The Death Of Daytime --- ABC Cancels OLTL And AMC
Brian Frons Blames Viewers For Cancellation
This was going to be the last part of this article. I was going to make suggestions that networks could do to save the soaps. But as we saw today, the networks aren't interested in saving the soaps. Their interested in cutting their losses and blaming the viewers for their own failures.
I actually didn't believe Frons would really go through with canceling two long-running soap operas at the same time. That he's trying to put the blame on the viewers, I'm not surprised in the least. God forbid this incompetent moron actually take the blame for his bad management. The man has absolutely no clue on how a soap opera should be run, yet he kept sticking his fat pudgy fingers in the pie making a mess out of it. According to Frons daytime viewers demanded new programming, so he's going to give them a cooking show and a health show. Actually, most daytime viewers I've seen have been demanding better writing on the shows, not to get rid of them.
Some of Frons most memorable management decisions on OLTL was to say the overweight actress that played Marcie was ugly because she was fat and he was forced to make a public apology. He had the character of Al Holden killed off and fired the actress who played Marcy. Al and Marcy were a couple the fans liked. When there was such a viewer backlash, he unfired the actress who played Marcy, but since he couldn't make the character of Al Holden alive again after ordering he be killed off, he had the actor hanging around as Ghost Al until he permanently inhabited another characters body, at which time Marcy fell in love with that character. A ridiculous storyline resolution that wouldn't have been necessary if this fool had kept his incompetent fingers out of the OLTL pie.
Ironically, Frons whose big buddies Bob Guza and Jill Farren Phelps work at General Hospital are safe, as he's letting that soap stay on the air. Why only cancel two soaps, when you claim you're going to remake the face of daytime TV? Because you don't want to put your buddies out of a job? If I'm not mistaken, Frons was the head of NBC daytime when the soap opera Santa Barbara was cancelled.
A friend I know has been saying for years that from the moment Disney got their hands on ABC the soaps got their death sentence. And I think he's right. There was a definite change once Disney bought ABC. They've recycled hacks that have been continuously fired from other shows because they were lousy at the job. They hired Brian Frons. And they've done nothing while Frons and these hacks have run these shows into the ground.
AMC will go off the air in September, followed by OLTL in January. The sad thing is of the three soaps on ABC, OLTL is actually the best one. After OLTL goes off the air, there will only be four soaps left, and two of them. Days of our Lives and General Hospital, are two of the worst soaps on daytime TV.
It's a sad day. This is truly the day the soaps died.
