The Future of CBS Daytime

[Breaking News 802]

2 hours ago, Abraham J. Simpson said:

Number one among….three broadcast soaps? That isn’t exactly an achievement.  

It been #1since 1988 where at the time it was 13 shows. You might wanna look at it in a different way.

[Abraham J. Simpson 303]

I graduated high school in 1988. And I’m freaking old as dirt. What I did back them matters not a bit, nor does the fact that back then it was a big fish in a bigger pond. 

 

Sorry, it’s 2024, and being “number one” among three surviving and limping contenders is hardly trophy worthy. CBS could plop a polka music show on its schedule a guaranteed it will be number one in the category of broadcast polka music shows. 
 

Im looking at what matters: sellable audience eyeballs. If CBS can make enough bucks to wring some more life out of an ancient cast and recycled plots, props to them. But can we acknowledge that model is much closer to its end than its beginning? The world moves on, and no advertiser or media buyer is looking at what happened in the Regan administration era to place ad buys today. 
 

 

[newscopter7 198]

Welp so much for Y&R and B&B getting canned and NBC Waiting Room News being the future. CBS has a new soap

in development. 

[Drew 147]

I wonder what game show or soap it will replace? 

[MediaZone4K 1510]

On 2/29/2024 at 9:01 AM, Abraham J. Simpson said:

I graduated high school in 1988. And I’m freaking old as dirt. What I did back them matters not a bit, nor does the fact that back then it was a big fish in a bigger pond. 

 

Sorry, it’s 2024, and being “number one” among three surviving and limping contenders is hardly trophy worthy. CBS could plop a polka music show on its schedule a guaranteed it will be number one in the category of broadcast polka music shows. 
 

Im looking at what matters: sellable audience eyeballs. If CBS can make enough bucks to wring some more life out of an ancient cast and recycled plots, props to them. But can we acknowledge that model is much closer to its end than its beginning? The world moves on, and no advertiser or media buyer is looking at what happened in the Regan administration era to place ad buys today. 
 

 

Welp...

 

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/cbs-naacp-soap-opera-the-gates-bold-and-the-beautiful-writer-1235932548/

 

If it goes forward this would be the first new daytime soap since Passions in 1999. Hopefully, it succeeds, but it needs to not be written like any crap that's on soaps now. I'm honestly shocked. 

 

Edited March 6 by MediaZone4K

[Abraham J. Simpson 303]

So far that several year old CBS/NAACP partnership has yielded no shows. Development and deployment are different animals. Makes for lovely, juicy headlines but the reality is quite often different. 

[Nelson R. 560]

19 minutes ago, Drew said:

I wonder what game show or soap it will replace? 

Or it could replace The Talk.

 

Maybe CBS returns 12:30 to affiliates and moves Y&R to 1 and B&B to 2 and puts the new soap at 2:30 (if it’s 30 minutes). If it’s an hour it would likely just go right in at 2 ET. 

Edited March 6 by Nelson R.

[MediaZone4K 1510]

23 minutes ago, Nelson R. said:

Or it could replace The Talk.

 

Maybe CBS returns 12:30 to affiliates and moves Y&R to 1 and B&B to 2 and puts the new soap at 2:30 (if it’s 30 minutes). If it’s an hour it would likely just go right in at 2 ET. 

Should it happen, It would be best for that program to be kept to 30 minutes given the budgetary constraints of the medium. 

Edited March 6 by MediaZone4K

[Nelson R. 560]

13 minutes ago, MediaZone4K said:

Should it happen, It would be best for that program to be kept to 30 minutes given the budgetary constraints of the medium. 

If that’s the case either The Talk is cut to a half hour, Y&R is cut to a half hour, or Y&R and B&B each move a half hour later and 12:30 returned to affiliates and the Talk cancelled.

Edited March 6 by Nelson R.

[mrschimpf 2051]

46 minutes ago, MediaZone4K said:

Hopefully, it succeeds, but it needs to not be written like any crap that's on soaps now. I'm honestly shocked. 

 

If it cuts The Talk down to a half-hour it's already succeeded; whatever that show was before, it now seems to be gliding by on its past glory, anti-GH viewers simply there out of spite, or sponcon.

[24994J 5269]

I've split this discussion off from the NBC News Daily thread, as it veered way off course to the CBS discussion.

