GH In The News: The PC Press Club

[Veronica]

Nathan Varni and the suits adore NLG. I don't think Wil deVry is going anywhere as long he's making NLG happy. And she hasn't been this happy in a pairing since her pairing with Lane Davies on Santa Barbara.

[FireFoxy]

So JJY, who has been loyal to the show, is bumped to recurring but the OLTL3, MSt and MW are still front and center?!? SMH! And Felicia is running for Mayor of PC yet they have barely mentioned it. A great story opportunity for vets and everyone on the canvas but who cares when he can have MORE Carly/Franco/Silas/JaSam/Sonny/Nina/Ava eating up screentime? It's like ABC truly wants to kill the show.

[jsbt]

I think the suits at ABC love anything getting some results, however minor, while they flounder around trying to find something viable to plug the hole for the expensive Katie Couric debacle. They have no particular commitment to anyone or anything at GH, IMO, especially not the over-40 set. Also important is that the fundamental piece of the daypart (The View) has been subsumed into ABC News. From what little I understand of the situation, the news division has been trying to take over this territory for years. All that's left for the daytime programming is The Chew and GH. Barring some miracle I think it is a matter of time before it is all shifted over and shut down.

 

With Katie going down the tubes over the course of the last couple years, of course they will court GH fans and whatever fanbases spring up to try to bump up some numbers. But this crew of execs has zero loyalty or interest, IMO. It is all lip service to try to make sure people watch and help their bottom line. I don't believe any of these people know Franco, Nina, Alexis, Julian, Jason, Sam, Robin, Patrick, whoever from Adam. IMO, ironically enough, what little executive interest there was left died with Brian Frons and his micromanagement.

Edited November 11, 2014 by jsbt

[TheGourmez]

For my deVry two cents, at both GHFCWs he has attended, he skipped the Q & A session, which is sometimes viewed as an ego move (MB does it every year and makes a late entrance to the signings), but he's stayed to the end of the sessions, signing until the final fans get their chance. Him and his wife Rebecca Staab seem like a great match to me, and him and his co-stars obviously get along well. But he does project a bit of gravitas in person, which can come across as off-putting. Didn't strike me that way, though.

[Fylaki]

 

It's like ABC truly wants to kill the show.

What bugs me is that ABC has at this point nothing to lose with GH and should be looking at some experimentation. Frank and Ron should also be pushing for it. OLTL and AMC got good reviews for their on-line stories, it was a lack of money on the part of PP that prevented an effective media campaign to launch the shows that doomed them in the long run (IMHO).

 

With GH still on the air, and a bloated cast, all of whom have their fans, now is the time to launch GH on line, while it is still on the air. Hell Ron writes half the show on twitter as is, why not take those scenes and put them on the web. 

 

Could it flop like on line soaps seem to do? Of course on the other hand they have never tried to launch an on-line show while the main show was still on the air.  I agree that Frank and Ron should do all they can to save the show but they should also be looking for the next horizon.

[Chairperson Meow]

I'd be for a Night Shift like revival for Netflix. They would make a lot. It would give actors like BC, CD, Roger Howarth, etc time to shine away from the constrictions of daytime. They could reset Roger as another character for the spin off. Even actors like Brandon Barash, Kim Mc, etc who may not like the commitment to a daytime schedule can do the spin off. If they use characters like Micheal/Morgan, they can still use them on GH because of Netflix's shooting schedule. Also, this would enable us to see more of the Q's, etc. The longtime GH fans who like Sonny can keep good Sonny, and he can guest as the asshole who killed Micheal's biological father. They could get SK back for arcs. They could possibly get a good co-writer to help Ron with this since you know he will be more concerned with GH.

[Sake614]

If abc wanted to kill GH, they wouldn't be promoting it on the local news like they have over the last week, IMO. Of course if they do find sonething viable I believe they would still end GH. I just don't think that's the plan right now.

I'm sad about JJY and could happily do without MSt, but they could still write for Mac if they wanted to. Being off contract doesn't mean he has to be without story. Ron jusf doesn't hVe a clue how to write for these characters. Not even for his pets

[Francie]

If abc wanted to kill GH, they wouldn't be promoting it on the local news like they have over the last week, IMO. Of course if they do find something viable I believe they would still end GH. I just don't think that's the plan right now.

 

They're trying to promote the show for sweeps, as the ad rates for the next couple months will be set based on the ratings for this month. As much talk as there has been by the "soap press" about the resurgence of ratings, the 18-34 demo is down about a third from last year, and the 18-49 is down 10-15%. I think that the current blitzkrieg of press is all aimed at a short-term gain.

