More news from the soap world
In the past 48 hours, two head scribes of daytime television were fired. ABC's General Hospital headwriter Bob Guza and NBC's Days of Our Lives headwriter Dena Higley. Now, I'm not usually one to cheer for someone's firing in this economy, but that said, I'm glad there's going to be a change at the helms.
This information is big especially in light of two soap cancellations last month. On April 2nd, ABCSoapsInDepth magazine's twitter reported that,
#AMC is NOT being canceled. Even better news: Lorraine Broderick is bring named headwriter. It's official.
A few folks in the soap blogosphere speculated that Broderick was being brought in to help write the show's end. Even as ABC's Public Relations team were denying left, right and center that, no, All My Children was safe, they were lying through their teeth (having already developed shows to take the place of two daytime shows). The daytime bloggers would be proven right less than two weeks later, when on April 14th, ABC announced not only the cancellations of All My Children and One Life to Live.
At Days of Our Lives, Dena Higley's writing has made the show almost unwatchable. I came to watch DAYS to see Crystal Chappell's return to the show, but there's very few storylines that hold my attention - most scenes get fast-forwarded through. Even some of the stronger performers have absolute dreck. The writers replacing Higley, Marlene Clark Poulter and Darrell Ray Thomas, Jr., were writers for the defunct soap, Passions (cancelled in 2008).
Now, I've only occasionally watched General Hospital if I've been home and awake (I work 8hrs nights mostly and sometimes 8hr evenings as a nurse). I know the characters as it's one of the shows I grew up watching. As many who've watched the show in recent years, it's gotten away from it's hospital based storylines and focused more on mob stories. It's certainly the most violent of the six soaps still on the air, and for me, much more male-focused writing. I'm hoping that Garin Wolf (who has been a GH scribes) who is taking over as head scribe will start to turn things around writing stronger female characters and more character-driven stories than plot-driven stories. If as suspected, GH may only have another year before it's cancelled on ABC, then I would love to see a return to the show's roots and storytelling.
The frustrating thing for myself and many soap fans is that General Hospital was spared (for the time being), while One Life to Live was cancelled, claiming low ratings. Frustrating for many fans because it's consistently the best written daytime soap, and for the fourth week running, OLTL has beat GH in total household ratings, and for the week of May 9-13th, OLTL has come ahead of GH in every category: Total Viewers, Households, Women 18-49 Viewers, Women 18-49 Rating, Girls 12-17 Viewers, Women 18-34, Men 18+ Viewers. OLTL has for the past few weeks maintained the third position in total viewers. (information courtesy of Soap Opera Network)
Cross-posted to my Celtic-Dragon blog.
This information is big especially in light of two soap cancellations last month. On April 2nd, ABCSoapsInDepth magazine's twitter reported that,
#AMC is NOT being canceled. Even better news: Lorraine Broderick is bring named headwriter. It's official.
A few folks in the soap blogosphere speculated that Broderick was being brought in to help write the show's end. Even as ABC's Public Relations team were denying left, right and center that, no, All My Children was safe, they were lying through their teeth (having already developed shows to take the place of two daytime shows). The daytime bloggers would be proven right less than two weeks later, when on April 14th, ABC announced not only the cancellations of All My Children and One Life to Live.
At Days of Our Lives, Dena Higley's writing has made the show almost unwatchable. I came to watch DAYS to see Crystal Chappell's return to the show, but there's very few storylines that hold my attention - most scenes get fast-forwarded through. Even some of the stronger performers have absolute dreck. The writers replacing Higley, Marlene Clark Poulter and Darrell Ray Thomas, Jr., were writers for the defunct soap, Passions (cancelled in 2008).
Now, I've only occasionally watched General Hospital if I've been home and awake (I work 8hrs nights mostly and sometimes 8hr evenings as a nurse). I know the characters as it's one of the shows I grew up watching. As many who've watched the show in recent years, it's gotten away from it's hospital based storylines and focused more on mob stories. It's certainly the most violent of the six soaps still on the air, and for me, much more male-focused writing. I'm hoping that Garin Wolf (who has been a GH scribes) who is taking over as head scribe will start to turn things around writing stronger female characters and more character-driven stories than plot-driven stories. If as suspected, GH may only have another year before it's cancelled on ABC, then I would love to see a return to the show's roots and storytelling.
The frustrating thing for myself and many soap fans is that General Hospital was spared (for the time being), while One Life to Live was cancelled, claiming low ratings. Frustrating for many fans because it's consistently the best written daytime soap, and for the fourth week running, OLTL has beat GH in total household ratings, and for the week of May 9-13th, OLTL has come ahead of GH in every category: Total Viewers, Households, Women 18-49 Viewers, Women 18-49 Rating, Girls 12-17 Viewers, Women 18-34, Men 18+ Viewers. OLTL has for the past few weeks maintained the third position in total viewers. (information courtesy of Soap Opera Network)
Cross-posted to my Celtic-Dragon blog.