Commentary
Will The Combination Of 'General Hospital' And 'Katie' Make ABC's Afternoons Hot Again?
- by Ed Martin , August 10, 2012
We’re one month away from the series premiere of Disney-ABC Domestic Television’s “Katie,” the nationally syndicated live daily talk show starring Katie Couric. This program is hugely important to ABC, the daytime division of which remains in dire need of exciting new blood after the departures of syndication superstars Regis Philbin and Oprah Winfrey; the cancellations of long-running soap operas “All My Children” and “One Life to Live”; the lukewarm response to “The Chew,” the bland cooking show that replaced “AMC,” and the embarrassing failure of “The Revolution,” the ill-formed show that replaced the vital and popular “OLTL.”
Can “Katie” save the day, or is ABC’s daytime lineup -- once the most robust at any network -- doomed to a future of mediocrity? I have no doubt that Couric and her co-executive producer, former NBC Universal chairman and “Today” executive producer Jeff Zucker, will deliver a lively hour of daily afternoon television, or that the two are up to the task, given their past experiences. The questions are, can “Katie” draw a large female audience to ABC in mid-afternoon, and will the demographic and economic profile of that audience be satisfying enough to make the show a true success?
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Interestingly, some of the strongest support for “Katie” could be the lead-in provided by “General Hospital,” the show ABC once hoped to kill off to make room for Couric, but that will now move ahead one hour to become its all-important lead-in. (The afternoon lineup that ABC hoped most of its stations would eventually have in place when it started making a royal mess of things was “The Chew,” “The Revolution” and “Katie.”) “GH” has some renewed traction right now, thanks largely to the talents of new executive producer Frank Valentini, who was skillfully making “One Life to Live” more entertaining and higher-rated than it had been in years when ABC decided to end it.
“General Hospital” has always been very popular with women, perhaps less so during the last decade when it became unrelentingly dark and misogynistic, but not to the extent that the damage cannot be undone, as Valentini is currently proving. So if the creative team at “GH” can effectively shift focus away from the male mobsters that have long dominated the show and onto the many adult women on its canvas, and tell stories centered on romance and family rather than madness and mob hits, it might just draw in more of the very viewers who are predisposed to stick around for Couric. (If younger “GH” viewers stick around as well, that’s even better.)
The main reason I suggest putting more emphasis on the “adult” women on “GH” is that I believe adult characters tend to attract more daytime viewers than teen and early twenty-something characters, who were a huge draw for high school- and college-aged viewers in the ‘70s and ‘80s but were less so in the ‘90s and the Aughts. Given their many entertainment and engagement options and distractions, I don’t think the kids will come back to this soap, or any soap, without a wholesale reimagining of the genre, something that likely won’t happen on broadcast but could and should happen on basic cable.
Accordingly, “GH” could do much worse than to gain strength with women 35- or 40- or even 50-plus, the perfect audience for the all-important “Katie.” I say this about Couric’s audience in part because of conversations I had with a number of 20- and 30-something critics and reporters after her press conference at the recent Television Critics Association tour. They all said the same thing: They have no interest in watching her new show. It’s not that they dislike her. They simply don’t see any reason to devote time to her show, because they aren’t interested in hearing what she has to say about any of the big or small issues in their lives. There are plenty of other places to go for such things, they told me. Also, given their ages, they had little (if any) attachment to Couric from her time on “Today” or “The CBS Evening News.”
I’m sure ABC doesn’t think for a minute that when “Katie” moves into the mid-afternoon time periods that have been home to “General Hospital” since many baby boomers were youngsters it will suddenly attract millions of teens and 20-somethings to the time slot and the daypart, as “GH” once did. ABC instead is going to have to settle for women 40- or 50-plus, who are much more likely to make a daily habit of watching a talk show featuring a middle-aged newswoman, no matter her topics or guests. Whether or not younger women will watch “Katie” at other times via various mobile and time-shifting options remains to be seen, but if the candid remarks from those 20-something journalists mean anything, I would tend to doubt it.
Ed Martin is a well known media critic who has written for the Myers Media Business Report, TV Worth Watching,The Huffington Post, Inside Media, USA Today, Advertising Age, Broadcasting & Cable and TV Guide .
