Breaking: Is ABC Preparing to Cancel All My Children and One Life to Live?

Breaking: Is ABC Preparing to Cancel All My Children and One Life to Live?





Apr 1, 2011 04:07 PM ET
by Michael Logan





Susan Lucci, Erika Slezak



God, I hope I'm wrong about this. In recent weeks, there has been a lot of
highly reliable buzz about the possible cancellation of ABC's All My Children.
But TV Guide Magazine has learned that the network is not just planning to cancel AMC
in the coming days but will very likely cancel One Life to Live, as
well. Word is, ABC Daytime chief Brian Frons has a talk show and
reality show lined up for fall — both of them much cheaper to produce
than soaps — and he needs to clear the schedule.

More disturbing, insiders say Frons has been extremely cavalier about all this, showing
no signs of sorrow or regret about a drastic decision that will leave General Hospital
the network's only daytime soap. When contacted for comment, ABC
Daytime PR chief Jori Petersen told us, "I have no announcement, and
these are just rumors that you are hearing. I am sorry to hear that
they're escalating but I cannot confirm anything."

Chris wrote:I am hoping that this was a bad April Fools prank, or an attempt to get people buzzed. What happens if they cancel AMC and OLTL for these talk and reality shows, and no one watches them? What a silly way to shoot themselves in the foot. I could see the same thing happening to ABC in the afternoon that happened with NBC when they gave Jay Leno his own primetime talkshow. No one watched.

Forgiveness Man wrote:

Chris wrote:I am hoping that this was a bad April Fools prank, or an attempt to get people buzzed. What happens if they cancel AMC and OLTL for these talk and reality shows, and no one watches them? What a silly way to shoot themselves in the foot. I could see the same thing happening to ABC in the afternoon that happened with NBC when they gave Jay Leno his own primetime talkshow. No one watched.

Canceling two seems like quite a huge risk. I would think they'd cancel one first and see how it's replacement fared before canceling a second. (And essentially leaving GH to drown by itself) Plus, OLTL is slightly up in the ratings so canceling it now seems a bit foolish.

They can tout how much cheaper these shows are to produce but guess what, if nobody watches, they still don't make money. Daytime TV will become the most unstable place on television once the soaps go cause talk shows will NOT survive.

Chris wrote:^ What's more is that ABC produces its own soaps, so even if they aren't surging through the ratings roof, they still make more money off of them than NBC does DOOL or CBS does Y&R/B+B. If Frons cancels AMC and OLTL for a new talk and reality shows, and if ABC isn't producing them, then he needs to be blacklisted from ever working in television again.