Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Talk of Moving THE VIEW To GH's Timeslot Continues

A story in today's Los Angeles Times brings up the possibility of GENERAL HOSPITAL and THE VIEW switching timeslots and other possible impacts of OPRAH leaving the airwaves. This was first brought up as an option in January.

Another option, although less likely, would be for ABC would be to swap THE VIEW with GENERAL HOSPITAL, which typically airs at 3 p.m. on most of its stations. The risk there is that GENERAL HOSPITAL has been running in the afternoon forever and a move to late mornings could severely hurt the show, which is one of the few remaining soap operas.

ABC is also studying whether to try to turn THE VIEW into a syndicated show. That would mean selling it to individual stations for cash and commercial inventory. ABC affiliates might get upset by the idea of losing the show to the highest bidder, although there is a potential of bigger bucks for ABC and parent Walt Disney Co.

Whether any of this would ever happen is still a long way from being determined. I can't see GH ever airing the morning as a viable option, but the landscape of daytime definitely will continue to change.

3 comments:

  1. Isn't one of the big reasons GH has been so popular is that it airs in a late afternoon slot, where school-age folks can watch it after class? Seems like this proposed move would mess with that audience.

    Maybe it doesn't matter, what with DVRs and SoapNet and such, but still.

    Wonder if ABC would consider moving "The View" to 4 pm, giving up the morning slot, and giving a little more commercial time to affiliates or giving affiliates the option to air it in the current, morning slot if they wanted.

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  2. I remember when WCBS in NY moved Guiding Light from 3pm to 10am... disaster.

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  3. Me too Regina! It frightens me when networks start playing fast and loose with timeslots. This was the downfall of Ryan's Hope, Edge of Night, Guiding Light, and so many others.

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