Boy oh boy, those ABC Daytimers really need to get better firewalls! Once again someone working for the lineup has allegedly been hacked on Twitter. Following our decision to post the tweet from Live With Regis and Kelly publicist/producer Brittany Forgione's personal account allegedly stating how happy she was that the soaps were over, Forgione's boss, Barbara Warren, vice-president of publicity for the talk show, contacted us saying Forgione had been hacked and demanded we remove the post. First off, no one can "demand" anything from us, because we don't work for Disney or ABC. Now that we've gotten that out of the way... READ MORE

 

Chew on this news, Soap Slayers. While ABC Daytime's The Chew might have matched All My Children's most recent numbers on Monday, sources tell Daytime Confidential NBC Daytime's Days of Our Lives also had an impressive turnout for that sudser's much-heralded "reboot" on Monday. READ MORE

 

This isn't a good sign for our remaining sudsers. ABC Daytime's cheapo replacement for All My Children, The Chew, premiered to 2.5 million viewers, or basically about the same number of people who watched AMC during the most recent rating's cycle (Sept. 12-16). READ MORE

 

I wonder why Les Moonves and Brian Frons don't just whip out their wee-diddles and measure 'em? It would certainly make more sense than all the head scratching moves that have taken place on the CBS and ABC Daytime lineups in recent years.

According to EW.com, All My Children leading men Michael E. Knight, Ricky Paull Goldin and Jacob Young will be appearing on The Talk the week of Sept. 26 as part of an "All My Meals" segment. The gents will discuss what Pine Valley meant to them, while cooking and carrying on with the ever-revolving cast of The Talk. No, this isn't one of my spoof posts, according to EW it's the real deal! 
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This brings a twinkle to my eye. I heard back from several industry peeps who attended the Television Critics Association (TCA) panel for ABC's upcoming talk show/reality series/food fight The Chew and from what I can gather the show (set to replace long-running soap opera All My Children on Sept. 26) gave the journos a bad case of the runs.  

For starters, executive producer Gordon Elliott reportedly dominated the panel session, barely allowing the show's actual co-hosts (Daphne Oz, Carla Hall and Clinton Kelly attended) a chance to chew the fat. What, is the Mouse House that lacking in confidence of this gang of foodies and lifestyle experts to sell this sucker? This particular factoid was confirmed by Variety's Andrew Wallenstein for the industry bible's On The Air blog.

Now for the main course: I hear ABC Daytime Chief Brian Frons was basically guarded from the press by PR executive Jori Petersen for most of the session. I guess Deadline asked her to recite her multiplication table, or managed to confound her in some other way, long enough to get this interview with Fronsie. Here's a completely out-of-touch snippet from the Soap Slayer:

 "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." READ MORE

ABC Daytime won't even be waiting until Erica Kane and Co. are lukewarm in their television grave before premiering the long-running All My Children's replacement. According to Zap2it, The Chew will premiere Monday, Sept. 26, just three days after AMC's rumored two-hour send-off! 

The grub-themed talk show dedicated to "celebrating and exploring life through food," (Why don't they just call it The Chronicles of Gluttony and be done with it?) will star Mario Batali, Michael Symon, Carla Hall (Top Chef), Clinton Kelly (What Not To Wear) and Dr Oz's daughter Daphne Oz. Yeah, because a foodie/lifestyle show is so unique and thus certainly capable of becoming Appointment TV.  READ MORE