You write this as if this is Katie is an ABC Network show...its not...its syndicated...and although it is on ABC stations in many markets including their owned and operated group....its is also on non ABC stations in many markets
As a long time soap fan I will not be watching Katie. I have no interest in watching this show and I think I can speak for all soap fans. ABC tried to force other shows on soap fans and we never watched. Check out facebook. Soap fans are boycotting Katie just as they did with all of ABC shows. Since April 2011, I have not watched ANY ABC show except the soaps and will not watch any show now except General Hosiptal. There are millions of us soaps fans doing the same. And just for the record, I have never been a Katie fan. She can tell you of a child being killed with the biggest smile. No thank you!!!!!
I will not be home from work to see GH at 2pm, so I will either watch it on Soapnet in the evening or online. If I were home at that time, however, I wouldn't watch Katie. I would watch GH and then turn the TV off or switch channels. I am sick of the TV chatterboxes. Her show is doomed to fail because soap opera fans have boycotted ABC except for GH. It's so nice to see that our boycott has been working as reflected in the ratings of the chatter shows.
ABC has destroyed two of the best vintage soaps to have ever existed. Not one day passes when I am not in mourn ing over my beloved families of Llanview and Pine Valley.
I will continue to support GH as I want to see the soap genre survive. I will NOT bwe watching ANYTHING else, though will take note of the sponsors so they too will be boycott.
You can't just throw away 80+ yrs. of history for this garbage. Katie (what's her face) is destined to fail! Any and EVERY show you cancel and replace will sink like the Titanic.
You once had a LOYAL fan base and you could get us back. You could return OLTL to our screens or give Agnes Nixon her shows back! ABC / Disney .... boycott ... all but GH. I hope Brian Frons is getting his long overdue karma. ABC, YOU have gone too far! We will NOT watch or support anything you shell out ... especially your sponsors. Please take this into consideration as you watch Katie get "Chew"ed up and spit out. Your one-time viewers ARE the "Revolution". You are just the trolls that took away generations of fond momories and devotion.
I won't watch.So sick of talk,cooking and reality shows.I don't care if they say eyndication its ABC owned and syndication is only trying to get other networks to take her show where some of /ABC affliate have said no.They get paid if other networks show her.She's still ABC owed and they hired her to knock out the soaps.But they have to flops and the other one is a thief who stole from his waiters.It is all day damn talk shows.You only can talk about someone's movie.book,diet,lifestyle or gossip so many times a day.That all daytime is becoming.Need to stop the age discremintion and count all soap fans.And Neilsen needs to get updateds with the population so we get the real truth.One hour of the Today show already covers everything for the day on all these talk shows.Won't be watching.going to cable except GH.sick of talk shows.
Let's talk about that "great" lineup I get to look forward to with your Fall lineup in the Dallas market...first GMA(news and talk for 2 hours), GMTexas(more news and talk) for another hour, then the View(another hour of yapping), the Chew(an overhyped cooking show with the PRETENTIOUS Mario Batali)for an hour, then local news for another hour, finally followed by a whole hour of SCRIPTED programming with my favorite show General Hospital, then back to more yammering with the HEAVILY OVERPAID and doomed to fail Katie Couric for yet another hour, then Dr. OZ for an hour, then back to local news, national news, local news again and whatever you're cramming down our throats during primetime!!!...at least 10 hours of total crap programming I'm not remotely interested in!...and this is the network I used to watch from morning til night before you cancelled AMC and OLTL which I had been invested in for over 40 years and looked forward to daily....I've gone from an all day, everyday viewer, to a boycotting one hour a day viewer and I know I'm not alone!!...ABC/D has gone from being the #1 network to #4 in the last year barely beating the CW on occasion....Your ratings are in the toilet because you refuse to pay attention to what your LOYAL 4 decade long viewers want....our scripted programming back...I could care less about news, politics, talkshows, gameshows or cooking shows...Soap viewers will continue to be relentless in our efforts to MAKE you hear us until you do!!
