Hello and Welcome to Joshuaonline , we like to look at the TV and Media here it's not updated everyday but we try have a few posts each month, hope you enjoy and thanks for visiting
NETWORK TV Fall 2024
It's that time of year again! The networks are releasing their fall line ups
NBC's only Daytime Soap, "Days of Our Lives" has been renewed for it's 51th season. The show recently celebrated it's 50th anniversary will get to live to see another day of it's life.
Via press release
ICONIC NBC DAYTIME DRAMA ‘DAYS OF OUR LIVES’ RENEWED FOR 51ST SEASON The Tales From Salem Will Continue as Beloved Series Earns Pickup Following Recent Ratings Surge
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — Feb. 11, 2016 — “Days of our Lives,” which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary and is one of the most iconic programs in the history of daytime television, has been renewed for a new season by NBC.
The announcement was made by Jennifer Salke, President, NBC Entertainment.
“NBC is incredibly proud of the legacy of ‘Days of our Lives’ and we couldn’t be more excited to brings its fans new stories for the 51st season,” Salke said. “In a business where having a show remain on the air for two seasons is considered a success, what ‘Days’ has achieved is extraordinary.”
So far this season, “Days of our Lives” is averaging a 0.90 rating, 6 share in women 18-49 and 2.901 million viewers overall in “most current” ratings from Nielsen Media Research. Through the first five weeks of the current quarter, “Days” has grown to a 0.93 rating, 6 share in women 18-49, up +6% versus its 0.88 for the same period last year, and 2.993 million viewers overall, up +15% versus its 2.601 million for the same weeks last year.
“Days of our Lives” has garnered 43 Daytime Emmy Awards, including 2015’s Outstanding Daytime Drama, and numerous nominations, as well as multiple People’s Choice Awards, GLAAD Media Awards, and Prism Awards. The show airs nationally on NBC in the United States and in more than 25 countries internationally.
“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” For over a half-century, those words have introduced and underscored one of daytime drama’s rare mainstays. NBC’s “Days of our Lives” first premiered as a half-hour drama in 1965 and expanded to an hour 10 years later.
The success of the series derives from its consistent commitment to excellence in writing and storytelling — supported by a diverse ensemble of performers — and its uncanny knack for anticipating viewer interests. With its mix of classic genre traditions and groundbreaking narratives reflecting modern life, “Days of our Lives” remains a perennial favorite among viewers of all ages.
“Days of our Lives” is set in the fictitious Midwestern town of Salem. The core families are the Bradys, Hortons and DiMeras, and the multi-layered storylines involve elements of romance, adventure, mystery, comedy and drama.
“Days of our Lives” is produced by Corday Productions Inc. in association with Sony Pictures Television. Ken Corday is executive producer, with co-executive producers Greg Meng and Albert Alarr. Dena Higley and Josh Griffith are the head writing team.
The CW has released it's upcoming shows premiere dates , season finales and return dates. New The new limited series Containment takes the 9PM ET , slot starting April 19. The show normally in that slot , IZOMBIE , has it's season finale (though it has been announced if renewed yet) the week before at 9pmet , with another new episode before it at 8et on April 12. Reign comes back, taking the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 8PMET slot starting on April 25 , the week before "Crazy Ex" has it's season finale (again, not renewed or canceled yet ) on April 18. Beauty and The Beast has it's Final season and that starts June 2 at 9PMET.
For a full notice , I never really got into Gilligan's Island , not sure why but I tried watching it a few times and never clicked with me. Now that 96% of you left and the others are agreeing or don't care let's go on to our topic. Apparently , Gilligan's Island ended with them still on the Island (sorry spoiler) So In 1978 , 9 years after the show ended, NBC made a movie.
It starts with them still on the Island... I guess the title gives that away ,but wow that's a long time to be away.
