Guiding Light Discussion Group
Message Responses
Subject: Just so you have your facts right, you must be corrected. CBS cancelled GL, not P&G. P&G tried shopping it around to other networks. CBS' Les Moonves was behind pulling the plug on GL.
Response Posted by: Fact Finder
Date Posted: Thu Sep 24 21:56:15 2009
Message:
eom
Subject: Why do you always harp on P&G 20 soap titles? P&G tried a soap channel on the internet and it failed miserably. Some episodes of Texas were watched by a whopping 12 people. Wow. You can't believe that there is an audience chomping at the bit to watch Lovers and Friends and For Richer, For Poorer? P&G knows a soap channel would be a disaster. There is NOT an audience out there for these shows. Accept it.
Response Posted by: Sean
Date Posted: Thu Sep 24 22:08:55 2009
Message:
eom
Subject: I'm not talking about a soap channel online. I'm talking about a viable soap network on cable or some other venue. Soaps ARE viable. While CBS may have 'cancelled' GL, they wouldn't have if P&G wasn't agreeable to it. P&G is who made the show unwatchable. I 'harp' on P&G's library of titles because it is extensive--over 20 shows in that libarary! I've never understood why so many fail to see that CBS had a vested interest in waiting until P&G was onboard w/cancellation before it was done. It has always been done that way--uniquely w/P&G soaps because they are also the biggest source of ad revenue for the networks--not just CBS & not just for daytime. Also, as I've said before, as P&G goes, so go the smaller advertisers. This isn't something that I've made up. One of the things that I was told during the fight to save AW, a fight that lasted over 6 yrs, was that EVERY network that has had P&G soaps has waited until P&G gave the green light to cancel ANY of their shows. It doesn't happen w/other soaps because no other soap ownership has the Corp. power that P&G does--pure & simple. P&G has a lot of power in the marketplace. All you have to do is look at the market share they hold in the products in your local supermarket aisle to know the kind of influence they have worldwide, not just w/US television. Five minutes of looking at the business dept. of the local library will give you a good idea of the Corp. influence P&G has w/entities far more powerful than the once 'big three' networks in the US. There is a reason why smaller companies follow P&G's lead in terms of marketing & advertising. It really doesn't matter if there is a viable market for ANYTHING, if P&G sends out the message that something isn't worth the time & $$ to commit to it. Others will follow like herds of sheep. No insult to sheep intended. eom
Response Posted by: Rosebud1
Date Posted: Fri Sep 25 2:54:37 2009
Message:
eom
Subject: You can't go by what you were told by some dead guy 13 years ago. There is no viable market out there for P&G soaps that were cancelled over 30 years ago. Show us your research to prove that there is a market out there. P&G tried it and it failed. I think they know more about the soap business than you do. lol.
Response Posted by: Mrs G
Date Posted: Fri Sep 25 7:28:22 2009
Message:
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Subject: Mrs. G: Mr. Dixson wasn't the only one who told me that. It was also the way that P&G soaps had ALWAYS been done. I was told that by three network people & a local affiliate person who had worked at the network level. I'd bet that they knew far more about how things ran at the network level & w/P&G than you do, or the spin doctors who keep perpetuating the myth that the networks tell P&G how to do business. Even if the network cancelled the show, they don't own it. If P&G had agreed to end the relationships w/CBS & NBC, they could have shopped their shows around or created their own network, but they chose to pull the plug on their shows. Other shows changed networks, long before there were more than the big three out there! The point really is that P&G killed the last two shows they ended production on, pure & simple. The networks didn't have the power to order the way P&G had their shows' stories told. That was all P&G. eom
Response Posted by: Rosebud1
Date Posted: Fri Sep 25 10:07:32 2009
Message:
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Subject: I actually agree with RB on this one. The show is not there anymore because P&G didn't want it there. It never would have gotten into the shape it was if that wasn't the way P&G wanted it. And I don't believe that P&G wanted to sell it to somewhere else at ALL! That was a bunch of big lies! They were just trying to keep people from boycotting P&G by doing lip service. Because they COULD have found another venue. They could have gotten rid of the show for years and had someone else take it over, but they wouldn't do it. I don't know WHY they wouldn't do it. But they wouldn't. And I blame them more than CBS!!! fee
Response Posted by: fee
Date Posted: Fri Sep 25 10:13:45 2009
Message:
I actually agree with RB on this one. The show is not there anymore because P&G didn't want it there. It never would have gotten into the shape it was if that wasn't the way P&G wanted it. And I don't believe that P&G wanted to sell it to somewhere else at ALL! That was a bunch of big lies! They were just trying to keep people from boycotting P&G by doing lip service. Because they COULD have found another venue. They could have gotten rid of the show for years and had someone else take it over, but they wouldn't do it. I don't know WHY they wouldn't do it. But they wouldn't. And I blame them more than CBS!!! fee
Subject: I don't agree with Rosebud. P&G tested the waters by allowing Soapnet to air Another World a few years back. AW generated a 0.0 rating in women 18-49. Yup, a 0.0 Also, P&G put Edge of Night, Texas, AW, SFT on an all P&G soaps channel on the internet and it flopped. I disagree that there is a viable audience out there for these long cancelled shows. A few dozen viewers, maybe, but not enough to make it sustainable financially. Rosebud is wrong when she says that P&G did not try this.
Response Posted by: Hallie McC
Date Posted: Fri Sep 25 19:49:17 2009
Message:
eom
Subject: Rosebud, as usual, you don't address facts when they go against what you think. Where was this viable soap audience when P&G tested the waters by allowing Soapnet to air Another World and it was a huge failure? How can you say there is a viable audience out there for old soaps when it has been tried, tested and failed?
Response Posted by: Betsy
Date Posted: Sat Sep 26 8:43:09 2009
Message:
eom