ABC should have never cancelled One Life To Live or All My Children. The decreased ratings and decreased ad revenue since they went off the air prove this. They should have left their daytime soap line-up, and put Katie on at 4PM Eastern time, Oprah's old slot. But instead they cancelled two iconic soaps, and were so convinced General Hospital would be gone too, that they gave her their timeslot. Katie, along with everything else on ABC, both daytime and primetime are doomed to fail until they either revive OLTL and AMC, or release the rights to them when they get them back from Prospect Park, so they can be produced on another network.
I had to thank my rat affiliate because they are not showing KC!! It instead will air at 2pm on NBC :( This means it will go up against GH in many markets..that is not good!! We have to stand strong and no matter where she is aired DO NOT WATCH! The same goes for which ever show goes into the GH spot. I hope every soap fan feels the same way as I do. ABC needs to understand, we want love in the afternoon, we get enough reality in our day to day lives, that nothing they try to replace our shows with will succeed! and for the record, I did not like KC to start with, she is to fake. I find her smiling while telling of horrific items in the news very disturbing, and she just bored me.
ABC cancelled two legendary soaps for this? I will NOT be watching Katie at all. Neither will any self respecting soap fans. If ABC thinks Katie will have the same success as Oprah, they are sadly mistaken. Oprah was successful because the soap viewers made her that way and once she turned her back on them, her network failed. The same will happen to Katie. I can't stand her and would NEVER watch her. Bring back One Life to Live & All My Children.
No way would I watch Katie Couric. After GH ends at 3 PM, I would change the channel to something else. I hope it goes down in flames. We managed to tank the Revolution, which ended its 7 month run last month. We'll tank the Chew, GAA and Katie before the year's end. We want our soaps back. No more talk/reality/cooking shows. Why can't ABC/Disney listen to the viewers and read the ratings of their failing shows? Enough already!
There is absolutely no way I will watch Fakie Katie. I will watch turn my television on to ABC at 2pm on Sept 10th when General Hospital comes on and then promptly change the channel at 3pm when Ms. Couric hits the airwaves.
As a soap fan for a long, long time, I do not have any interest in watching Katie. I want to watch soaps and do so online and on Soapnet. If Soapnet goes off the air, I will only watch GH online. Can't quite figure out why TPTB just don't listen to the fans and put the shows back on that have made their company what it once was. AMC and OLTL are missed by fans. Soaps ARE daytime!
GH has already made afternoons hot again. It is on fire and that is want we want Love in the Afternoon not more talk from Katie who? Bring back soaps if ABC wants to be hot again otherwise we will watch soaps on other networks. They didn't care what loyal viewers wanted so they lost those viewers. The only way to bring them back is with soaps otherwise their shows are going to keep on crashing & burning if that's their idea of hot so be it. There are lots of other choices out there. ABC had loyal fans but they had no respect for them so they lost them.
Marc,
If you truly believe that "Katie" is an old-school syndicated show, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn that I'd like to sell you. While you are correct that she will be syndicated, you DON'T move your network's most iconic show up an hour, strong-arm, er, "strongly encourage" affiliates to carry her at 3/2 for nothing. Some affiliates have opted out of course, but the biggest ruse in TV history is about to happen: How to make a syndicated show that's NOT REALLY a syndicated show. In short, claim syndication all you want, but there's too much evidence to the contrary.
And Ed, quit sucking up to ABC, we all know you want GH to be cancelled...
I do NOT think the public needs ANY more news programs, the public needs shows that will relax them not make them feel uneasy, the world today has so much hate that we need a television program to relax the mind, body and soul even for an hour. A soap opera may not be real but honestly how many more REAL programs are needed to better our lives???? The "Katie" show will not help in any format, not in ratings or lifestyle so please keep the programing of LESS news and more variety.
I will not watch "Katie" or any other shows that are aired to replace my soaps. Please bring back AMC and OLTL and keep GH on the air. I have watched these shows most of my life and I will not watch any replacements.
No matter where Katie goes, no matter which network she disgraces, I will go elsewhere. I positively detest her and HAVE NEVER, nor WILL EVER, watch any trash with her name attached to it. She makes boycotting ABC a pleasure for me. ABC and the rat can admit their mistake, or go out of business for all I'm concerned. Until they removed AMC and OLTL, I was one of their most loyal viewers.....I rarely watched any other network. But those Benedict Arnolds can kiss my a$$, right where it puckers until they put the soaps back on the air or relinquish the rights back to their rightful owner, the fabulous Agnes Nixon. It's just that simple.
