Brian Frons: "Serials For The Most Part Are Baby Boomer Programs"
ABC Daytime Serial Killer Brian Frons is giving more asinine quotes and ever-changing sound bites to the mainstream press. This time the not-so-true lies were afforded to USA Today in a special report on the changing of the guard during the daytime post-Oprah. Here's the latest way Frons dismissed the very programs that helped him leech his way to the top of a network division:
"It's change that's generational," says Brian Frons, daytime chief for ABC Television Group. "Serials for the most part are Baby Boomer programs, and as Boomers age out of the key selling demographic, we need to look at alternatives."
I wonder if when Frons got the call to talk to the newspaper if anyone on his woefully inept PR team bothered to read the report on the importance of not forgetting to market to Baby Boomers, published by USA Today just last fall? I'm guessing no. As to what younger viewers want, here's what Frons—who hasn't been in the 18-49 demo himself since I was wearing Dwayne Wayne flip glasses to middle school—had to say:
Younger viewers, he says, are "looking for an upbeat tone, they want entertaining relevance, more talk and reality than scripted drama. They're looking to us for shows that help improve their lives, rather than escape from their lives."
Yeah, because the guy who greenlit such gems at Bank of Mom and Dad knows sooo much about what Generation Next wants. Riddle me this, are not ABC primetime's hit shows Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice "serials"? Aren't those serials watched primarily by women 18-49? So, I guess young women only want their escapism at night, yet desire to be "informed" how to cook a tasty batch of duck balls by Mario Batali on The Chew during the daytime? Yeah, okay. Just so we're clear on the strategy I guess. GMAFB.
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Comments
1 January 2009
16 hours 45 min
The man is totally delusional!!!
12 February 2010
1 day 4 hours
I wish this bald-headed bastard would just stop talking!!!!
4 May 2009
2 hours 9 min
Oh God. Not more crap from this one...
25 February 2009
1 year 6 weeks
Good Lord. I don't even watch AMC or OLTL and this guy gets on my nerves! They need to fire him like they did Barbara Bloom. It would save them money anyway!
29 August 2010
9 weeks 8 hours
COSIGN!
LOL
1 February 2010
13 weeks 4 days
Yes, my 80-year-old grandmother and her sisters, who were the ones who got me watching soaps in the first place (and who, BTW, stopped watching years ago because they were awful) is totally a Baby Boomer. Jesus take the wheel!!!
12 February 2010
1 day 4 hours
GHFan4-now,
Where's a good muzzle when you need one???
29 August 2010
9 weeks 8 hours
agreed, alstonboy! heaven knows he needs one like no other! the fact that they continue to let him talk, and OFTEN, just boggles my mind!
19 April 2011
1 year 51 weeks
Okay, sir, we get it...you all want out of the soap business. At this point, just stop talking and let the viewers enjoy what is left of this genre. BTW, I too am one of the many that got hooked on soaps courtesy of my great-grandmother (who used to LISTEN to Guiding Light when it was on the radio), my grandmother and mom. I didn't give a tinkers damn about the teen set growing up. I was more interested in what the grown folks were up to because that's where the drama was at.
13 June 2009
1 year 34 weeks
Why is he STILL TALKING?
3 April 2011
46 weeks 4 days
Ugh. I'm so tired of his smug face. Frons has got a tenuous (at best) grip on reality. Serials are my favorite thing to watch and I'm a Millennial/Gen Y. How does ABC let him keep running his mouth? ABC PR should muzzle this ass hat pronto before he alienates all their viewers.
25 May 2011
1 year 25 weeks
OMG I can't stand him!!! I am 25 and have been watching soaps for 11 years now. I have NO NONE ZERO ZILCH interest in Mario Batali/The Chew. I already don't watch the view and don't care for talk shows. I don't turn on my TV to be informed; I turn it on to be entertained. I am your key demo saying that you Brian Frons SUCK!
11 April 2009
7 hours 24 min
Yeah, serials are only for baby boomers, which is why ABC is introducing 3 serials this year on primetime. It's also why ABC Family has 4 serials. And, of course, let's not even discuss the whole line up of the CW, Gossip Girl, 90210, etc., which are all serials!!
BTW, has the guy looked in a mirror lately? He's certainly not of Gen X, Y, or younger. He's definitely a baby boomer. Should he be shuffling off to the retirement based on his ageist thinking?
