New CBS Senior Daytime VP Named = Remaining Soaps Doomed?

[DToTheJ]

CBS recently assigned a new senior vice president for its daytime division, Angelica McDaniel, who was a driving force behind "The Talk," which replaced one of their two extinct soap opera properties. Given her soap-exempt background, does this spell bad news for CBS' two remaining soaps, "The Young And The Restless" and "The Bold And The Beautiful"?
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/480851-McDaniel_to_Oversee_CBS_Daytime.php

 

[Mediafrog+]

The soaps are probably safe for now. Y&R still pulls good numbers, and B&B is only 30 minutes, thus cheaper.

If B&B were to get the axe, the time would probably be returned to local stations for a hour-long noon newscast, or syndication.

Many of the Y&R stars are getting old. They will be replaced by younger and cheaper talent, which will keep the costs down.

What we'll see for now is strengthening what CBS already has. For instance, Let's Make A Deal needs to switch to HD production ASAP.

 

[imhomerjay]

What saves or dooms any genre is the bottom line, not whether some executive happened to have done this, that or the other thing in the past.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

The same thing is true for many of the actors on the Bold and The Beautiful. The actors who play Stephanie Forrester, Eric Forrester and Ridge Forrester are all over 65. These are three of the four remaining original actors from the show's 1987 debut. (The fourth, the actress who plays Brooke Logan, is in her 50s)

 

[azumanga]

Let's Make A Deal needs to switch to HD production ASAP.

Are there any network shows on the air today that's still not in HD, or at least in widescreen?

 

[SteveRichards]

Her job is pretty much going to be maintenance, making sure that "The Price Is Right," "The Young and the Restless," and "The Bold and the Beautiful" stay strong, and "The Talk" and "Let's Make a Deal" turn a nice little profit while not absolutely getting killed in the ratings.

If "The Bold and the Beautiful" would get cancelled (and I don't see that happening anytime soon), I don't see the slot being turned over to the affiliates, at least not at first. I remember several years ago when folks were speculating about the cancellation of "Guiding Light." Many people thought that time slot would get turned back to the affiliates. I argued then that the networks haven't historically given up on time periods that get a 99 percent clearance from affiliates, and CBS put "Let's Make a Deal" in the GL slot. To the best of my knowledge, B&B is cleared on every CBS affiliate (although KOTV in Tulsa delays it to 1:05AM). If B&B does get cancelled, look for another cheapo show to take its place.

 

[DToTheJ]

@Az: If you want to count ESPN as a network, they had been running "Jim Rome Is Burning" in standard def until Rome left to go to CBS Sports Network.

And of course, there's always GEICO commercials.

 

[Mario500]

Let's Make A Deal needs to switch to HD production ASAP.

Are there any network shows on the air today that's still not in HD, or at least in widescreen?

"Up to the Minute" (an early morning newscast) from CBS is still broadcast in standard definition. Unlike "Up to the Minute", "World News Now", an early morning newscast from ABC, is broadcast in high definition.

"Let's Make a Deal" does not need to switch to high-definition production. The producers of the program may choose that option later and a possible date for the first high-definition broadcast, but there is no need to switch.

(disclosure: I don't watch the current version of "Let's Make a Deal")

 

[bpatrick]

The same thing is true for many of the actors on the Bold and The Beautiful. The actors who play Stephanie Forrester, Eric Forrester and Ridge Forrester are all over 65. These are three of the four remaining original actors from the show's 1987 debut. (The fourth, the actress who plays Brooke Logan, is in her 50s)

Have to correct you on this one: Ronn Moss, who plays Ridge, was born in 1952, which would make him 60 this year.
Otherwise, you're on the mark: Susan Flannery (Stephanie) was born in 1943, John McCook (Eric) was born in 1945,
and Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke) was born in 1960.

 

[KERCAlum]

Well, there is precedent that would cause some to worry. In the early '70s, NBC brought in Lin Bolen as head of daytime programming. This was when shows like "Concentration" and "Jeopardy!" were in their heyday. But Bolen wanted fresh talent, new ideas, and shook things up at NBC. "Concentration" was cancelled in 1973; "Jeopardy!" was cancelled in 1975 (but "Wheel of Fortune" debuted in that timeslot the following week, so maybe Bolen should be thanked for something). This, in my mind, was the beginning of the end for game shows on network television, although it would take more than 20 years for them to disappear completely.

