 15 hours
Just proves even more that Frons needs to go, instead of the soaps.
12 February 2008
5 hours 13 min
I am praying that before the remaining 4 get killed, SOMEBODY has the balls to get at least one of them to cable. If it works, then we could possibly get another cheap cable soap...and another...and another.
21 June 2010
1 year 30 weeks
There are rumors going around that some good news will be announced soon. The AMC stars are tweeting about it....
Maybe Frons is gone?
14 January 2011
40 weeks 4 days
Even if Frons is gone Anne Sweeny is still the person who really pulled the trigger.
Rumors are flying that NBC might pick up OLTL and AMC.
Any truth to that?
1 July 2009
9 hours 15 min
ABC's getting exactly what they're paying for with these cheap replacements, I've heard the rumor about NBC picking them up, but I hate to say it I think it's a pipe dream!!
28 November 2008
2 weeks 6 days
I cannot see NBC picking up either soap. However, it would be such a nice surprise! OLTL seems to make the most sense..it is under budget and has a great writing/producing team..though AMC deserves to stay on the air as well.
Not one soap fan that I know thinks soaps are less expensive than reality shows/talk shows. This article just gives us an actual number to what we already knew. Loyal soap fans have proven they don't need lavish sets or location shoots to continue to watching soaps. While we may not like it, we do understand why soaps have opted to let big $$ stars go when they wouldn't take a pay cut.
There are other options for ABC than just cancelling AMC and OLTL. Decades ago, soap operas were 30 minutes, had a much smaller cast and not nearly the amount of the sets, and fans tuned in. I urge ABC to get back to the basics and continue to tell the stories of the AMC and OLTL families.
3 March 2009
21 weeks 3 days
this whole article reads like the five stages of grief.
first come denial, then come anger, then come bargaining, then comes depression and acceptance.
and it was mostly stuck on anger.
27 November 2009
1 year 9 weeks
I just don't get why they didn't give OLTL a trial year to see if things pick up. They could have easily moved the show to an after evening news time-slot and reduced its airtime down to an 1/2 hour four times a week. There were so many options, I guess I have to say it... Jamey, we are being punked!
22 October 2010
11 hours 24 min
Jlafferty - Im seeing maybe NBC is picking them uo. Oh lord, can you imagine??? That will shove it up abc's branicels.
17 March 2010
7 hours 45 min
Still not feeling the OLTL love. Are people so desperate for any sort of halfway decent soap that they praise something totally mediocre. I watched the Soapnet marathon, and yep, still don't care about it, though the lack of Todd was nice.
The new reality shows sound horrible.
5 July 2008
5 hours 52 min
All Chrishell Said Was She never rewtweeted the fire fronsII egg pic. All she can say is that she's heard the same rumors we all have
5 December 2010
38 weeks 14 hours
How could NBC pick them up? They're owned by ABC and aren't going to be shopped around to other networks. I can't imagine ABC would say "oh sure you can have our soaps so they can compete with the new crap we're putting on."
22 January 2008
7 hours 9 min
@PortofChuck. ABC told Entertainment Weekly they will sell All My Children and One Life to Live, but that they don't expect to get any buyers.
5 July 2008
5 hours 52 min
But I Dont See ABC Selling Em Cause If They Do & They Are Successful, ABC will Look More the idiots for canning them in the first place and they dont want to look worse than they do now.
3 March 2009
21 weeks 3 days
soap fans should start a pool and donate money to buy those shows.
then soaps fans can call the shot all the time.
23 July 2008
13 weeks 5 days
NBC's too busy picking itself up.
30 April 2009
7 hours 3 min
@met...damn right there is a lot of anger. These shows have been in existence for years and TPTB are lying and getting rewarded for it by the industry that is supposed to check them on these things (media).
Brass tacks...
- OLTL always made budget. If that were an issue, Frons could have cut their budget and based upon history, the show would have done it.
- AMC was always over budget...they could have fired JHC and hired someone that could manage a budget.
- TV lives and dies by ratings, at the same time acknowledging that the ratings system is outdated. Someone could be set for life if they created an alternative to Nielsen. Before the decision to cut was made, they could have easily done some research to really count the viewership. Decisions are made by data, and when decisions are made on unreliable data, there is always room to negotiate.
- Frons has made many silly public statements for which he should be fired, and it should make one ask...how can he do programming targeted at women given his statements.
People are mad as hell, but it doesn't remove the validity of our arguments. There are many things that aren't being addressed or discussed and they should be. Meanwhile, mainstream media is using a tag line that is incorrect by all accounts and dismissing millions of viewers. Its hard to force change when people don't understand or appreciate the reality of the situation. If they just don't want to be in the soap business...they can just say it. But they would rather blame the viewers. If the viewers respond to that, the execs have no one to blame but themselves.
12 February 2008
5 hours 13 min
If NBC or any other network buys these shows, I'll do drag for Pride...lol
12 February 2010
7 hours 22 min
Oh well.......
Nobody ever said that crap wasn't cheap!!!!
I don't care if it costs them $2 and the price of beer to make these shows. I won't be watching----not even out of curiosity!!!
5 July 2008
5 hours 52 min
I bet Frons will save on Danny Boome's Wardrobe On The Chew Having Him Do Shirtless Cooking. Now Thats what Females 18-49 wanna see in the afternoon, NOT
8 February 2010
39 min 42 sec
Brilliant post, Jamey G. You're right on as usual.
1 July 2009
9 hours 15 min
Don't tempt him, Appleridge!!!!
25 April 2011
2 years 3 weeks
The title of this article reflects some of its unnecessarily rude content. I had to force myself to continue reading the interesting details between the rude words expressed by the writer. No one should be forced to read such vile language when they are most interested in details they may not know.
If I had written such a article, my friends and relatives would be disappointed and surprised in what I had become as an adult. Please change your ways for the sake of a pleasant society. There is no time to be rude and reliant on speech enhancers. We are alive for a certain period of time and we must use our lives wisely to make ourselves, other living things, and our world or worlds better.
25 April 2011
2 years 2 days
BE REST ASSURED
THE NBC NETWORK IS GOING TO BUY
AMC and OLTL, everything is going to be just fine..
there will be changes Im sure .... but they are NOT cancelled!
17 April 2011
1 year 49 weeks
If NBC Universal buys the rights of AMC and OLTL, it will be for the purpose of airing the reruns and not to restart production. That would actually be a smart move on NBC Universal. They have many cable networks that fit into AMC and OLTL's audience. Also with the Comcast merger, they have even more. They will gain an audience and make money off of the reruns.
It's funny that older soaps like Capitol and Santa Barbara are still on the air overseas and do well, but the cable networks are unwilling to reair them in the US. Even Passions is being rerun in Canada. They used to do it in the 80s and 90s, why not now?
12 February 2008
5 hours 13 min
NBC does need positive PR like buying these shows, but it will never happen...
17 April 2011
1 year 49 weeks
I don't think NBC Universal will buy the rights, but it will be good PR and more money for them.
12 February 2008
5 hours 13 min
Is this SoapActor character a real soap actor? LOL
15 April 2011
2 years 3 weeks
Awesome article Jamey.
25 April 2011
2 years 2 days
hi guys
Im an actor yes, not on soaps, want to be .. so watching shows deflate is heart wrenching just as the fans see the shows deflate.. but why would NBC buy the shows to just run re-runs, that means the actors and crews would still be out of work, and the "fans" would see old shows.. so you are saying there is not a possibility for the shows to go on producing with NBC or another network ... I mean OPRAH spelled it out , but she is not the end all to be all .. RIGHT ?