 

I don't know that ABC wants to 'kill' the show, but they don't necessarily want to save it either. It's like they're hoping it'll just die of old age or something.

 

I agree that current execs have no absolutely no idea, nor do they care, who the players are on GH. Maybe they know Tony Geary, but that'd be it. And they probably don't even care about him at this point.  About the only thing they've been known to do in the past 2 years is put a moratorium on contracts handed out to actors over the age of 50.  Given that GH's 18-34 viewership is somewhere around 200,000 on average per week and that the mean (or is it medium, I forget) age of a GH viewer is 58, the brass are desperate for younger viewers.  Then again, all of daytime's audience skews older and GH is one of the daytime network shows with the youngest mean/medium age viewer. The average/mean age of a Price is Right or Y&R viewer is 60+. 

[Sake614]

New RC interview in SOD:

http://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/ron-carlivati-ghs-hallowedding

He says the popcorn mime was something roger did in rehearsal and FV insisted he do it on tape. Also (unconvincingly) claims he didn't think about the 'hell no' wedding when he was writing the scene.

[peachmangosteen]

Also (unconvincingly) claims he didn't think about the 'hell no' wedding when he was writing the scene.

 

LMAO! Oh, Ron!

[TeeVee329]

 Also (unconvincingly) claims he didn't think about the 'hell no' wedding when he was writing the scene.

 

I am soooooo sure, Ron.

[Tiger]

ABC brass definitely does not care about nor is paying attention to GH, but the local affiliates do care about the show. They are the reason it's still on the air and will continue to be until the network can either offer them a viable alternative, or agrees to cede the hour.

The show being developed for Tyra Banks probably won't even make it to air as a number of key affiliates have ready said they aren't interested. The talk show market has clearly reached saturation and a number of shows including Latifah and The Real will probably be canceled sooner rather than later.

The reason View has officially moved under the auspices of News, was because ratings are down again. My suspicion is that Chew will also be moved into the News division and GH will be managed by primetime, with daytime officially going away as a separate division.

ETA: while ABC brass definitely is not invested one way or the other, allegedly Paul Lee's wife is a huge fan and he has admitted in the past to making programming decisions based on what his wife watches.

Edited November 11, 2014 by Tiger

[Tiger]

Those scenes should have been all about Michael & Carly. Freakco pretending to eat popcorn had no place.

I hope RHo is really successful in his Flash role and leaves this show because I'm so tired of his "acting".

[rur]

Those scenes should have been all about Michael & Carly. Freakco pretending to eat popcorn had no place.

I hope RHo is really successful in his Flash role and leaves this show because I'm so tired of his "acting".

 

I wasn't that impressed with the popcorn bit, either. To me, it was just another RoHo way of pulling focus from someone else in the scene. And, I will acknowledge that he is a master at doing that. 

 

And, BTW, I had gotten the impression that they didn't even get a chance to rehearse anymore, let alone stop and re-tape to add something,  what with the budget cuts, block taping, and the comments actors had made about not having time. But I could be wrong. Or Ron could be making up stories. 

Edited November 11, 2014 by rur

[MrsBerk]

Hi there.  Lurker here...just chiming in to say that a friend of a friend knows people VERY close to the situation with ABC.  She told me there had been discussions in the not so distant past at the network about making GH a weekly show, airing probably on Saturday nights in prime time and adding another hour of GMA or more hourlong game shows like CBS Daytime, for example an expanded Millionaire.  The talks have been shelved for now but are still not entirely dead. 

 

If it weren't for Shonda Rhimes, Once Upon a Time and DWTS making bank, Port Charles would be in our rearview mirrors with a  quickness.

[kristabell]

I'll just echo everyone here in saying that "I forgot" is the lamest lie I've heard in a while; I mean, come on Ron, at least try. I'm pretty unconvinced that Ronnie "forgot" one of the more famous scenes in OLTL history, which included the same actor, who coincidentally played a role Ron can't seem to let go of. I just, he's so awful and so obvious.

[Fylaki]

The reason View has officially moved under the auspices of News, was because ratings are down again. My suspicion is that Chew will also be moved into the News division and GH will be managed by primetime, with daytime officially going away as a separate division.

 

 

For some reason I like this idea. I think that it would improve the quality of the writing Ron would need to step up his game.

