Breaking News: CBS to cancel ATWT after 54-year run

[Stanislav]

Scheduled to end in September 2010. Will leave just 6 network soaps still on the air. (And maybe five, as ABC is rumored to be considering axing One Life to Live.)

http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/12/08/breaking-cbs-cancels-as-the-world-turns/

 

[Gregg]

I wonder how soaps are able to justify themselves these days. Other than the biggest ratings grabbers, which I guess are Y & R and General Hospital, how can a one-hour daytime show employ fifteen or so fulltime cast members? They might not make prime time money but are certainly well into the six-figures. Then there are writers who also have to make six-figures, set designers, supporting cast members, extras, storage facilities for numerous sets and props, wardrobe, hair, make-up, etc. The expense of a soap adds up.

Compare that to how much it costs to put on Let's Make A Deal for an hour a day. （Never mind that it is a terrible game show, having no intelligence like Jeopardy or Millionaire and no real suspense like Deal or No Deal. Even Price Is Right requires you to use some strategy and knowledge of product prices. But that's another topic.)

Let's Make A Deal has the one set, fewer writers, only one host and a few models on screen. Most of the prizes are trade. OK, there is an added expense of audience and contestant prep and coordination but young people out of college do most of those jobs for $30,000, if that much. Does Wayne Brady earn more than Eric Braeden or Melody Thomas Scott? OK, I'm sure Drew Carey earns several million but he's keeping Price Is Right competitive with The View, a show with five hosts who earn, I assume, a million per year, maybe more for Whoopi. And for Barbara, the hosting paycheck is probably only a fraction of what she makes as the creator and main producer of The View.

I'm surprised we still have a dozen soaps but only TWO network-owned game shows. If soap operas weren't part of network schedules since the early days of radio, I doubt any TV network would start a "daytime drama" in this day and age.




Gregg
[email protected]

 

[bpatrick]

I wonder how soaps are able to justify themselves these days. Other than the biggest ratings grabbers, which I guess are Y & R and General Hospital, how can a one-hour daytime show employ fifteen or so fulltime cast members? They might not make prime time money but are certainly well into the six-figures. Then there are writers who also have to make six-figures, set designers, supporting cast members, extras, storage facilities for numerous sets and props, wardrobe, hair, make-up, etc. The expense of a soap adds up.

Compare that to how much it costs to put on Let's Make A Deal for an hour a day. （Never mind that it is a terrible game show, having no intelligence like Jeopardy or Millionaire and no real suspense like Deal or No Deal. Even Price Is Right requires you to use some strategy and knowledge of product prices. But that's another topic.)

Let's Make A Deal has the one set, fewer writers, only one host and a few models on screen. Most of the prizes are trade. OK, there is an added expense of audience and contestant prep and coordination but young people out of college do most of those jobs for $30,000, if that much. Does Wayne Brady earn more than Eric Braeden or Melody Thomas Scott? OK, I'm sure Drew Carey earns several million but he's keeping Price Is Right competitive with The View, a show with five hosts who earn, I assume, a million per year, maybe more for Whoopi. And for Barbara, the hosting paycheck is probably only a fraction of what she makes as the creator and main producer of The View.

I'm surprised we still have a dozen soaps but only TWO network-owned game shows. If soap operas weren't part of network schedules since the early days of radio, I doubt any TV network would start a "daytime drama" in this day and age.




Gregg
[email protected]

The top two soaps are "Young And The Restless" and "Bold And The Beautiful," although "General Hospital" and "Days Of Our Lives" enjoy strong demographics. And with the impending demise of "As The World Turns," we're down to six soaps (five, if ABC cancels "One Life To Live").

The problem is simply that the viewing audience isn't there anymore; the target audience is outside the home during the day. So the name of the game (no pun) is now cost-efficiency: game, talk, and court shows. And I firmly believe there will be a third game show on CBS's daytime schedule come next fall. It is getting harder to justify the salaries of soap superstars like Eric Braeden and Susan Lucci, but I doubt if Drew Carey is making the kind of salary Bob Barker made, so you begin to see why the trend away from soaps.