"You know any longer this would have been a Netflix reboot"
It's also good that everyone is back , I at least the know the characters , and there was no cannibalism so that's nice. Wait , movie where are going ? A Country far way? Ok computers and subtitles and flying satellite in space.... did I change movies? It's a spy satellite so the explode it and the disk falls into Gillgian's Island . Gilligan finds the disk and professor makes it barometer, and a storm is coming. (That's bad) The professor thinks up an idea to make the huts into a boat , so they can finally leave the island.
Anyway storm comes carries the huts to sea and now it's a raft and they floating , Gilligan decides to cook fish on the raft and this of course causes fire and smoke ,but luckily his stupidity saves the day after all as the coast gaurd sees the smoke and rescues them.
"And you said they were dead"
Apparently they've been gone for 15 years ( how long were they on the Island before the show started?) They are also stunned that Jimmy Carter is president ( me too ). They have a ticker tape parade. So in our "other country" who seem to be communists they are watching the parade on TV and they see their disk from spy satellite was on Gilligan. wait what? They are all going their separate ways : Ginger is going to back to acting , Mary-Ann back to her fiance (ummm what could go wrong?) , and the professor back to professing. ( I guess) So now some dumb spies from our fake country are looking to obtain the disk back that's plotline for the movie about 50 minutes in. Meanwhile , Ginger is acting again.. I haven't really watched the show So I guess she's an actress. Movies have changed in 15 years and Ginger is bothered by the movie she is working in is filthy it's all sex and swearing now. ( Unlike this post)
movies have changed ...there's more chairs now
Gilligan and Skipper visit Ginger so she can sign some insurance papers so they can get a new boat. Also there were no dirty words in Star Wars and Jaws was clean , lets name drop some more movies of the times. The producer decides to change his mind and makes it less dirty (problem fixed?)
Also our spies are thwarted again , but to the professor now , and he is surrounded by cheerleaders.
Sorry this is a classroom , the gym is downstairs
All the professor wants to do is work but a lady one is kissing him and now the Skipper and Gilligan visit him. He was busy inviting the Frisbee, which was already invented. (wow time has flown) The Dean wants the professor to speak more to have people donate to the college, since he's a celebrity now. Oh great the spies are back as they try and fail at disk getting let's move on.
The Howells are having dinner with some old friends ( they are rich) .
Still rich after all these years
Skipper and Gilligan come to visit the Howells for the paper signing in the library they overhear the rich friends making insults about Skipper and Gilligan and the friends are thrown out of the house. Now to Mary Ann , where we find out that Mary Ann after 15 years doesn't love her finance Herbert anymore but feels obligated to marry him anyway. (Also this is her wedding day) They see Mary Ann's friend Cindy is in love with Herbert and he with her, but Mary Ann wants marry because he waited so long. So Gilligan and Skipper help stop this mistake and Cindy and Herbert marry. Now it's Christmas... (uhh what a jump) They spies try and take the metal , but the F.B.I shows up ( I guess that makes sense) and that's over. The castaways set off on Minow II and a storm hits and guess what? They end up back on the same island they started this movie and the series from.
The End. .. well that was an ending ... you know if this movie was made to appease fans then why put them back on the Island!!!!!? That's our lookback tune in next time when we see the episode after Friends where Rachel turns right back and around and gets on the plane , but 15 years later.
What's the best way to celebrate Valentine's Day ? With your Hart of course! On February 13th and 14th COZI TV will be having a "Hart to Hart" movie marathon starting at 12pmet on the 13th
Here is the list of movies (all times Eastern )
February 13th
12pm Hart to Hart Returns (1993)
2pm Hart to Hart : Crimes of the Hart (1994)
4pm Hart to Hart : Harts in High Season (1996)
6pm Hart to Hart : Home is Where the Hart is (1994)
8pm Hart to Hart : Old Friends Never Die (1994)
10pm Hart to Hart : 'Till Death do us Hart (1996)
12am Hart to Hart : Two Harts in Three-Quarter Time (1995)
February 14th
12pm Hart to Hart : Two Harts in Three-Quarter Time (1995)
2pm Hart to Hart: Till Death do Death do us Hart (1996)
4pm Hart to Hart : Home is where the Heart is (1994)
6pm Hart to Hart : Old Friends Never Die (1994)
8pm Hart to Hart : Harts in High Season (1994)
10pm Hart to Hart : Crimes of the Hart (1994)
12am Hart to Hart Returns
On the Decades network .. starting on Saturday , February 13th at 1pmet Their weekend binge will feature the 1970's series "Love American, Style" all weekend long . The series ran from 1969-1974 was an anthology series taking a comedic look at romance.
