Editor: David Tanny
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Daytime Skewing Too Old (Jan 17, 2008)In a related story, Debbi Morgan, Darnell Williams, and Rebecca Budig return to the sinking soaper "All My Children". At last count, five of the daytime soaps were floundering at or below 2.0 during the week of December 17. Still no word if the soaps will be turing to scabs to scribe the shows when their WGA-written material runs out sometime soon, of if the WGA plans to tell the viewers to boycott the soaps if they plan to use scab writers.My suggestion. Just scrap the soaps when their scripts run out, give them a break, try some new ideas such as game shows, talk shows, cartoons, anything except expanding the morning shows until 4pm Eastern time! I'm guessing that the Drew Carey-hosted Price is Right's ratings are up with more younger viewers tuning in. The networks need to get some younger viewers watching. All they got now is basically the over-55 retired crowd watching Young and the Restless in senior citizen rest homes. Sure, they can sell colostomy bags, adult diapers, AARP subscriptions, Metamucil, Geritol, and old episodes of Lawrence Welk and 50s pop hits on disc. The trouble is that this isn't the group the advertisers want to reach, but there's plenty of the over-55 crowd to watch the free broadcast networks. There's a lot of those kind of viewers who are retired and need something to watch. The networks are not attracting the younger viewers, who are nowadays hooked on Internet video, mp3 players, talking on cell phones, watching niche cable channels, playing video games, watching movies on DVD, and other distractions. They're just not interested in watching the soaps, whose viewership is sinking due to competetion, fatigue, and death of the viewers. These new distractions are quick to enjoy, give instant gratification, are available on-demand, can be enjoyed by everybody, and are full of diversity. Maybe the networks should start thinking outside the box and give the younger viewers something they want to watch during the daytime hours. Put on some entertainment that's perfectly fit for the children of the MTV generation, who are by now in their teens and young adult years. They need short attention span type programming that's self-contained in an hour, not serialized stories that require everyday watching. That's how to get viewers. Give them something that they can relate to in their own virtual entertainment worlds. One more thing: make sure that the programming is suitable for the over-55 crowd. Game shows are perfect for that age group. Children can watch them when they're at home from school or sick all day with the flu. Just eschew the star-studded expletitive-bleeped fare like Match Game and Hollywood Squares and you'll be fine. With that in mind, anybody care for a clone of American Idol to run during lunch time?
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