Really, I may not be a boomer but I certainly do know that they aren't sitting in rocking chairs. Most are active, vital, and have more money than younger folks.
27 December 2007
2 days 6 hours
My 50 year old baby sitter got me hooked on soaps when I was five or six...then I started watching Dark Shadows, and all that...
my new school peeps got me into True Blood, TVD, and Nikita...I think that generations turn other generations on to good programming (like a good book)...I use to watch reality shows when they first came out Next top model/Chef, ...still watch Hedi Klum/Timm Gun designer show..but eventually got bored with most of them...I tuned in to AI sometimes but I like stories even when I was new generation; I like multigenerational storytelling.
Were all his soapnet programs successful? One Tree Hill and the OC? He continues to showcase his disdain of his generation of television fans he's condescending and rude...I don't know about Madison Avenue but they seem to want to pimp the hell out of reality shows because they are cheaper to produce and they can make bigger bucks off them.so he wants to train the audience to like them I guess.
How come Nikita, and TVD True Blood are popular Twenty/Thirty somethings got me hooked on these eg the Borgias, Spartacus, Camelot ...Supernatural popular programs like The Good Wife, The Tudors, Gossip Girl not just Baby Boomers watch those programs.
They watch the hell out of Son of Anarchy and all that. . So all reality shows are successful about health and cooking? He "for the most part" is an idiot. I don't care what his research shows he's a liar so he'll say anything to pimp his cause.
18 February 2009
2 hours 50 min
I'm sure this is reassuring for the cast and crew of General Hospital to read from their boss.
5 May 2011
1 year 37 weeks
His logic is always idiotic. Yes, the publication, USA today just had an article about the buying power of baby boomers. ALSO, you could say the same for much of primetime: the days of Walter Cronkite are gone and the evening news is obsolete given these days of 24 hr news, YET we still have evening news shows, even with lower ratings than the bygone years. WHY? because even though they dont pull in as many people as before, they are STILL popular, still have millions of people who watch them. If you cancel everything that is not AS popular AS before--you really need to cut sitcoms loose. Nothing reaches the ratings of Seinfeld, of Mash, of Friends. Should we cut all the current sitcoms?
Frons, himself, does not like soaps. Period, simple. He just doesnt get their appeal no matter how much anyone explains it to him. He thinks entertainment for escape is gone? What the heck do you think is on most of primetime? Follow his logic: are all shows supposed to educate? For heavens sakes then, just turn on PBS. They do a heck of a good job at educating. I ask: IS ABC IN THE BUSINESS OF EDUCATING OR ENTERTAINING. Disney and ABC really need to answer that. If they answer "educate" then get rid of the dramas and sitcoms and just have informative shows.
If not, then GET RID OF THE IDIOT FRONS!!!
19 January 2011
1 year 44 weeks
BF is so diluted. I'm in my early 20s. Just go on tumblr and you'll see so many younger fans posting fanart and discussing shows like Doctor Who, Pretty Little Liars, TVD and Skins UK. Some posts get hundreds, if not thousands of notes. There's even quite a few soap ones as well. BF obviously isn't in touch with the ever changing fan outlets of expressing love for a show.
25 May 2011
2 weeks 1 day
Frons you are pompous. You are insulting every age group... my daughters are young and they do NOT want another reality show or self-help show or talk show or cooking show. They said that IF they were looking for UPBEAT TONES, it would be for sex and drugs and they would turn to MTV... for better eating tips and health... they read 'Cosmo' and 'Women's health'. Are you kidding Frons... I manage the largest sites for a primetime soap that is on its last season (season 9) and our demographics are 18-35!!! if you wanted to add an interesting show... it SHOULD have been a "fashion show" but that could have replaced Oprah, NOT the soaps.
You have miscalculated terribly and the worst part is that you don't know HOW to admit it, so NOW you're making the fans MORE pissed off and they (me included) will boycott everything ABC is throwing at us and we are recruiting more fans everyday... but you, Frons are losing miserably... Man-up and apologize and reinstate the shows.
13 December 2007
1 year 23 weeks
I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume his foot must taste like barbecued ribs, collard greens and cornbread because he can NOT remove it from his mouth.
25 May 2011
1 year 51 weeks
Is he really so out of touch that he thinks anyone younger than boomers will watch Katie Couric anyway?