Edited March 6 by 24994J

[MediaZone4K 1510]

Y&R definitely needs to be cut to a half hour. "The Talk" can go or be trimmed. It isn't good anymore but at least it's not another newscast. 

 

If this show doesn't affect any existing program, would affiliates accept another network hour?

 

What's even more surprising is that Proctor & Gambel — who famously pulled the plug on Another World because of money — is in on the talks. If money is a concern--Is five days weekly too expensive in this era?

 

Pardon me for breaking convention but  I'd cut B&B to Mon-Wed and put Propposed Soap on Thu-Fri. Keeps both budgets smaller with fewer scripts to write, and less filler cast needed. B&B struggles as is to write a week of dialogue without heavy repetition. Their episodes are literally copy and paste. 

Edited March 7 by MediaZone4K

[Abraham J. Simpson 303]

Would affiliates give up time? No. Not a snowball's chance in h....well, we know where. Not going to happen. Cutting back Y&R, or the Talk, is likewise not reality. They stay or they go, but they're not being trimmed. 

 

The problems with the idea of only a few days a week in some kind of checkerboard include the obvious inconsistency. Daytime is built on the same thing daily, and people are not going to be bothered with "is it Wednesday or is it Thursday that the Bold and the Beautiful is on." Or this embryonic idea of a new show. DVRs and on-demand options help, but delayed viewing is generally supplemental to "live." It doesn't replace it. You're also going to get the ad revenue only for however many number of days you put it on attributable to that show. If you're willing to find a cast that can actually act (OK, it's a soap, so it's more like chew scenery) who wants to get paid the commensurately less money while still being tied down...well, that isn't easy. And you still need to factor in the costs of the studio and sets, costumes, etc. It doesn't matter if you only use the set 2x a week, it's not any cheaper to build. The notion of running something only a couple  of times and not being out of a cost crunch isn't a business reality. In theory you have two shows with less network revenue coming in but still occupying space and dealing with fixed costs. Sometimes convention is convention for valid economic reasons.

 

If this idea ever comes to fruition, and many things reported as "in development" die "in development," it only works to replace an existing show. It doesn't work replacing Let's Make a Deal for both economic and practical reasons. Deal is no Price but it does well enough and it's a unique flex player on the schedule, airing in morning or afternoon. Mornings don't work for soaps (see Guiding Light, Santa Barbara). And getting affiliates who take Deal in the morning to give you their afternoon hour back in exchange for the morning slot is a hell of a hard sell. Heck, their own O&Os wouldn't exactly be thrilled with that...um....deal. Price is Right is going nowhere anytime soon. Y&R got its renewal, though it may well take years if this thing even progresses, so that isn't off the table. B&B has a year left on its deal; maybe it gets renewed, maybe they evaluate where development of this idea has gone before pulling the trigger on another extension. That's your most likely slot. The Talk is by no means The View, and you don't have the Chen/Moonves dynamic, but the show has carved out its own space and delivered decent numbers in an ad-friendly demographic. It would be the second option, should this concept be an hour-long one. 

 

Or it ends up being put on Paramount Plus. Or it gets shuffled off to BET. Or it morphs into a different form. Or like the rest of the developments from this arrangement, it lingers in purgatory and people forget it ever hit the trades for a day. 

 

 

[rear_flank 32]

KYW in Philly has an hour of Family Feud repeats at 3pm. I could see that getting replaced at some point.

[Big Rollo Smokes 180]

1 hour ago, Abraham J. Simpson said:

Would affiliates give up time? No. Not a snowball's chance in h....well, we know where. Not going to happen. Cutting back Y&R, or the Talk, is likewise not reality. They stay or they go, but they're not being trimmed. 

 

The problems with the idea of only a few days a week in some kind of checkerboard include the obvious inconsistency. Daytime is built on the same thing daily, and people are not going to be bothered with "is it Wednesday or is it Thursday that the Bold and the Beautiful is on." Or this embryonic idea of a new show. DVRs and on-demand options help, but delayed viewing is generally supplemental to "live." It doesn't replace it. You're also going to get the ad revenue only for however many number of days you put it on attributable to that show. If you're willing to find a cast that can actually act (OK, it's a soap, so it's more like chew scenery) who wants to get paid the commensurately less money while still being tied down...well, that isn't easy. And you still need to factor in the costs of the studio and sets, costumes, etc. It doesn't matter if you only use the set 2x a week, it's not any cheaper to build. The notion of running something only a couple  of times and not being out of a cost crunch isn't a business reality. In theory you have two shows with less network revenue coming in but still occupying space and dealing with fixed costs. Sometimes convention is convention for valid economic reasons.