On Buzzr , they are having a Valentine's Day marathon of couples on Game shows starting at 1pmet.
1-4pmet He Said, She Said
4-6:30pmet Tattletales
7pmet-9pmet Password
9pm-11pm Family Fued with Richard Dawson
Since it's winter,still that means ice skating, That takes us to Charlie Brown. For note: this specail airs every year ABC plays it with "Happy New Year Charlie Brown" (watch ABC make us look stupid this year) but it's not a Holiday special so it fits in these set of lookbacks. She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown came out in February of 1980. (honestly we didn't know the date until now and that's some good timing guess here)
This special is about Peppermint Patty (yay!) and it starts with her ice skating with Snoopy as her coach. (Some of you are surprised that P.P ice skates) Peppermint Patty is having problems staying up class because she's been getting up at 4:30AM each morning to practice Ice Skating. (That's crazy not even local news should be on at that time)
Sleep loss also causes Sandal wearing in snow / copyright peanuts
We some of her training with Snoopy at the early time in the morning . (Snoopy is not Snoppy without is morning cofee) Meanwhile , some hockey players begin to bug Peppermint Patty (and they keep calling her beautiful , which is the weirdest insult ever ) She and Snoppy take out the whole 10 hockey kids in 2 pushes. You know Snoopy is a pretty ruthless coach too. Marcie helps Peppermint Patty with her dress for the skating competition , though she was more drafted into it by Peppermint Patty.
Fabrics Notions right next to Mom's Deli ... with the best foods /Copyright Peanuts
When Marcie ,who repeatably said, that she wasn't good at sewing the dress turns out bad.
Either that or a new fashion trend/ Copyright Penaunts
Luckly , Snoopy saves the day , since he is a good tailor and dress maker (of course he is) She also wants help with her hair. She didn't like the wig Snoopy suggested so she gives that up. Now it's the day the competition Snoopy has the new job of Zamboni driver (Snoopy runs the entire U.S economy) There's also the "hey we paid to watch a special so we are going to see the whole competition set of scenes" until we get to see Peppermint Patty's turn. Something goes wrong though as her tape (aww the 80's) does what tapes do and falls apart. If she doesn't get music quick she could be disqualified. Woodstock saves the day as he whistles a tune (the sound of an angel ).
"Darn it , I wish I brought another tape" /copyright Peanuts
She wins (if this was Charlie Brown.. on the other hand...)
Pretty much, it's nice to have a Peppermint Patty focused episode and the music in the background is nice plus it had it's funny parts and it's interesting to see P.P doing something that's not either being conflicted about her feelings for Chuck or baseball.
NBC is setting up a Sunday Comedy block, much like FOX does and what ABC and CBS don't . A New variety show hosted by Steve Harvey Little Big Shots starts March 13th at 8/7c airing Sundays at 8/7c then The Carmichael Show returns for it's 2nd season on Sunday March 13th at 9pmet with two back to back episodes there will be preview the week before on March 8th at 10:30pmet. It will air Sundays at 9/8c. The Following Sunday a new series Crowded premieres March 20th at 9:30/8:30c, airing Sundays in this slot.
Moving on to other nights Starting Wednesday, March 23rd at 8/7c with a preview the night before at 9/8c. Heartbeat premieres this replaces The Mysteries of Laura which has its season (possibly series) finale on March 2nd. On Thursday Nights Game of Silence will replace Shades of Blue at 10/9c starting April 7th.