 

 

there had been discussions in the not so distant past at the network about making GH a weekly show, airing probably on Saturday nights in prime time

Why not go four nights a week on ABC Family

[dubbel zout]

To me, it was just another RoHo way of pulling focus from someone else in the scene.

The camera was only on him when he did that.

 

I didn't mind it because it was in character. Franco is an asshole, and he acted like one during the reveal.

 

Ron "forgetting" the OLTL "Hell, no" wedding is such a lie. It's not as if admitting he stole it makes things worse.

[Chairperson Meow]

I kinda cringe at ABC family if only for the fact that I fear we'd get more cardboard pretty and less good acting.

[TarHeelTeacher]

Yeah the camera was on RoHO to get Franco's reaction. It wasn't a wideshot with everyone in the room on camera. I love the reactions, I'm not ure anything else woul have been true to the character or to what was happening.

[kristabell]

I honestly don't think ABC cares about GH at all. They'll keep it until it starts losing them money, or until they find something to replace it. 

 

In complete seriousness, I don't think Ron has any game to step up. He's thinks the stuff he's been penning is brilliant and hilarious, and it's the audience's fault for not getting his genius.

I really think GH would fail massively in primetime. It would be up against shows with actual budgets and writers who get fired if they're terrible.

[ulkis]

I wasn't that impressed with the popcorn bit, either. To me, it was just another RoHo way of pulling focus from someone else in the scene. And, I will acknowledge that he is a master at doing that. 

 

And, BTW, I had gotten the impression that they didn't even get a chance to rehearse anymore, let alone stop and re-tape to add something,  what with the budget cuts, block taping, and the comments actors had made about not having time. But I could be wrong. Or Ron could be making up stories. 

 

For the most part, I don't think they do. I think sometimes they probably do get to do it though for big scenes, and especially when Frank Valentini is directing.

[Sake614]

To me, it was just another RoHo way of pulling focus from someone else in the scene. 

 

 

How could he pull attention from someone else when the camera was on him the whole time? They WANTED Franco's reaction. I agree the focus should have been on Carly and Michael, but that's not on RoHo, it's on the writers/director.

[rur]

How could he pull attention from someone else when the camera was on him the whole time? They WANTED Franco's reaction. I agree the focus should have been on Carly and Michael, but that's not on RoHo, it's on the writers/directdhor.

I agree. I wrote that before I read the article. I thought about going back in to correct/amend it, but since it was an actor whose professionalism has been a topic of discussion more than once here, I let it ride. (Although I do think, too, that the popcorn eating probably got him a few more seconds on screen than just a plain facial reaction would have.) It does show the tendency toward camp from the top down, too.

[jsbt]

I laughed when OLTL was mentioned by the interviewer and Ron refers to it as "the other show you are referring to." It's gonna be okay, Ron.

 

And yeah, I found the popcorn obnoxious. But far moreso is Ron complaining that fans are being unfair thinking Franco got Michael raped.

Edited November 11, 2014 by jsbt

[ulkis]

I was juuuuuuuuust coming here to quote that

 

It does bother me that people say, "He had your son raped," when we said that he did not. You don't have to like it, but we wrote that he did not intend for that to happen, and so, for purposes of the character, Carly saw that tape and she believed him. And he did try to save Michael's life after that, when Morgan knocked him in the water. [Laughs] I did toy with the idea of having him say, "Oh, and by the way, I did tell Carter to rape Michael," but I thought that was just one step too far.

 

 

Shut up Ron! Sorrynotsorry no one bought that stupid bullshit. It happens somtimes when a retcon is stupid and make no fucking sense.

[jsbt]

I like that he laughs after he mentions Michael's fall off the docks. Even he's not buying that redemptive moment.

[slayer2]

Is MB going on some extended vacation or something? People keep saying 'When Sonny goes to jail' like it's going to happen.

[ch1]

So basically RC is saying the viewers have to suck it up and accept whatever bullshit they come up with to retcon something you watched actually happen on screen? 

 

It always amazes me how obnoxious he is with viewers when without them - no freaking job nimrod.

[WendyCR72]

So basically RC is saying the viewers have to suck it up and accept whatever bullshit they come up with to retcon something you watched actually happen on screen? 

 

It always amazes me how obnoxious he is with viewers when without them - no freaking job nimrod.

 

Which is why, as unpopular as it is, I'm fine with GH as it is getting the axe. Let's see where this ass will be as the soaps dry up and he has nowhere left to try to sell the arrogance.

[TeeVee329]

Ron pulled the same garbage on Twitter regarding what happened between Ford and Teen!Jess/Tess on OLTL.

