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New Daytime Soap Opera at CBS In Development

Glad to see Tunie cast I was a big fan of hers from both her ATWT and L&O SVU days.

Still interested in seeing how this shakes out.
AbrahamJSimpson said:
The “TV Show Cancellation” thread on this board already has its headline now. Just bookmark it and come back to this.
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It’s definitely got @only1moore witticisms written all over it 🤣
 
Interestingly most of the comments seem to be about scheduling. I have to believe CBS will super promote their new product and it will be sampled by people who like soaps. If it rings a bell with them, they'll watch it no matter when it runs on air via DVR. My question is why CBS is going to the expense of a soap. It has to be a half zillion dollars more expensive to produce than a game show, talk show, or anything else to fill the time. Yes they are doing it in less expensive Atlanta, but still it has to be expensive to produce a show like this. Writers have to turn out a lot of pages per week. Actors have to be cast. Since a soap is on daily, the actors will have to live near the production facility, which means New York/LA actors are not likely to want to be part of it. They may find some excellent new talent, or maybe not, but it will be interesting to see if it can pay for itself. I can't say I watch much daytime TV, but I wonder if the sponsorships will be there to support this. It will be interesting to see if it will be around more than a year. If so, it just might start a new trend. I have my doubts, but if they have a halfway decent storyline and good writers, it might be more interesting than another batch ofgame shows and talk shows. Stay tuned.
 
Hyrum said:
Since a soap is on daily, the actors will have to live near the production facility, which means New York/LA actors are not likely to want to be part of it
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Of the 3 actors announced so far, one is based in NYC and I believe one is based in LA (not sure about the 3rd actor). They will probably get small apartments to live in Atlanta while flying home once a month or so. These days most soaps film the equivalent of more than one episode daily so they might only tape 4 days/week or 3 out of 4 weeks a month.
 
Hyrum said:
can't say I watch much daytime TV, but I wonder if the sponsorships will be there to support this. It will be interesting to see if it will be around more than a year. If so, it just might start a new trend. I have my doubts, but if they have a halfway de
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As Proctor & Gamble is one of the producers (as they were on now cancelled shows like As The World Turns and Another World) they will probably be one of the main sponsors.
 
Hyrum said:
My question is why CBS is going to the expense of a soap. It has to be a half zillion dollars more expensive to produce than a game show, talk show, or anything else to fill the time. Yes they are doing it in less expensive Atlanta, but still it has to be expensive to produce a show like this.
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You are correct, it’s very expensive. But I’m sure the bean counters at CBS know how much revenue Y&R and B&B bring in and they have very good cost projections for this show so they’ve already figured out how much profit they can make and how long it will take to achieve their projections. They also know the very few audiences are as loyal as daytime soap fans who will make an effort to watch, stream or DVR. The other daytime programming doesn’t have that type of loyalty.
 
CBS may need to promote pretty heavily because of the timeslot, which apparently is going to be 2/1. Problem: General Hospital is on ABC at the same time except in the o&o cities and San Antonio. Beyond the Gates may get a decent sampling in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham (weak CBS affiliate there, though), San Antonio, and I'm not sure about Fresno. However, there is a precedent working against it: the last soap to feature predominantly black characters, Generations, went belly-up against Y&R.

It's going to be extemely important for Beyond the Gates to have good scripts and good acting. The cast looks promising; now, can the writers deliver?
 
bpatrick said:
CBS may need to promote pretty heavily because of the timeslot, which apparently is going to be 2/1. Problem: General Hospital is on ABC at the same time except in the o&o cities and San Antonio. Beyond the Gates may get a decent sampling in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham (weak CBS affiliate there, though), San Antonio, and I'm not sure about Fresno. However, there is a precedent working against it: the last soap to feature predominantly black characters, Generations, went belly-up against Y&R.

It's going to be extemely important for Beyond the Gates to have good scripts and good acting. The cast looks promising; now, can the writers deliver?
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GH’s current numbers lately are worse than Days before it got sent off to Peacock…That said there’s at least a lot of familiar daytime talent slowly building up around this. The creator Michelle Val Jean of course has been writing soaps since being hired as a young writer on Generations in various positions so of course she’s seen it all.

I think the thing to remember is that every soap goes through growing pains and Beyond the Gates probably won't be any exception. Like I've said before, unless this show does something really heinous at the start and portrays African-Americans in the worst possible light - which I doubt could happen, given the parties involved - I'll cut the show some slack as it works out the kinks.