 

If this idea ever comes to fruition, and many things reported as "in development" die "in development," it only works to replace an existing show. It doesn't work replacing Let's Make a Deal for both economic and practical reasons. Deal is no Price but it does well enough and it's a unique flex player on the schedule, airing in morning or afternoon. Mornings don't work for soaps (see Guiding Light, Santa Barbara). And getting affiliates who take Deal in the morning to give you their afternoon hour back in exchange for the morning slot is a hell of a hard sell. Heck, their own O&Os wouldn't exactly be thrilled with that...um....deal. Price is Right is going nowhere anytime soon. Y&R got its renewal, though it may well take years if this thing even progresses, so that isn't off the table. B&B has a year left on its deal; maybe it gets renewed, maybe they evaluate where development of this idea has gone before pulling the trigger on another extension. That's your most likely slot. The Talk is by no means The View, and you don't have the Chen/Moonves dynamic, but the show has carved out its own space and delivered decent numbers in an ad-friendly demographic. It would be the second option, should this concept be an hour-long one. 

 

Or it ends up being put on Paramount Plus. Or it gets shuffled off to BET. Or it morphs into a different form. Or like the rest of the developments from this arrangement, it lingers in purgatory and people forget it ever hit the trades for a day. 

 

 

 

To piggyback on this:

 

I assume that all of the posters here are men, just as I am. Y'all/We aren't even in the main demographic age-wise or gender-wise for The Young and the Restless or The Talk, and most of you probably don't watch either show. I don't watch either, either. So, to say that Y&R and/or The Talk should be cut in half or altogether canceled outright is short-sighted and silly. Especially as both shows still make money for the network even if viewership levels aren't what they were at each show's peak.

 

With that said, I will be surprised if this proposed soap makes it beyond the developmental stage, let alone to CBS. And if it does, it's a prime candidate for streaming. (I was going to say BET, but who knows if it'll be owned by Paramount Global a year from now.)

Edited March 7 by Big Rollo Smokes

[Abraham J. Simpson 303]

May 2022 in the dutiful trade press: 'Daria' Spinoff 'Jodie' Now an Animated Film, Sets Main Cast  I mean, that sounds promising. A cas is set, with a big name attached. Connected to an established IP (older, but still recognizable to the target audence). Cool, must be coming soon.

 

March 2024: Yeah, about that....never mind. 

 

Keep the grains of salt handy when it comes to something in development. 

1 hour ago, rear_flank said:

KYW in Philly has an hour of Family Feud repeats at 3pm. I could see that getting replaced at some point.

And they choose (well, CBS chooses, but you get the idea) to keep Let's Make a Deal at 10 am and run the Feud repeats (alongside the approximately 19 hours that run over on Philly 57). That hour and the local avails in it are valuable. Heck, they didn't even move Drew Barrymore there to give it a full hour. 

 

Everything gets replaced someday. And Feud makes a convenient filler, since every single episode is basically Steve Harvey mugging at the camera when someone gives a euphamism for a body part or s*x act. But....giving it up entirely for a network show? Someone who wins a power struggle inside CBS might get the O&Os to go along if they blackmail the head of the station group into agreeing. But it's a really bad bet that you're getting an hour back from any affiliate group, and not terribly likely your own group is going along with it. 

[MediaZone4K 1510]

9 hours ago, Big Rollo Smokes said:

 

To piggyback on this:

 

I assume that all of the posters here are men, just as I am. Y'all/We aren't even in the main demographic age-wise or gender-wise for The Young and the Restless or The Talk, and most of you probably don't watch either show. I don't watch either, either. So, to say that Y&R and/or The Talk should be cut in half or altogether canceled outright is short-sighted and silly. Especially as both shows still make money for the network even if viewership levels aren't what they were at each show's peak.

 

With that said, I will be surprised if this proposed soap makes it beyond the developmental stage, let alone to CBS. And if it does, it's a prime candidate for streaming. (I was going to say BET, but who knows if it'll be owned by Paramount Global a year from now.)