So if CBS brings in a new head of daytime programming, I wouldn't expect the status quo to sustain for a long time. Things tend to change in television quite rapidly.

 

[SteveRichards]

So if CBS brings in a new head of daytime programming, I wouldn't expect the status quo to sustain for a long time. Things tend to change in television quite rapidly.

If I'm not mistaken, up until the cancellation of "Guiding Light" in 2009, there had been no change to the CBS Daytime schedule since the late summer/fall of 1993 when CBS cancelled "Family Feud" and handed the time slot (10A/9C) back to the affiliates, which had been heavily preempted by the affiliates for years. That's 16 years without a change.

Back in the '70s when Bolen was heading NBC Daytime, the networks pretty much still had wall-to wall daytime schedules. The competition was more fierce and the networks were in an almost constant battle with affiliates to get shows cleared. Today's daytime network schedules have been trimmed down (especially NBC's), the time slots that were heavily preempted by affiliates have been given to the affiliates, and there simply aren't as many shows to deal with.

On the other hand, with the soaps slowly going away and being replaced by cheap game shows and lifestyle shows, we may now see more upheaval in network daytime (although I don't see that in at least the near future at CBS). If one game or lifestyle show doesn't work, they'll cancel it and put on another one...until the affiliates get frustrated and start to preempt and/or the nets just give up and surrender more time to the affiliates.

 

[bpatrick]

Well, there is precedent that would cause some to worry. In the early '70s, NBC brought in Lin Bolen as head of daytime programming. This was when shows like "Concentration" and "Jeopardy!" were in their heyday. But Bolen wanted fresh talent, new ideas, and shook things up at NBC. "Concentration" was cancelled in 1973; "Jeopardy!" was cancelled in 1975 (but "Wheel of Fortune" debuted in that timeslot the following week, so maybe Bolen should be thanked for something). This, in my mind, was the beginning of the end for game shows on network television, although it would take more than 20 years for them to disappear completely.

So if CBS brings in a new head of daytime programming, I wouldn't expect the status quo to sustain for a long time. Things tend to change in television quite rapidly.

"Wheel" and "High Rollers" were the only new Bolen-era games that had any longevity; CBS probably led the pack in popular game shows in the '70s, what with "Price Is Right," "Match Game," "Tattletales," "Gambit," and (until Bolen's "Celebrity Sweepstakes" knocked it off CBS) "Joker's Wild." ABC's main hits after 1975 were "Family Feud" and a show that started on CBS, "Pyramid." What really happened to game shows was demographics; in the '80s soaps were hot and skewing much younger than games. I would venture to say that the last successful new (as opposed to a revival) daytime network games were "Press Your Luck" and "Scrabble."

But in the '90s the soap audience began to go away, largely because of women being out in the workplace, but also because some of them became totally unwatchable (my favorite, "Guiding Light," wrote out so many audience favorites and introduced such far-fetched storylines as Reva's being cloned--something that might work on "Days Of Our Lives" but not on the more homey "GL"--that even its most loyal viewers began tuning out).

There was, of course, the big issue: money. P&G was losing money on "GL" and "ATWT." ABC apparently saw enough drop in profits for "All My Children" and "One Life To Live" to pink-slip them, and I still think "General Hospital" will go because of decreased clearances when Katie Couric's new show debuts in September. But "Y&R," "B&B," and "Days" still seem safe.

As far as the overall CBS daytime schedule is concerned, I'm not looking for any changes--just because a network hires a new daytime VP does not automatically mean the second coming of Lin Bolen.

 

[justpassingthough]

I agree that Y&R and B&B are probably both safe in the relatively near future. CBS has more stability to their line-up, both in the daytime and nightime, so they seem less likely to pull the plug. Its interesting in that you used to see promotion of the soaps during the nightime programming in past decades, but this is all but gone now.

I agree that GH may be toast over on ABC, though. There has been talk of trying something out of the norm like stripping it as a summer telenovela or airing it once weekly in primetime, but I think its safe to say the writing is on the wall and ABC's commitment to soaps was pretty much over when they announced the end of SoapNet.

 

[imhomerjay]

GH might have a slim chance if ABC decides The Revolution is a total loss, but even that is merely a delay of the inevitable.

Otherwise, without ABC's own stations--since the 3 pm ET hour is booked for Katie--GH is toast.