AMC & OLTL: News and Notes

This past week a lot of new intel about All My Children and One Life to Live dropped. This post summarizes the latest.

First off, OWN has changed their schedule. The reruns of All My Children and One Life to Live have been reduced to one episode a day and no more Friday marathons. AMC will be on at 1 pm EDT and OLTL will directly follow it at 1:30 pm EDT. This has pluses and minuses in my opinion. The positive is that people who watch one or the other live may view parts of both. The negative is if someone became interested in another soap opera that airs at the same time as the reruns, they may no longer be able to watch. At least with the repeat scheduling, there were some broadcasts every day that didn't compete with any of the broadcast network shows. I wish they kept the Friday marathon, or had some sort of marathon (even if it was during the middle of the night), so people who have conflicts with their DVR would have an opportunity to record the program.

Earlier in the week, TOLN announced season finales for both shows including air dates. Click here for the release, warning there are spoilers included in it. While I understand that they only had a certain amount of episodes completed, an earlier news drop stated there would not be a hiatus. Once they knew this to be the case, something should have been said, don't say you will have enough episodes to cover until new ones can be made due to the strike situation (that was settled) when that wasn't mathematically possible. By waiting instead of being okay with the change, I felt like I was being punched in the gut metaphorically as they held back pertinent information. Entertainment programs shouldn't make you feel that way, and as an audience member I shouldn't have to guess. Basically my point is tell us what is going on and treat the audience with respect, as who really wants to be a paranoid soap fan. Sometimes the soap behind the soap can be more of a soap than what we see on screen. Anyway, other information like the TOLN site being developed is a great sign, though I wonder with the new system if people will be able to watch from outside of the United States or if it will still be powered by Hulu. They don't have a date for new episodes, which is good and bad as if they promised a date and didn't deliver, they would get a lot of flack. That said I'd like to know whether or not we'll have to wait until 2014 to see more episodes. If there is a hiatus of that length, they will have to do something to keep the audience interested in the interim.

Lastly, according to the podcast that aired on Thursday night with Jen Pepperman, One Life to Live's executive producer the show will now be written differently (beginning, middle and ends of plots and season cliffhangers) and more like a prime time series. I'm sort of wary about this, but we shall see. The last thing I want is for either show to end on a cliffhanger, and not get a resolution. I'm not someone who is into prime time soaps as much as daytime soaps and other than quick dalliances with non-US soap operas, I Once this was the plan, it should have been shared with the audience. You change the way you are doing your storytelling let people know as soon as possible to get used to the idea.