Fair point, but I think the concerns about the state of both shows cross gender lines. As a male who loves soaps and grew up in a household filled with women who watched soaps, I know plenty of women be it on social media or in person who have complained about the quality of both shows, and would not be sad to see The Talk get cut or drastic measures made to improve Y&R/B&B.

Edited March 8 by MediaZone4K

[Abraham J. Simpson 303]

Always be skeptical of echo chambers that can be in both real life and social media. No argument men watch soaps, my dad watched Y&R on videotape with my mom until he died. But let’s also look at the ads being bought. While some are to a degree not gender specific, that tends to be the older-age ones. And the more gender-relevant ads that do pop up are skewed to females. Men listen to adult contemporary radio, but the ad buys from agencies are for the female audience.

 

People who don’t like The Talk are happy to see it go, sure. But CBS is going to have the data that backs up whether enough people do like it—ok, enough women, if we’re being honest—and the degree to which it overlaps and varies from the soaps. 

[MediaZone4K 1510]

1 hour ago, Abraham J. Simpson said:

Always be skeptical of echo chambers that can be in both real life and social media. No argument men watch soaps, my dad watched Y&R on videotape with my mom until he died. But let’s also look at the ads being bought. While some are to a degree not gender specific, that tends to be the older-age ones. And the more gender-relevant ads that do pop up are skewed to females. Men listen to adult contemporary radio, but the ad buys from agencies are for the female audience.

 

People who don’t like The Talk are happy to see it go, sure. But CBS is going to have the data that backs up whether enough people do like it—ok, enough women, if we’re being honest—and the degree to which it overlaps and varies from the soaps. 

Totally fair. I was even going to write "not to sound echo chamberish..." but I didn't lol. 

[nickp 295]

I can imagine The Daytime Emmys in 2026 with cast members of The Gates being nominated for Daytime Emmys

[Nelson R. 560]

Splitting off this thread was long overdue 

[Abraham J. Simpson 303]

2 hours ago, nickp said:

I can imagine The Daytime Emmys in 2026 with cast members of The Gates being nominated for Daytime Emmys

Your crystal ball needs adjusting. 

[TexasTVNews 1366]

On 3/6/2024 at 3:09 PM, Nelson R. said:

Or it could replace The Talk.

 

Maybe CBS returns 12:30 to affiliates and moves Y&R to 1 and B&B to 2 and puts the new soap at 2:30 (if it’s 30 minutes). If it’s an hour it would likely just go right in at 2 ET. 

 

I hope it replaces The Talk; I hated that show ever since. I had a vision of what the lineup would look like.

 

10AM (ET) - LMAD

11AM (ET) - The Price is Right

12PM - Local News

12:30PM - Y&R

1:30PM - B&B

2PM - The Gates

 

In case you forgotten, CBS pulled the plug on two legendary soaps (GL & AWTW) in '09 and '10. And for game show fans like me,

in case you might remember CBS did a pilot for ($1,000,000) Pyramid in '09, but it was passed up... twice!

[Abraham J. Simpson 303]

5 hours ago, TexasTVNews said:

 

I hope it replaces The Talk; I hated that show ever since. I had a vision of what the lineup would look like.

 

 

 

Are you the demo for The Talk? My hunch is no. 

[MediaZone4K 1510]

16 hours ago, TexasTVNews said:

 

I hope it replaces The Talk; I hated that show ever since. I had a vision of what the lineup would look like.

 

10AM (ET) - LMAD

11AM (ET) - The Price is Right

12PM - Local News

12:30PM - Y&R

1:30PM - B&B

2PM - The Gates

 

In case you forgotten, CBS pulled the plug on two legendary soaps (GL & AWTW) in '09 and '10. And for game show fans like me,

in case you might remember CBS did a pilot for ($1,000,000) Pyramid in '09, but it was passed up... twice!

 

I think they'd want to sandwich The Gates between Y&R and B&B, so it gains the carryover audeince from Young, and people won't change the channel to stick around for Bold. It has been argued that Bold maintained the #2 position for so long because it follows Y&R in eastern time markets. 

 

The Talk has just become a cookie cutter pc opinion show that CBS also uses to promote it's other products. In the beginning, it was a better alternative to the over politicized "The View", but the show also fell off in quality. IMO "The Real" ended up being better than both shows.

Edited March 8 by MediaZone4K