The other day over at The Observer, Felix Gillette wrote that ABC is considering creating a midday news and lifestyle program. You can read the article here but seriously, here is what you need to know without a single click: ABC wants to kill their daytime dramas because it takes too much effort and too much money from their bottom line to produce. They would rather put on cheap news shows instead.
As I've written before, the net has been trying to kill the genre for years but, God love 'em, soaps fans will not go quietly. Unfortunately for soap fans the petitions and crabbing on Television Without Pity is falling on deaf ears as far as the network is concerned... but I don't really understand why advertisers are on board with this. Isn't it less desirable to be a sponsor for a show that no one watches (coughjaylenocough for example) than a show that a small but loyal fanbase watches? I guess the bottom line - effort vs return on investment is at play here - it's easier to make a cheap talk show and get a few viewers than have to employ a couple hundred people to put on a daytime drama (which, you know, is wooorrrrk!)
Just last week ABC's ONE LIFE TO LIVE announced that it was retiring the crazy-popular gay storyline titled "Kish" (a combination of the characters "Kyle" and "Fish"). Given that Kish has given this show it's only buzz in about a decade, the move is perplexing. And coming on the heels of high profile departures from other popular (but admittedly recent) cast members and characters (as well as the phase out of an entire African American family), the writing is on the wall: we will have no more diverse/ interesting people to watch on ONE LIFE TO LIVE.
What are we left with? A 'star' character who is a serial rapist, a PI who couldn't figure out his own wife was lying to him about having had an affair in order to save their son and a dour detective whose emotional range runs the gamut from A to B. These are hardly leading men and yet after the end of April the show will focus intensely on them. Yawn.
Worse, the net blames last years gay storyline on the ratings decline and is now feeding suggestions to columnists that both actors are heavy partiers which have resulted in scheduling problems. This, after word of 'homophobia' was thrown towards the studio. Retaliation by slander is pretty ugly. Are we 12?
Back to the item at hand. What I don't understand is how adding even more boring news (isn't there like four hours of Good Morning America these days?) and repurposed 'lifestyle' segments (from various programs) is supposed to increase viewership. The idea is so dull and pedestrian that I turned out halfway through reading about it.
If ABC put as much effort and attention into the writing/acting/promotion of their daytime dramas as they do in the brainstorming of ways to replace them, they wouldn't need to replace them in the first place. And why do we need MORE news on television when most people get it online instead? Wouldn't the intuitive thing be to do something that the internet can't do and the net can? i.e. produce narrative drama in a studio setting with name actors. To me, it seems a no-brainer.
Ack!
If you want to find out more about how to keep KISH on the show, go to http://dontputkishinthecloset.blogspot.com
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