With the latest rumblings that As the World Turns will most likely be replaced by another version of the game show Pyramid or Password, a talk show, or a reality game show hybrid with a cooking element, one wonders what CBS is thinking beyond the bottom line. I do not know why we have yet to hear what the replacement show will be or its length. Will CBS give back 30 minutes to their local stations or air an hour show in its place.
This is the first time in at least 20 years, that there will be more network non-soap opera programming during the daytime hours on CBS. I’m denoting the daytime hours as between 9 am and 6 pm and not including any syndicated fare (like talk shows) or local news. Once The Bold & the Beautiful premiered in 1987, the schedule on CBS in the east looked something like this:
9:00 – 10:00: Various Syndicated Shows
10:00 – 11:00: Game shows aired in this slot for years even before B&B like Body Language, Press Your Luck, Card Sharks, Pyramid with Dick Clark as the host, Family Feud (first Ray Combs than Richard Dawson) once that failed it became a game show free block. In some markets, like New York City CBS flagship WCBS, Guiding Light was put in this slot in the fall of 1995 and an hour was given back to the affiliates for local programming around this time.
11:00 – 12:00: The Price is Right
12:00 – 12:30: Local Programming
12:30 – 1:30: The Young & the Restless
1:30 – 2:00: The Bold & the Beautiful
2:00 – 3:00: As the World Turns
3:00 – 4:00: Guiding Light (this became the syndicated show Day & Date which aired on CBS owned and operated stations in some parts of the US in fall of 1995). Day & Date was canceled in less than 2 years. In most places, Guiding Light did not get the afternoon slot back once it was moved to the morning.
4:00 – 6:00: Syndicated Shows and/or Local News
Currently the national programming for the east coast on CBS daytime looks like this:
9:00 – 10:00: Local programming
10:00 – 11:00: Let’s Make a Deal
11:00 – 12:00: The Price is Right
12:00 – 12:30: Local programming
12:30 – 1:30: The Young & the Restless
1:30 – 2:00: The Bold & the Beautiful
2:00 – 3:00: As the World Turns
3:00 – 6:00: Syndicated Shows and/or Local News
Once As the World Turns ends its run, the question remains where will the new program air in the afternoon, following The Bold & the Beautiful or before Let’s Make a Deal in the morning? I’m not sure if either choice is all that great. A lot of people aren’t home yet at 2 pm, and if a station had local news or a syndicated show at 9 am, they would be alienating those regular viewers. A talk show from 2:00 – 3:00 pm may be a better match for many stations over a game show. I would not be surprised if some affiliated stations took advantage of their ability to move shows to off hours (like overnight) and put a syndicated program in that slot instead of airing the new program in the daytime.
It will be interesting to see what happens to CBS with this programming change as I am curious about what local stations will do and what the national norm will be.
There will be no shock on my part if a game show is chosen and the divide between soap fans and game show fans becomes even larger as while the soap market in daytime has been decreasing the game show one has increased and not just on network television. The last time CBS gave time back to their affiliated stations (about 15 years ago); the game show devotees lost a potential hour of programming per day. Now in less than two years, the soap fans have lost ten hours of programming per week. The last new daytime soap entry was in 1999. The game show explosion in prime time of the late 1990s did not translate as until 2009, for close to 15 years the only network daytime game show was The Price is Right. NBC may have canceled Passions, but instead of adding game shows they expanded The Today Show. The last game shows on NBC daytime premiered when Santa Barbara was still on the air and that program ended in 1993. ABC hasn’t even tried a new daytime game show in about 20 years if I remember correctly (Match Game 1990). When Port Charles was canceled it seemed like the local stations were given back 30 minutes of programming, and the morning slot they own houses the talk show The View.
The game show genre had a healthy life in syndication; for many years when other than The Price is Right they were non-existent during the daytime hours, due to long running shows like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. New concepts are attempted and bought by local stations nearly every year. Some have been tested in primetime prior to moving to daytime like Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader. Some game shows last numerous years, while others fail and are cancelled within months of their premiere.
Soaps seem to be going in the opposite direction and are becoming an endangered species. The difference seems to be that syndicators are interested in the game show format and continuing into the future. It is too bad that there seems to be no one willing to buy or sell a soap opera for the daytime audience to air on local stations. The soap opera genre isn’t growing in a financially solvent manner even if serialized internet programming has increased in the last year.
MTV is looking into having new soaps, but again there is a chance nothing will come of it. Undressed and Spyder Games did not spawn many other shows, though seeing MTV being willing to develop something is a positive. As far as I know, there has never been an original, new soap opera in syndication during the daytime that has lasted five seasons. Over the years, there have been syndicated soaps like Swan’s Crossing in the 90s and Rituals in the 80s, though none of them made much impact on the industry except for the success of some of their alums. Fox only tried a soap opera in the daytime once with Tribes and that test wasn’t even national and failed. A new syndicated series called Hacienda Heights is supposed to be coming, but this is the first such project in years, so there is no proven track record for success or failure. So soaps may not find new life the way game shows did after the networks cut back on the genre. Talk shows and cooking shows are successful outside of daytime. If and when on-line programming becomes profitable I can see serialized shows being a big part of the mix.
With the news today, that SoapNet is gone as of 2012. We can only wonder what will happen with the ABC soaps, and the shows that air on SoapNet that are on CBS and NBC meaning Young & Restless and Days of Our Lives. Less revenue equals less budget, so things may get even more tight when it comes to production values and casting.
Like all things the future of television is uncertain with all the new media. I don’t believe one genre will destroy the other, but that once again they will co-exist. Even in a multi-channel universe people will still want to see compelling stories, while others will prefer a game, talk or reality show.
No comments:
Post a Comment