31 March 2008
3 hours 2 min
I have it on good authority that Frons and his team are just laughing their asses off at all of us soap fans. They call us outrageous names, and totally bash the soap journalists and bloggers. And depending on your view, they are either smart by not commenting about what they think of us or cowards. Smart bc they don't publicly react like pro basketball players calling us gay slurs and such; or, coward bc they hide, lie and spin everything. They also have many of the actors scared to speak out bc they will likely be looking for jobs so they have to watch what they say. Pathetic.
16 August 2009
2 weeks 3 days
And yet, the age of the average television viewer tends to fall right into that baby boomer age range? And network television is added more serials to their fall primetime line-ups? Whatever Frons
I'll go out on a limb and say it's not so much that soaps are dying than it is that NETWORK television is dying. The networks, when you really think about it, have never been primarily concerned with quality programming. The whole thing has always revolved around advertising dollars. Quality shows have always been a means to an end. Good execs of the past understood the connection between good shows and the money, but the content always played second fiddle to eyeballs for the sake of ad money. These networks are scrambling to survive when, in reality, people would rather pay to see quality television on cable than be pandered to for a bunch of commercials. The old network model is failing and ABC (like the other networks) are scrambling to showcase a bunch of "me-too" and "also ran" shows that people are already watching on cable. Other than Y&R, I only watch my local network affliate for local news. I pretty much only watch cable. Nevermind the doomsday clock for soaps, I'm watching for ABC's death knell.
17 March 2009
1 year 27 weeks
"They're looking to us for shows that help improve their lives, rather than escape from their lives."
GURL NO.
I watch shows to ESCAPE MY DAMN LIVE. I don't want to improve it. I want to sit down, watch some good stories and forget for an hour who I am and what I have to deal with.
SIT DOWN FRONS.
SIITTT DOWNNN and gettt outtt!
18 April 2011
44 weeks 5 days
Stop embarrassing yourself Frons and what is left of ABC. You know nothing about the younger viewers. You haven't taken the time to know your dedicated soap viewers and how this is affecting so many lives. With all the realty you are pushing you have No realty in your words.
3 November 2009
1 year 30 weeks
I don't know why I continue to read quotes made by this ignorant man...it just infuriates me! he is a myopic moron who wouldn't know a good idea is it bit him on his huge ass!
The idea I keep coming back to is why why WHY are dvr/internet viewers not included in their "research"?? There was an article last week (I believe it was on tvline.com) about how DVR viewing numbers are what helped a certain show stay on. Why isn't ABC using thisinfo????
Oh, I know....because they are all blinded by their need to "improve" lives
15 April 2011
5 days 13 hours
Restless Vixen, you nailed it.
And I would add that Mr. Frons is doing his own network a disservice by alienating the boomers. They have more money and spend more than younger viewers.
13 November 2009
5 weeks 4 days
Shut the hell up Brian Frons You got your wish you're getting out of the soap business. So please shut up and don't talk please. By the way Frons you think the younger Generation wants to watch shows about food and weight loos. You got to be kidding me right ?
No one is going to watch The Chew ? or The Revolution it's not game changing as Jamey mentioned. Game Changing would be something us soap fans will give a chance. But were not going to watch this mess at all. He is gutting for GH now I wouldn't be shocked if it was canceled by December 2011. However Soaps our not just for baby boomers some of them have turned it off. Actually I hated soaps as a young kid until my mom got me watching Days when I was 7 . Now I am 21 years old I am definitely not a baby boomer. Either is my mother she is young as well.
Soaps overseas that go there are't afraid challenging their viewers also shows such as Coronation Street and Eastenders get 7 to 10 million viewers a week in England. Their thirty minuets long and have plenty of vets and newbies as well.
Yeah Brian Frons Soaps aren't watched by baby boomers their watched by the younger generation as well.
21 June 2010
1 year 30 weeks
Is this guy serious?
A long time family friend has two daughters, 17 and 19, and they love watching soaps with their mom. They told me "Yeah, sometimes they are silly, but I love the Drama" Young people watch soaps too!! I am in the 18-49 category along with my sister and alot of my friends, Brian Frons is an idiot!
25 May 2011
27 weeks 22 hours
This jackass needs to shutup now. The next headline that I want too see with his picture is "Brian Frons fired".
11 March 2010
15 weeks 1 day
I wish he would stop telling us what he thinks we want and start listening to what we want.