 

[Mike Stroud]

I wonder how soaps are able to justify themselves these days. Other than the biggest ratings grabbers, which I guess are Y & R and General Hospital, how can a one-hour daytime show employ fifteen or so fulltime cast members? They might not make prime time money but are certainly well into the six-figures. Then there are writers who also have to make six-figures, set designers, supporting cast members, extras, storage facilities for numerous sets and props, wardrobe, hair, make-up, etc. The expense of a soap adds up.

Compare that to how much it costs to put on Let's Make A Deal for an hour a day. （Never mind that it is a terrible game show, having no intelligence like Jeopardy or Millionaire and no real suspense like Deal or No Deal. Even Price Is Right requires you to use some strategy and knowledge of product prices. But that's another topic.)

Let's Make A Deal has the one set, fewer writers, only one host and a few models on screen. Most of the prizes are trade. OK, there is an added expense of audience and contestant prep and coordination but young people out of college do most of those jobs for $30,000, if that much. Does Wayne Brady earn more than Eric Braeden or Melody Thomas Scott? OK, I'm sure Drew Carey earns several million but he's keeping Price Is Right competitive with The View, a show with five hosts who earn, I assume, a million per year, maybe more for Whoopi. And for Barbara, the hosting paycheck is probably only a fraction of what she makes as the creator and main producer of The View.

I'm surprised we still have a dozen soaps but only TWO network-owned game shows. If soap operas weren't part of network schedules since the early days of radio, I doubt any TV network would start a "daytime drama" in this day and age.




Gregg
[email protected]

Gregg, you make good points from the standpoint of media criticism that LMAD is a lightweight game. But remember that the show endured almost constant barrages of attacks like that during its heyday with Monty Hall, and it ran for 14 years anyway. Like it or not, the current CBS incarnation is apparently clicking in the Nielsens, as an article in today's New York Times about the ATWT cancellation indicates: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/arts/television/09soap.html?hpw.

What shocks me in all of this is that game shows have even been considered worthy of revival in daytime, in the midst of the talk-and-scandal era that all else on daytime TV seems to represent. CBS' success with LMAD among younger women may be inadvertent--it is possible that a slightly older demographic might have been in mind, with a retro-nostalgia appeal drawing that group in. It's also possible that the networks, wanting to retain some figment of their past sterling reputations, don't want to dirty their nests with the gutter quality of the syndie shows. Whatever happens, we know that soap cancellation is simply the daytime parallel to the demise of scripted shows in primetime--for the exact same reason.

While on the subject, here's a bit of trivia for all of you. Listed below are all the daytime network soaps, according to their years on air:

As the World Turns--53 years
General Hospital--46 years
Days of Our Lives--44 years
One Life to Live--41 years
All My Children--39 years
Young and the Restless--36 years
Bold and the Beautiful--22 years

Consider the last one, which debuted in 1987. No show that has been launched since then has survived. That tells you something right there, that many networks execs consider the genre, regardless of the current ratings, a dinosaur.

 

[dave73]

I would like to see game shows make a comeback. Even with all the soap operas on in the 70's & 80's, there were plenty of game shows on all 3 networks. As soon as Oprah took off, talk shows became cheaper to make than game shows, and most game shows fell out of favor. Eventually, copycats were created to replace most game shows. Talk shows get average people with lots of drama to air, and almost never get paid to appear on their shows (other than plane tickets & hotel or motel arrangements paid for). Any game shows left were syndicated game shows, and only CBS making The Price Is Right. CBS has since added Let's Make A Deal. NBC has committed to an expanded Today show. I wonder if they'll try to squeeze another hour out of that show later on. I hope not. ABC hasn't committed to any game shows that I'm aware of, other than the occasional primetime Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. I have yet to see Fox get into game shows. I don't expect My Network & CW to get into game shows as they're barely getting off the ground.

So I believe if any additional game shows are made, I expect them to be first run syndicated, like Wheel of Fortune (syndicated version since 1984) & Jeopardy (also syndicated).

 

[mleach]

I don't expect My Network & CW to get into game shows as they're barely getting off the ground.

Actually My Network some years back did try to get into afternoon games shows, at least on some of their stations anyway with a 60 minute ( 90 minutes in some places ) of a trivia game involving cell phones and texting. Don't remember the title of this show but I remember it being Very BAD. IMO just an excuse for MY Network to show off their two co-hosts like "hey America we have a game show host who has a goatee !!!" Sort of like what MTV did years ago with Dan Cortese believing what America needed was a 24 year old cigar smoker. Like Dan Cortese, this My Network "text" game show is pretty much forgotten today.