Ed, thank you for another fine article about the decimation of ABC Daytime and by extension Primetime. Now with fewer viewers choosing to watch ABC Daytime, there are fewer viewers watching everything advertised on ABC Daytime including ABC's own Priimetime promotion, and we are seeing the resulting attrition of viewership there as well. According to Disney's most recent Quarterly Earnings Report, Disney is maintaining its revenue on the backs of advertisers who are paying HIGHER ad rates and on the backs of the ABC affiliates who are paying higher fees to Disney, even as advertisers receive fewer ad impressions from ABC and affiliates are seeing their own local ad revenue decrease (except for political ad-buying which will be concluded in November...then what?). Disney needs to do right by its loyal viewers who have left in droves, and bring back All My Children and One Life to Live either in daytime or primetime. I watch exactly one hour of ABC 5 days a week, and that is General Hospital. Prior to the cancellation of my soaps, I turned on ABC in the morning, and left it there all day and most of the evening. Now, I make a point not to watch ABC, and I sure won't be watching Katie regardless the channel she is on. ABC had no business giving Katie the time slot General Hospital had for nearly 50 years, and I will not support her show, nor any other on ABC, except General Hospital, until my soaps are returned to production. ABC has been penny-wise and pound foolish, and now they need to reap what they have sown. Clearly whatever drummed up research ABC had suggesting people wanted more "life-style" programming was dead wrong. Both advertisers and affiliates need to impress upon ABC the urgency of returning All My Children and One Life to Live because the soap fans who continue to tank everything on ABC Daytime except GH show no sign of backing down or giving up.
No Soaps = No ABC Disney! And no Katie!! The only show I will watch is GH until OLTL and AMC are either returned to their rightful places or the rights are released so that another network can put them into production again. I was a loyal ABC Daytime Soap fan for more than 46 years. I am deeply offended by the actions of ABC and Disney as to how we, the soap fans, have been treated! We will not be "trained" to watch the drivel they put on their network. We want our soaps! Period.
At least my local ABC affiliate doesn't have any faith in Katie as they will not be airing her show. On another note, I will not be watching anything else ABC/Disney tries to cram down my throat either. I will only watch my soaps on ABC and that is it.
Nothing will make ABC afternoon's hot again except returning AMC and OLTL back to the airwaves. Like many of the commenters, I will not be watching Katie. Nor do I watch Dr. Oz, Nate Berkus, Dr. Phil, Dr. Drew, Ellen, and so on. I never watched Oprah. The only show on ABC/D that I will be watching is GH. That includes both Daytime and Primetime. I'm not interested in talk shows. My grandchildren, who are in that prime demographic, just turn them off and walk away. They get the readers-digest version off their smart phones. Why waste an hour? ABC/D, you made a major mistake cancelling programs that had fans tuning in for 30, 40, 50 years. You'll never get that kind of fan loyalty for Katie.
No I will not watch Katie's new show. the only thing that will save ABC/Disney is that they return our daytime soaps. The new show that they are putting on is stupid, boring and I have not interest in watching. When General Hospital comes on I will watch that show and then when Katie's show comes on I will turn off my TV set or change the channel to anything else but ABC/Disney I will boycott ABC til they return my Soaps.
I really do not think ABC knows to go ahead or backwards. This is a confused and might I add stupid network, with stupid ideas in programming. Katie will be gone and forgotten so quickly she won't believe it. We do not want any more talk, news, or reality. Sell the rights to OLTL and AMC. You don't want them yet they come with millions of built in viewers. We will prove to ABC that their taste in programming is at the bottom and not going to move up any time in the foreseeable future.
Nothing can replace OLTL, AMC, and GH. My family, friends and I will never watch any replacement shows. ABC needs to bring back the cancelled shows or sell the rights to them.
I will not be watching Katie's new show due tonot watching ABC (except General Hospital) since they took my soaps off the air. I can still cry to this day because I miss my favorite soaps. I want to know how Erica and Jack are doing and JR and Tad, Angie, etc. And desperately want to see Vickie, Clint, Bo, Jessica, Natalie, Dorian,Blair, David, Roxie, Rex, GiGi, all the kids etc. I used to watch ABC starting at 7:00 am until 11:00 pm. Now I only watch General Hospital which I love also. I hate what they have done to daytime and teased us about continuing them on the net and then took that from us too. GIVE ME A BREAK ALREADY. GIVE US OUR SOAPS BACK.