2016 marks our 10th birthday of Joshuaonline , when the site started it wasn't focused on TV and Media we eventually went that direction and refined what we cover and talk about , another thing is our record of early blog posts is missing because of quite bad early days of not understanding how posting works. Anyway, will be taking a look at Television stories that were big over the past 10 years starting with 2006.
If Joshuaonline was around in 1995, first off we would be 20 , we also would be looking at the launch of the WB and and UPN. The Concept of Independent stations , ones that if you were a kid in the 60's-80's were the ones the maybe had those movies , cartoons and sitcoms reruns without those pesky ABC,CBS,NBC clutter. They were places you could watch children's shows on the afternoon and movies and what not in the evening, some even had news at different times.
What time is the Eight PM movie ? Poor announcer ...wait someone hit the wrong button
more after the jump
Around this time between the 60's-80's there was ideas of a fourth network (never will happen) yes, a network that would make the big 3 , CBS , ABC and NBC, have to open their club to a 4th and hopefully this fourth network would make ABC finally pack it in. ( That's a joke) FOX was the most successful of that , they are still on the air as of this writing, FOX had began after buying up Metromedia stations and then having other independent stations join them. This was chipping away at the independent stations , something else was too: Cable. HBO had movies (jerks) and so did AMC. HBO and being able to rent movies or buy them (insert rich person name here) why watch on ole channel 32 with commercials or wait a couple years for the latest movie of 1982 come out when I can watch in 1983 anytime I want? Independent stations were still OK , they had other things, some had sports to benefit from (for now) Plus why watch channel 32 air "Lassie" at 5:30pm when I can watch whatever the heck this new cable thing was doing?
Now back to FOX, they had started off slow but did starting growing and well if someone sees a someone doing well with something and if they think (and have money to) they can do the same thing better well there you go. Also the government changed some rules (we could use this alot in writing TV and Radio topics) there was a set of rules called the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules. Not to get into explaining the whole thing , one thing of importance was that the FCC in the 1970 did not want the networks to have monopoly on television . (Insert your 2016 laughs here) They prevented the networks from owning the programs they made in primetime and also prevented programming being aired by a network (their owned stations ) from airing programming they had any stake in. If these rules were around today: NBC couldn't air Chicago Fire because Universal Television is a corporate relation. (This is alternate history if everything else stated the same) Also CBS owned stations couldn't air Entertainment Tonight ( eeehhh ) because CBS makes the show. This law may be the reason why MTM studios (Marty Tyler Moore) and the Norman Lear stuff was all over the networks more , because they were independent companies. (We may talk more about 70's TV in the future) The rules were relaxed in the 80's , though not removed due to Hollywood lobbies and Ronald Regan (who was an actor before ). The rules were seen as outdated after the rise of FOX (yep ) and cable. All the rules were repealed in 1995. (our source for this)
In 1993-4, when the rules were pretty much sharks without teeth now and would soon be starved off Warner Brothers and Paramount thought hey it would be a good time to jump into some network fun. Warner Brothers , along with Tribune , and Jamie Kellner came together and announced a new network , using Tribune's stations (in turn for 25% ownership of this new network) as their neculus. Tribune had stations in top markets and a national cable feed to help fill the gaps. This network was called the WB which launched on January 11, 1995. Meanwhile Paramount had kind of always wanted a network, they tried in the 40's and 50's they did have a stake in the first fourth TV network, Dumont. While they also were instrumental in helping the 3rd network , ABC, exist some more. Paramount bought some TV stations in the 90's and they found a partner to part own a new project : a network. Chris-Craft industries ,which owned a few stations including in the top 3 markets. They announced their new network , UPN, in 1993 . United Paramount Network, owned by Paramount (later Viacom ) and Chris-Craft (get it ? United) . They launched a few days after the WB in 1995. (We could have done a history of UPN and WB thing )
This brings us to our main 2006 point. On January 24th, 2006 it was announced by CBS and TimeWarner (see things changed ) that they were going to take their respective networks , UPN and The WB shut down them down, and take some programs and "merge" them this new network would by 50% owned by CBS corp and 50% by Time Warner, (Tribune got left out in the cold, but there was a deal for most of their affiliates that were WB to join this network for 10 years) (source)
The WB and UPN had moderate successes and failures but they felt it would be stronger to take the strongest programs, stronger stations (in some areas there was only a UPN or WB station while the other network didn't exist or had to be piped in on cable from a near by market) , and a name . The CW stands for Cbs and Warner Brothers.