(Remember how Passions got off on the wrong foot with the Princess Diana garbage?)

Most new soaps need at least 3-6 months, or hell, even a full year (or more) to really "find" themselves. Some never do (Loving), or some only do when a steady hand comes in, but ultimately its too late (like Generations when Jorn Winther came in to Executive Producer Sally Sussman Morina's lackluster material).

Also to go back to @Hyrum comment, well these days syndication here in 2024 syndication is EXPENSIVE as heck. It’s why so many stations are slowly filling up their schedules with newscasts or airing some local fluffy newsmagazine instead because it’s cheaper to air than syndicated content that no one cares about and isn’t beneficial at all. Network programming was once looked at as a loss leader for affiliates, now affiliates are looking desperately to the network for content to fill and a continuing daytime soap fills that build along with the advertising.
 
I would say closer to 18 months to get traction; Bold and the Beautiful took about that long as it was trying out storylines that didn't work (Eric's relationship with his former flame, Beth Logan; the Ridge/Brooke/Caroline triangle. And if you want to go ;way back, Dark Shadows didn't become must-see-TV for kids and teenagers until they introduced Barnabas and explained how he became a vampire, and)) As the World Turns didn't get to number one until Lisa (Eileen Fulton) was introduced, and that was two years after the show started.

So I won't disagree with you; there are bound to be some kinks at first. I am saying this is like a sports event: going in, GH is still the favorite to win the timeslot, but who knows how the underdog (Beyond the Gates) will do? One note I should have mentioned: in those cities I listed, the two shows will not be head-to-head; GH is delayed to 3/2 on the ABC o&os (we get GH at 3 on WTVD) and I'm not sure if it's on at 2 PM or 3 in San Antonio (Beyond the Gates should be on at 1 on KENS).

And I wouldn't be unhappy if stations began looking to the networks again for daytime fare; if I never see Judge Judy or any of her ilk again it will be too soon.
 
bpatrick said:
One note I should have mentioned: in those cities I listed, the two shows will not be head-to-head;
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The ABC O&O’s where there will not be direct competition, although small in number of stations, comprise a huge potential audience in major markets.

One thing we don’t know that the networks do is how much daytime sosp viewing is actually live vs. on demand, DVR and streaming. So the head to head competition might be less important than speculated.
 
Yikes! The 2023-24 OTA season average ratings for GH are showing a nearly 27% drop in viewers compared to to the 2022-23 season. Not good! Average age of a GH viewer is 68.4 years old. Not good! Wouldn't be surprised if GH is moved to streaming only on Disney+.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Generations is wholly irrelevant.
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Totally disagree because of the circumstances here.

Michelle Val Jean, the creator and soon to be producer/head writer of Beyond the Gates actually got her writing career started on that show. After Generations was canceled she moved over to Santa Barbara, which of course also met a dismal fate. After that she got picked up by General Hospital as a writer and held various positions there, and later joined Bold and the Beautiful and here we are today in 2024.

So MVJ has seen the industry through the ups and downs of the last 35 years.

Generations was a text book example of a short lived soap that was doomed from the start. Obviously a bad time-slot, but also an example of even a protege failing. Sally Sussman Morina had written for Y&R for years before creating Generations and has had a mixed track record ever since her writing and producer duties since.
 
No viewer whatsoever is going to watch or not watch a show in 2024 because of some failed show on NBC decades ago. It’s not a blip on anyone’s radar. They don’t care who starred, who wrote or who produced it. The industry fanboys want to make some kind of link that doesn’t exist. It’s nearly four decades later and the world is different. The audience is different.
 
Pepperidge farm remembers 😏

And so does a majority of die hard soap fandom.

It may be easy to dismiss on the outside looking in, but hey that’s why this thread has been dissecting the creation of Beyond the Gates since it was announced:

boards.soapoperanetwork.com

Beyond The Gates: New Daytime Soap Premiering early 2025 on CBS

Please register in order to view this content New Details Announced (TL; DR) - September 19, 2024: "The Gates" is now called "Beyond The Gates." Key Art/Logo for "Beyond The Gates" released. Soap alums Tamara Tunie ("As The World Turns"), Daphnee Duplaix ("One Life to Live," "Passions") and Karla...
boards.soapoperanetwork.com boards.soapoperanetwork.com
 
I’d think whatever buzz there might be linking this to Generations could only help, not hurt. For soap fanatics I think there is enough respect for MVJ and the casting announcements so far that people will tune in. Getting them to continue to tune in is the trick.
 
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