Oh yeah, I now watch Soapnet night and day, and ven cancelled my cable when they took it off the air and got satellite in stead!!!!
There is no way Katie Couric is going to bring in the ratings and no way can she replace our Soaps! Come on ABC! When are you going to get it! We want our Soaps back! I will continue to boycott all ABC programs except for General Hospital as that is the only program you have that is worth watching! Give us back at least OLTL and your ratings will surely go back up. Until then you reap what you sow! You are doomed!
I find it funny that ABC feels that all us soap fans will be satisfied with nothing more than talk and news all day long... we won't be. ABC had the highest rated daytime according to the article why would you want to try to play around with what was a winning formula? Bring back OLTL!!!!
Under no circumstances will I watch any replacement show. I don't care what it is, who is on it, or what it's about. If it's not a soap opera, it will not get viewed in my home.
I have always hated talk shows, but the fact that they are replacing REAL shows that I loved, makes them the bane of my existence. Nobody cares about that reality crap, except the accountants over at ABC. It's cheaper, so that makes it better? I don't think so. It's boring, uninteresting, and a massive waste of air time. Soap fans do not want reality. We want to ESCAPE reality by watching a drama that keeps us on the edge of our seats, and will make us want to tune in the next day.
As a 31 year old woman, I fall into at least 2 or 3 key demographics. I would think that should mean something, but sadly, it doesn't. ABC doesn't care what their key demos want to watch, they only care about the bottom line.
I was a devoted ABC daytime fan for literally my entire life. I grew up on AMC and OLTL, and had they stayed on the air, I would still be a devoted ABC fan. But, they have demonstrated over and over again that they don't want me as a viewer, so I gave them what they wanted. I watch GH in order to give them my support, but that is the only ABC show I will watch, unless and until my soaps are brought back.
I will not be tuning into Katie. I like her style, but ABC tv missed the boat. They tried to cram more food shows & crazy looking off beat people into my home trying to make me accept ABC TV as Diversified.. Check out facebook. Soap fans are boycotting Katie just as they did with all of ABC shows.The Chew is awful & the Revolution was a nightmare. Are the people in charge out of touch with daytime audiences I think so. Since OLTL was cancelled I have not watched ANY ABC show except the General Hospital. Good Luck Katie you are nice but you are no substitute for a good Soap Opera ! Bring back OLTL & AMC !!!
"Vital" is indeed the word I would have used for OLTL. When ABC-Disney removed this show from their daytime line up, the entire day part collapsed. Could ABC-D have lived without the geriatric fodder that was "AMC" or the (then) SERIOUSLY slumping "GH"? Sure. But somehow, OLTL was the tie that bound, that all important glue that held the day part together. Long neglected, poorly advertised, and seriously under-budget (thanks to Valentini,) OLTL should have been used as a MODEL for how to make a soap work on 2 nickels and a prayer. ABC-D sorely underestimated which puzzle pieces they were pulling out, and now ABC daytime is a bit like Humpty Dumpty-irreparable. With the rights to AMC and OLTL reverting from Prospect Park to ABC-D in September and January, respectively, the alphabet has a slim window of opportunity to restore their dominance over daytime. Hopefully, they will take advantage of these long neglected workhorses, and with a little tweaking and some polish, re-launch them as sleeker, meaner shows with a strong emphasis on everyday heroines in unusual situations. It very well may be the only thing that can save the floundering network, as Disney's most recent numbers show it is in TROUBLE.
Ms. Couric's talk show is a sink-or-swim situation. I don't know-we'll see.
The only thing that will be "hot" is the numbers on my remote control from the quick channel change I will do after General Hospital is over. Bring back our soaps!
This everyday comments by the media and various people point to complete failure of 1 more talk show with Katie Couric. She has no idea how many people including myself do not and would not watch ABC ever again. Personally I am so unimpressed with ABC's selection of programming. All talk, news, reality. No one will watch Katie or any other ABC show except GH. We have been ignored and they do not listen therefore I for one am done.