this was the first logo .... ermmmm yep
Now in markets were there was a both this meant they had to choose their favorites , or the strongest station. In Tribune markets (except in Philadelphia ,Seattle, Atlanta ) they went with Tribune's WB affiliates , While in Philly and Seattle they went to CBS's UPN station because business politics is fun. In Boston, Miami, and Dallas CBS's UPN stations lost out so that was even , while in other markets CBS owned a UPN station minus the whole Tribune thing CW went there. In other markets it was whoever the network felt was stronger. The whole point was to make a stronger network out of the carnage of UPN and WB left overs. The Network structure was originally the WB's . They were doing Sunday Nights from 5/4c to 10/9c, Weeknights for 2 hours , daytime (formally the kids block ) from 3-5pm (time zone meaning nothing) and the Kids WB children's block. The Network launched in September.
this is logo they later announced and use today.
Now this plan looks good on paper and the first season did alright , not better than UPN or WB but alright . That writers strike (might do a 10 years thing about that ) that affect 2007-08 TV season and this hurt the CW. They killed off their comedy department they also laid off others and un filled some empty jobs. This is a factor in the end of KIDS WB (which you read our whole look back of here) where they sold the time to 4KIDS TV, while the CW was leasing things (Joshuaonline should have bought Tuesdays, darn it) they gave the 5 hour Sunday Nights to Media Rights Captial . CW was their weak night so someone buying their weakest night makes sense... it of course didn't work and they cut the deal in November 2008 (the same year) and replaced it with Drew Carey Show repeats and Jericho . WWE Smackdown (one of the UPN carry-overs) left in 2008 , for My Network TV (more on them later), even though it did well they dropped it because they were going after female viewers ages 18-34. (source) Then again if you are network with ratings problems and might not see 2010 , then you drop something people were watching on your network because it's not part of demographic is well , the wrong decade it's not like 1970's where people still might watch because there's only 6 channels, they can leave you and not come back.
Their demo chasing maybe did pay off anyway , they introduced shows like Gossip Girl ,and 90210. which had buzz and viewers, compared to whatever the heck "Valentine" was. They did give up on Sundays , giving that slot to the affiliates in 2009.
This brings us to around now , they did have a change in action in 2012 . First off , If I wrote in 2007 , that the CW would still be on the air in 2012, I would have called myself crazy. They dropped the whole one demo , everyone else go to CBS or NBC or wherever for your fun instead , for inclusive audience. Arrow came out which had 2 things going for it, it had corporate synergy since DC comics is owned by the parent company , and ratings. They added other genres too instead of just soapy soap stuff , they added "'Who's Line is it anyway?" a revival , Sci fi shows and more.
10 years into's life the network looks much better off than it did back in 2006 or even 2008 that it has more viewers , programs that people are watching, and even one of those shows won an Emmy. "Jane the Virgin" was their first show to do such. Interestingly, a lot of the shows on the network are from CBS or Warner, more so from Warner than CBS. Since it's a digital age they also have delved well into that . CW Seed is an internet platform with original shows, some library stuff .
What about those other stations left in the cold from that "merger" (it wasn't really a merger)? Well FOX owned the Chris-Craft stations for a few years, UPN affiliates in NYC, Chicago, LA, and some others were owned by FOX for 6 years. Their stations were in that group being left out of the CW. ( Tribune which had a relationship with the WB seemed more senese than having another an owner of another network run ...well that wasn't an owner of the CW.. your major affiliates) In February of 2006, about a month after the CW was announced they announced they were launching a new network called My Network TV. Not the best name, but FOX's parent had just bought Myspace , which was hot at the time , and was My everything. Their location stations websites were myfox.... .com . Stations that weren't owned by FOX but maybe were left out of the CW , could instead of becoming independent (because who needs that?) could join FOX's thing. They had a unique strategy that I personally found interesting they were going to bring telenovelas but in English
airing 5 nights a week in strip. The shows were in 3 month cycle and have recaps on the 6th night.
my Network TV, mine you don't touch!