 

[Stanislav]

I wonder how soaps are able to justify themselves these days. Other than the biggest ratings grabbers, which I guess are Y & R and General Hospital, how can a one-hour daytime show employ fifteen or so fulltime cast members? They might not make prime time money but are certainly well into the six-figures. Then there are writers who also have to make six-figures, set designers, supporting cast members, extras, storage facilities for numerous sets and props, wardrobe, hair, make-up, etc. The expense of a soap adds up.

IIRC, an article today claimed that ATWT costs $50 million a year to produce. That's a hell of a lot of red ink to cover when ratings are dropping and your audience is skewing 50+.

 

[DToTheJ]

I don't expect My Network & CW to get into game shows as they're barely getting off the ground.

Actually My Network some years back did try to get into afternoon games shows, at least on some of their stations anyway with a 60 minute ( 90 minutes in some places ) of a trivia game involving cell phones and texting. Don't remember the title of this show but I remember it being Very BAD.

It was a bad fad altogether; other networks like GSN even did it, albeit late at night. Don't blame MY for trying.

 

[searadiofreak]

I posted this on the "national" thread, but it probably is more relevant here. "As The World Turns" was the soap that was interrupted by Walter Cronkite with the words, "shots fired at President Kennedy's motorcade". It was voice-over only, as evidently, they could not warm up the cameras quickly enough for a live shot. I can't imagine the shock that viewers must have felt at that moment during ATWT, which the network went back to for awhile before putting Walter on live.

 

[ixnay]

"As The World Turns" was the soap that was interrupted by Walter Cronkite with the words, "shots fired at President Kennedy's motorcade".[ ... ] I can't imagine the shock that viewers must have felt at that moment during ATWT, which the network went back to for awhile before putting Walter on live.

With the exception of a few viewers, iykwim. JFK's domestic policy was by this time, er, controversial, so I've read. Not that I condone the deed, but I was only 2yo at the time and have no memory of that weekend.

ixnay

 

[azumanga]

I don't expect My Network & CW to get into game shows as they're barely getting off the ground.

Actually My Network some years back did try to get into afternoon games shows, at least on some of their stations anyway with a 60 minute ( 90 minutes in some places ) of a trivia game involving cell phones and texting. Don't remember the title of this show but I remember it being Very BAD.

It was a bad fad altogether; other networks like GSN even did it, albeit late at night. Don't blame MY for trying.

Actually, the show, "My Games Fever", wasn't seen on the full MNTV network -- only on its affiliates owned by Fox. It lasted only five months and was funded by the tax dollars of Florida residents (it was produced in Miami, where CBS owned the MNTV outlet there (WBFS)). It lasted five months, from December 2006 to April 2007. More here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_GamesFever

Despite being easy to produce and cheap to pay out, these phone-in quizzes generated alot of controversy, especially in Britian, where there were SEVERAL channels devoted to the format, including one owned by ITV. These quizzes generally dried up when the UK government began to investigate fraud accusations related to these shows. More here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiz_channel

 

[rickradio]

I have yet to see Fox get into game shows.

Isn't that Jeff Foxworthy show "5th Grader" on Fox?

Just curious, is green your favorite color, Dave?

 

[bpatrick]

I saw on CNN earlier today that a letter-writing campaign
is underway to get CBS to reconsider. I think we all know
how much chance that has--slim and none. P&G lost money
on both "ATWT" and "GL" for years; the demographics are not
what CBS (or any "for-women" cable channel) wants.

Personal note: I feel a bit sad because "ATWT" is the last
of the great soaps of my childhood. I was eight when "General
Hospital" started, nine when "Another World" debuted, ten when
"Days Of Our Lives" first ran its sands through the hourglass, and
thirteen at the start of "One Life To Live." But in the '60s, at least
in this part of the country, soaps meant the CBS block: "Love Of Life,"
"Search For Tomorrow," "Guiding Light," "As The World Turns," "Edge
Of Night," and "Secret Storm." I don't have to elaborate on why they
were canceled; we all know why. But I feel a piece of my life has come
to a close.