Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Ken Corday on Young Viewers, the Renewal & More

In a new interview with EW.com, Ken Corday says that younger viewers like watching older characters (finally someone gets it!).

A younger viewer—let’s say 18 to 25—doesn’t necessarily want to watch characters of the same age. They want characters that are a little bit older, going through a period of time that they are about to go through. So you take that all the way up the ladder and, interestingly enough, some of the younger viewers do like watching Victor and Maggie and Stefano do their senior bit.

It’s really hard to quantify it. We found when we gave more airtime to the over-34 actors, it didn’t touch the 18 to 34 rating. I don’t think teenagers or really young people necessarily want to watch stories about teenagers or really young people. And our viewers that are over 50 love watching the young people.
Corday also discussed the show's two year renewal with an option for a third year.

There’s a three-point answer. One, you have to at times economically branch out how you do the show. So we are now doing seven shows in five days, sometimes eight shows. That saves us a lot of money. Second, I think the time will come in the next two to five years where you will see one soap on each network—only the strongest will survive.
Read the entire interview here.

2 comments:

  1. Heck yeah. No issues with State or Magic. I like those characters and their relationships. They are entertaining. With that said, here comes the big but...

    BUT, who this "younger viewer" love, love, LOVES to watch is Carly and Bo.

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  2. I do not watch Days, but I do know that when I got hooked on Guiding Light at the age of nine it was Alan and Hope's relationship that caught my attention. I was nearer the ages of Phillip, Beth and Rick, but ironically that their story didn't interest me as much as that of Alan's and Hope's. Strong characters and strong stories will cross generations. I miss my soap a great deal....and I am glad for the DOOL fans because they have been spared the loss of their show. I still miss mine a great deal.

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