No, Katie cannot save the day for ABC/D. I have no interest in watching another talk show. Since I work during the day, I tape my soaps and have no desire to tape Katie. I have been a LONG time loyal ABC viewer. For as long as I can remember, ABC has been the station to watch. Up until April 14, 2011 - I had my TV on ABC almost all day, almost every day. I watched mainly ABC primetime. Now I tune in for General Hospital and that is it. I even make sure my DVR does not catch one second of either show at the beginning and end of GH. While I understand they are a business and need to make money - I believe they did not think it through completely before they started trashing the daytime dramas. These shows may be cheaper to produce...but they also aren't being watched...
I will not watch Katie really ABC she is awful. If you think she will save your network just look what happened we she did the nightly news. And putting her in our soap spots makes me hate her more. Idiots
It's as simple as A-B-C. Huge programming mistakes were made by the muckety-mucks (Brian Frons, et al) and now the affiliates, the sponsors, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, the fans are suffering for it. All My Children, and especially the successful and under budget One Life to Live were cancelled, and for WHAT? Crappy, boring shows that have failed or are failing. Loyalty is a precious thing and ABC had it from their soap fans, but instead of savoring and fostering that loyalty, ABC chose to throw it in the rubbish bin. Now we are loyal only to General Hospital, and for the rest of our viewing time we have gone elsewhere. ABC's mistakes were: 1) blatantly slapping their core audience in the face, and 2) woefully underestimating the power, loyalty, and numbers of the soap viewers. It was just assumed that we would tune in for whatever shlock was tossed our way, no matter dumb, boring, or repetitive the show. WRONG! We have tuned OUT in droves. Like most other former ABC viewers, I remain true to the soap genre by watching General Hospital (which, btw, is kicking booty now) and ignoring ANY other ABC programming. The decision makers thought we would just fall in line and consume whatever they crammed down our throats. They assumed that we'd get over the loss of our soaps. They assumed the boycott of ABC programming would die a quick death. Well guess what, ABC? We HAVEN'T fallen in line, we HAVEN'T forgotten our soaps, and the boycott WILL continue until we have our soaps back, either on ABC or somewhere else. I probably wouldn't have watched Katie anyway, but now that her show is booting GH out of its timeslot there's no way I'd tune in. The massive money they've spent to on her contract and her show is going to be just more money down the toilet, and one more black mark on ABC for their extremely poor and embarrassing daytime programming decisions of late. Sorry, Katie, take the money and run; your tenure with ABC will turn out the way your nightly news on CBS went. Maybe GMA will take you back? They've certainly got enough air time to fill. We want SOAPS, not endless chat.
ABC/D made a gigantic mistake by cancelling OLTL/AMC, and the ratings show it, if they want to redeem their reps. they need to put things back. That means OLTL/AMC on air then maybe their daytime audience would come back and hopefully their audience across the board. Daytime dramas are a building blocks to all dramatic television and without them television ceases to thrive and grow!
ABC made a huge mistake when they cancelled OLTL/AMC being a fan for many years and sticking with the boycott of all the shows that are on ABC other than GH, which I'm not that happy with. Frank is destroying our OLTL cast but still I would rather watch GH, then anything else on ABC. And this new show with Katie won't last. We the fans of OLTL/AMC/GH will not watch. If ABC really want to do something they need to bring OLTL back..Or give back to Agnes. Bring Back Our Soap. If not everything you try will fail...And thanks Ed for hearing our voice.
I will never watch Katie. I couldn't care less what she has to say or what she thinks. Katie will be long gone but AMC & OLTL will be remembered forever. Now I only watch GH. Aside from that, I refuse to watch anything on ABC or Disney until they bring back AMC & OLTL. ABC needs to stop holding AMC & OLTL hostage. No more talk shows, reality shows, cooking shows, or lifestyle shows. When will ABC learn that if they don't listen to us then we will punish them. We will not relent. We will continue to boycott ABC/Disney for as long as it takes for ABC to listen to us and respect our views. We are in this for the long haul. Brian Frons (I think that's his name)should be tarred and feathered.
Susan, while I agree with everything you just said, for clarification purposes-Brian Frons was "let go" by ABC in December.