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Yearly Guiding Light Cancellation Rumor

B

briancraig

When citing the Days example, the TV Guide article doesn't exactly inspire great confidence that GL has anything approaching a long life ahead. Days bought a year and a half, with no one really expecting it will see another renewal; if GL gets another year, it's most likely because they haven't found a good alternative yet...but we're talking sooner rather than later, by a long shot.

As for the assertion that one person has the cancellation on their head, it's patently absurd. The reason for the change in style was precisely because it was mired in last place. The change didn't work, but the article would make it appear as though the show wasn't on its last legs already. They simply faced a choice between doing nothing and being assured of failure or trying something radical and at least taking that shot. It's too easy to lambaste someone for taking a risk once you have the advantage of 20/20 hindsight.
 
Interesting question will be whether the replacement show(s) will be considered 3 pm programs (despite those major stations long-ago shoving GL to the morning), or if they'll give up the dual-slot concept and let the stations move what they have at 10 am ET to 3 ET (for those still following the afternoon schedule) and try to focus on the new programming on the morning audience. I'm not buying the idea that games are being given serious consideration, but it would be interesting to see that two-hour block re-formed as a result of GL's demise.

Some kind of lifestyle talk show seems more practical, though I'd love to see the once-rumored revival of Joker's Wild get a chance at half of the open time.
 
Will the GL actors find happiness? Will CBS find ratings success? For the answers to these and other questions, tune it tomorrow.....
 
CBS will keep the hour for a game or talk show...but if the stations had that 'hour' at different times, it may make it tough for any program to survive. Not everyone has a dvr.

P and G says they will shop the show around. Don't be surprised if they end up going first run on Soapnet.
 
CBS should follow what ABC and NBC did when they abandoned their recent soaps, and turn the time over to affiliates. It would be better than affiliates scheduling a network show all over the map (in terms of different times). It would save CBS more money then having to produce something.
 
1069_KIFR said:
CBS should move Letterman to that slot. That would beat NBC to the punch of having Leno on at 10PM nightly!
Click to expand...

Way to think outside the box!

Would it be out of the question for CBS to start airing "Dr. Phil" as a daily program across their network? CBS does co-produce the show - but it's probably a lucrative one for them at that, so I guess if it ain't broke...
 
More about canceling Guiding Light later...

DVRed CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and she didn't even mention GL going off the air. She was in London covering the G-20 summit and had an interview with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. I still think she (and the news/entertainment dept) could have spend 90 seconds announcing GL's demise and showing some clips.
 
brian4 said:
More about canceling Guiding Light later...

DVRed CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and she didn't even mention GL going off the air. She was in London covering the G-20 summit and had an interview with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. I still think she (and the news/entertainment dept) could have spend 90 seconds announcing GL's demise and showing some clips.
Click to expand...

The CBS Radio news last evening did have an item about GL's cancellation--which is where I first learned about it (and despite not being a soap fan and with all the rumors of its demise the last several years, I was still at a loss of words when I learned about CBS's decision).
 
Tim, I've never been clear on this: is/was Springfield, IL
the town where "GL" took place? :)

As I said on the Classic TV board, this is really no surprise;
"GL" and "As The World Turns" have been losing money for
P&G for years, and the soap audience really isn't there anymore.
On top of that "GL"'s ratings have sometimes been below 1.

Any chance that "Bold And The Beautiful" goes to an hour now?
 
DToTheJ said:
1069_KIFR said:
CBS should move Letterman to that slot. That would beat NBC to the punch of having Leno on at 10PM nightly!
Click to expand...

Way to think outside the box!

Would it be out of the question for CBS to start airing "Dr. Phil" as a daily program across their network? CBS does co-produce the show - but it's probably a lucrative one for them at that, so I guess if it ain't broke...
Click to expand...

Don't rule it out. CBS says it will replace "GL" with either a game or talk show.
Meanwhile, Procter & Gamble is going to try to move "GL" to SoapNet, which is
doing more original programming; if that falls through, some "GL" characters
may be merged into "As The World Turns."
 
brian4 said:
More about canceling Guiding Light later...

DVRed CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and she didn't even mention GL going off the air. She was in London covering the G-20 summit and had an interview with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. I still think she (and the news/entertainment dept) could have spend 90 seconds announcing GL's demise and showing some clips.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it just isn't that important in the grand scheme of the world...it's not like it was the last day on the air.

I don't see why SoapNet would be interested. GL skews old and has a minimal audience (hence its current situation). SoapNet has focused on either spinning off from a successful show or bringing in totally original/imported content.

Expanding B&B is a long-rumored idea, but doesn't solve the "soap at 10 am in some places/3 pm in others" problem. Whichever soap (B&B or ATWT) you put in that slot is getting a prolonged death sentence...and you're soon right back where you were as of last week. A talk show offers the greatest flexibility if you keep the multiple feeds option they've used for GL. You could do a game that way, but, seriously, why feed a game at 3 p.m. ET? Anyone remember Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour? Yeah, I thought so.

WIth a game show, the best scenario is to just feed it in the a.m. and give the affiliates 3 p.m. for syndie fare. Create the two-hour game block last seen in 1993 (at least in network form).
 
I have to admit your logic is probably right-on,
although I think "B&B" would have a better chance
than "ATWT" against "General Hospital." The problem,
aside from the fact that, as you say, it's a prolonged
death sentence for either CBS show, "B&B" airs at
1:30 (ET) largely because of its compatibility with
sister show, and lead-in, "Young And The Restless."
Since they're the two top-rated soaps, I'd think CBS
would be reluctant to split them.

But you're right about the odds against a game show
in the afternoon; the last successful one, as I recall,
was the '70s version of "Match Game." Games have
always done better in the morning, since they don't
require the full attention of the viewer, who may be
doing something else. Would that CBS would revive
its successful '70s combo of "Price Is Right," "Joker's
Wild," and "Gambit" in the 10 AM-noon slot!

Best bet to me seems to be a talk show (even "Dr. Phil"
as a network show), since it is the best fit for the split
10 AM/3 PM feed than either a game or a soap.
 
I'm still surprised that CBS would cancel Guiding Light. I don't think the ratings were ever below a 1. Most weeks they were between 1.5 and 1.7 and had actually shown an increase since Grant Alexsander who played Phillip came back from the dead. I believe the lowest weekly rating GL ever got was a 1.4.

I'm not sure what CBS can replace it with that would get higher ratings, but of course today it is more about cheaper production costs than ratings as we see by NBC's Jay Leno move. I hope they don't turn the time back over to the affiliates. We are now starting to see the dreaded infomercials show up during weekday daytime hours in some markets. It is a bad trend to me when major network affiliates start showing paid programming during weekdays in the middle of the day. WKRG, CBS station in Mobile, now shows informercials from 9 am to 10 am. This would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
 
12+ ratings numbers fall somewhere between "not all that revealing" and "utterly useless."

It's an age of demos, and if GL is still pulling too many people in the upper end of the demos...well, that's the way things go. Fair or not, it's reality for now, and neither CBS nor any particular show is going to change that any time soon.

Yes, cheaper production costs matter. It is a business after all, and you have to look at the whole picture--both sides of the ledger--to make a decision.
 
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