Most networks have different programs each night , though the spanish networks , Univision , for example airs Telenovelas in prime time and airs them in a daily fashion. They also were going after that 18-34 audience the CW was going for, Now the network could have developed this more gone more traditional American soap , if they had to change the telenvoelas anyway , with cut off dates. A comedy running daily could have been fun and interesting where it's plots could run through the whole series in a few months, etc. They debuted in September of 2006, about 2 weeks before the CW. The ratings were alright they would be great if it was cable ,but getting less than a million on broadcast doesn't work well so they dropped the telenovelas in 2007. They really were on some lost track for 2 years of airing anything they could find. They did have one program that helped a little starting in 2008, they picked up the rights to WWE Smakdown , the first night that aired , MY Net(hahhaha ) beat the CW (ironc). In 2009 they found a new focus ...well an old focus they stopped being a network (didn't change the time) and started airing syndicated repeats. Smackdown packed up to Syfy in 2011. Currently they air one of the Law and Order spinoffs (so does everyone else) cable off repeats of The Closer, the biggest thing is they air the Walking Dead from AMC, which is the only thing not in weekend drama syndication.
It's not really a network anymore it's stations can move their programs to other times , for example in Seattle they air My Network TV stuff 12am-2am , some stations air their programs with digi network , like METV sharing the rest of channel space.
2006 was an interesting year in what happened in broadcast TV ,and as of this writing there's not been new networks launched on broadcast TV (well skipping the digital networks) and there may not ever be again. That was the last hurrah for ideas like that , there maybe other things done in a structure. If Joshuaonline had been doing TV talk in 2006 , I don't know what would have been said (we need a time machine) but it would been interesting to write about the new networks and what they were doing. That's our first 10 years article and we hope you will love the rest , though the others might not have so much back story.
Note: Though it seems now , the Tribune company and the CW are in discussion mode to see if they renew or if the CW will have to do something else.
There many soap operas that so much we have a fourth posting about them in a lookback fashion.
1.The City
Remember when we talked about the Soap "Loving" ? (If you don't then it's right here) Then you remember when we said the show ended in 1995 and it's famous plot line was a serial killer (ironic , because they killed a serial show). This takes us to "The City", Agnes Nixon , the creator of such soaps : "All My Children" , "One Life to Live", "Loving" , got another slot on ABC to replace her "Loving " . The City began November 13 , 1995 , (or the following Monday from the end of "Loving") the main characters of the soap were those who weren't killed off in "Loving" they moved from the place where all the murders were (not the worst idea) to New York's Soho district in an apartment building. (Wait , are we sure we aren't talking about Friends?) Another thing about The City is well ... it's main setting wasn't the city (that title guy is so fired) it was the loft and surrounding parts.
Are we sure this isn't Friends? / Copyright ABC
One of the biggest story lines for this series was about a transsexual photographer and the fall-out of people finding out until it was dropped because of the subject matter and bad other things. (no serial killers) Remember the serial killer? They tried to bring that back as well by having some of the characters stalked or murdered (contracts are weird) and the killer was .... (ehhh)
Since this show is being covered as a lookback that probably means it's dead (yes , it was killed by serial killer who also stalked Young and The Restless and killed Sunset Beach later on) yep , the show never caught on with viewers. Morgan Fairchild left the show and was replaced by Jane Eliot from "General Hospital" but again not catching on fire as a show. Another factor was the time slot : In the East it was on at 12:30 PM against "The Young and The Restless" (kind of like putting your new show against American Idol in the 2000's) and ABC canceled it in 1997.
