Scary Prediction Comes 2/3rds True (Dec 9, 2009)

What's going in is as simple as that. Fewer viewers, mainly, those between 18 and 49 years of age, equates to a show more likely to be cancelled. Funny thing about it is that in the daytime, there just aren't that many viewers in the 18 to 49 year range that stays home to watch daytime television. It's mainly retirees and house spouses who are available to watch programming slotted between 9am and 5pm daily.

In the case of General Hospital, it's generating a substantial amount of girls aged 12-17 compared to All My Children airing two hours earlier when most all of them are in school. To be able to attract the younger viewers is what helps a show survive as they may eventually grow into the desirable 18 to 49 age range. If a show can't attract the younger end of the viewers such as 12 to 24, then the show cannot grow and is stuck with a dying audience, that is, ratings keep getting lower and lower until it's finally cancelled.

Guiding Light's replacement on CBS, Let's Make a Deal, is hovering at a rating the show it replaced did...in the cellar, but the difference is that the show is attracting more of a male audience, though nowhere as close as the number of males who watch CBS's midday soap Young and the Restless...about a million of them, which is a fifth of the number of total viewers.

What CBS may do in September of next year remains to be seen. The cast and crew of CBS's "Bold and the Beautiful" soaper said that they would oppose any expansion to a full hour. CBS may decide to cancel that show and give it back to their affilliates. In the East coast, Y&R has aired at 12:30pm since 1981, giving CBS an edge over ABC and NBC, which starts their AMC and DAYS soaps at 1pm. Cancelling B&B could be an option if that show refuses to expand to an hour. Importing Tyra Banks from the sinking CW netlet to fill in the ATWT time slot may be the answer. CW in my humble opinion may be the next network to fold or may rebrand itself as a distribution network like My Network TV did in October.

CBS could try more game shows, since they're cheaper to produce and can make the network a profit.

Sports in Daytime Television? (Dec 9, 2009)

Putting on live college sports weekdays from 1:30-4pm ET daily could be a possibility as it attracts the 18-49 age range the networks desire to reach, with a strong appeal to the male audience. CBS could have college basketball from Nov-Mar, college baseball from Jan-June, college soccer from around Apr-Sep, and football from Aug-Dec. Plus, they could air other sports such as golf, bowling, tennis, and others.

The live sports broadcasts would be regional with the Pacific time zones getting their own college sports to air from 12:30-3pm PT. Games of national interest may air occasionally from 10:30am-1pm on the Pacific time zone.

More TV Predictions (Dec 9, 2009)

Fox decides to program Sundays-Thursdays from 8-11pm ET/PT. Fox would cease programming on Fridays and Saturdays, plus Sundays between 7-8pm, except for live sporting events such as football, baseball, and racing.

CBS, ABC, and NBC give up on programming scripted and rerun programming Saturday nights. ABC brings back bowling and Wide World of Sports as a two-hour weekly series on Saturday nights as well as renewing college football. CBS goes for boxing and motor sports. NBC goes for a college football double-header on Saturday nights with a new package to air live games at 8pm and 11:30pm ET, 5pm and 8:30pm PT.

NBC gives up on the Jay Leno show in 2010. NBC also gives up on programming all of the late night shows after Tonight, which expands to 90 minutes. NBC moves Days of our Lives to Mon-Fri at 10pm, and gives the 1pm ET slot to game shows.

ABC cancels One Life to Live in 2012, then cancels All My Children in 2013 when Susan Lucci retires at age 67. ABC adds another hour of Good Morning America at 9am-10am ET/PT after they cancel AMC. AMC's time slot will be given back to the affilliates. In OLTL's slot will be a new talk show co-hosted by one of the former hosts of The View.

Other Predictions (Dec 9, 2009)

All newspapers online will be turned into pay models.

The number of free cable networks will dwindle as they are converted to pay channels viewable on cable, satellite, and the Internet.

JUST IN: WORLD STOPS TURNING! (Dec 8, 2009)

CBS is canceling the soap opera "As the World Turns". The series, which started in 1956, will conclude its 54th and final year in September. CBS ended the 72-year-old daytime soap "Guiding Light" earlier this year.

The cancellation will leave CBS with only two daytime dramas: "The Young and the Restless" and "Bold and Beautiful," the fewest number of soaps on CBS since the early days of television.

There are no known replacement plans for the 2pm-3pm ET (1pm-2pm CT/PT) time slot as of yet.

This will mean that as of next fall, "General Hospital" on ABC will be the longest running scripted series on American television.