An interesting note characters Angie Hubbard (played by Debbi Morgan ) and her son Frankie , started on "All My Children" in 1983 , moved to "Loving" in 1993 and being a survivor moved to "The City".
2. Port Charles
After "The City" was a canceled , ABC did repeats of other soaps until they got a new soap called "Port Charles" If that sound familiar , well that's because it's a spin off of "General Hospital" it takes place in the fictional city of Port Charles , much like General Hospital. (Unlike The City) Port Charles began on June 1st 1997 . There were plans to do a GH spin off since 1996 (maybe earlier but who cares about that?) The first name concept was "GH2 " it would focus on the interns at the medical school across from the famous hospital. It was later renamed to what the show premiered as "Port Charles" and to anchor the show well they had two stars from General Hospital star in this show Lynn Herring who played Lucy and Jon Lindstrom who played Kevin Collins . It premiered in primetime first with a 2 hour start. (That's 4 episodes of plot there)
The Soap had low ratings at first but was finding its own audience , then in 2000 it found it's style it was now going to follow a novella format , so instead of long storylines it was going have "books" (reading is fun kids ) that would be 13 week plot lines self contained in that book.
The "books" were called : Fate , Time in a Bottle , Tainted Love , Tempted , Miracles Happen, Secrets, Superstition, Torn, Naked Eyes , Surrender , Desire, and The Gift .(or the names of my kids) The original concept of focusing on interns also was later waived out.
Yeah we have a green filter deal with it!/ Copyright ABC
The soap did run 6 years but didn't satfiy ABC anymore so they ended it in 2003 , this series ending had to distinctions : it was ABC's last new soap series and when it ended the slot was given to local stations ( to air news and junk) . The late 90's was really the end of new soap series being made for daytime TV .
3. Passions
ABC is depressing me , let's go to NBC as we go to their last ever new soap series ever in America (oh... should have gone to CBS eh?) Let's talk about "Passions" , it began as the century was ending on July 5th in 1999. NBC was happy with the creator of the series because he (James E Riley) was credited with the surge in ratings at "Days of Our Lives". One of the plotlines was Dr. Marlena Evans was possessed by Satan . (you know, an average Tuesday)
Passions was a new soap for Riley to try anything and not get some viewers mad at him . "Passions" had some interesting people and plotlines . Sheridan Crane , was a character who was close with Princes Diana , including having a similar accident in the same Paris tunnel and speaks to ghost Diana (uhhh what?) who urges her to survive. When Crane had a boating accident she gets amnesia (our old soap friend ) and calls herself Diana. We also had a love triangle. (yep it's a soap) Riley must have a thing for supernatural (or really missed Dark Shadows) this show had it witches (Sabrina?) ,warlocks , closet doors to Hell (which sounds like a rock song). We had centuries old Witch named Tabitha Lennox and her brought to life doll, Timmy.
In 2004 , the show went through some changes with many of the original actors leaving the show and new characters were introduced , giving the show a ratings boost.
Fly on the wings of a bird you! / copyright NBC
The Soap was never the highest rated but it did well with key demos (the stuff networks care about) but NBC decided to cancel it in 2007 , this was in part due to the fact they wanted to expand the "Today Show" to 4 hours (ooh lucky us) and they were going to have affiliates give up 10AM in exchange for the "Passions" slot. It ended on September 7th 2007.
But wait , our story has a twist ! NBC owned the show and was looking for someone to pick it up for them and Direct TV did. 10 days after the series ended it returned with new episodes on Direct TV's 101 network (as it was known then) . But that happy moment of maybe a chance of hope didn't last long Direct TV announced they were not renewing the show and it ended in August 2008.
We found a theme in these soaps they were some of the last soaps made for American Daytime TV. Established soaps weren't moving and slots were drying up and also it was getting harder to attract people (thanks stupid reality shows) due to changing patterns of viewers , especially daytime viewers.
That's our lookback , stay tuned next time when we move to a city of witches who are escaping a serial killer.