Edited November 11, 2014 by TeeVee329

[dubbel zout]

I thought the OLTL crap was far worse: Ford had been clearly told that Teen!Jess was mentally ill, and that douchebag hit on her anyway. He was gleeful about it. UGH. Ron may be retconning that Franco had Michael raped, but at least he's not saying it wasn't rape.

[TeeVee329]

Yeah, but he's basically saying Franco wasn't to blame.  Same with Ford, since apparently sleeping with the DID alter specifically designed to deal with sexual abuse and not the mentally ill woman who though she was a teenage virgin who he lured into his bed made what he did totally okay!  NOPE!

[Box305]

My mom asked me if Ron was on LSD so I asked him on Twitter. He was puzzled by my question and made fun of how many tweets I have. I do have a lot but I'm a baseball blogger and I live tweet a lot of sport events with my friends. Anyway, we kissed and made up by the end of the exchange.

 

You can look for it if you want. My handle is @StaceGots. 

 

But seriously, my mom was like, "Is this man on drugs?" She told me (and I'm paraphrasing as close to what she actually said as I can because it was nearly two hours ago), "I've been watching this show since I was 17 (in 1963). I've been married, pregnant twice, had multiple jobs and throughout that whole time I've been a faithful viewer. Now? I have to pick and choose which days I can watch in order to avoid some of these awful characters he's created. He's a monster." 

 

Poor mom. 

Edited November 11, 2014 by Box305

[SlovakPrincess]

The part where he jokes that he toyed with having Franco say "yeah, I did do it" (set up the attack on Michael), really gets me. He thinks this shit is funny. He doesn't take it seriously. You can also see this nasty attitude in the constant torment heaped upon Robin. And whatever the hell Nina was doing to Ava. And even "sweet" little Sabrina tried to do something sick and terrible to Ava (who is terrible herself).

There is something very wrong with him. (Of course, there was also something very wrong with whoever created Franco in the first place, which I understand was not Ron).

[Sake614]

Franco was nothing more than a vanity project and a ratings gimmick. james Franco admitted he was a fan and JFP/Guza invited him onto the show. Or he asked. Whichever way it went, it was just to give JF something to do between bitching that his college professor failed him and appearing on Broadway/filming a new movie/writing a book/whatever.

There was absolutely NO reason for Ron to even think about recreating the character

[peachmangosteen]

I think GH would fail in primetime, too. Like, honestly, there is literally no way it would survive.

 

I kinda cringe at ABC family if only for the fact that I fear we'd get more cardboard pretty and less good acting.

 

The acting and writing on this show is far worse than what's on ABC Family, excepting maybe Switched at Birth, which I don't actually watch, but see promos for and it's really bad.

Edited November 12, 2014 by peachmangosteen

[LeftPhalange]

 

Carlivati: I mean, sure, for the audience members who said, "Oh, she would never fall for this guy," it's great to have her say, "I never really loved you."

 

I like how Ron tries to make it seem like only some of the audience thought the Cranco pairing was outrageous bullshit and not 90%+ of the audience.

 

 

It does bother me that people say, "He had your son raped," when we said that he did not. You don't have to like it, but we wrote that he did not intend for that to happen, and so, for purposes of the character, Carly saw that tape and she believed him. And he did try to save Michael's life after that, when Morgan knocked him in the water. [Laughs] I did toy with the idea of having him say, "Oh, and by the way, I did tell Carter to rape Michael," but I thought that was just one step too far.

 

What the fuck...

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I really think GH would fail massively in primetime. It would be up against shows with actual budgets and writers who get fired if they're terrible.

 

Not....necessarily. Primetime shows might have bigger budgets, but having good writers depends on the showrunner. This very thing is often discussed in the Criminal Minds section of the forum. Erica Messer is currently in charge at CM, and Messer holds more irony than you know.

[kristabell]

 

Not....necessarily. Primetime shows might have bigger budgets, but having good writers depends on the showrunner. This very thing is often discussed in the Criminal Minds section of the forum. Erica Messer is currently in charge at CM, and Messer holds more irony than you know.

OK, but Criminal minds is pulling in over 10 in the ratings, with 2.5+ in the demographics. That certainly isn't the case with GH; and, in general, networks don't pull any punches in cancelling primetime shows if they aren't performing. 

GH is, imo, a poorly-done show; and it wouldn't last a month in a primetime lineup. jmo

 

 

ETA: That's not to say some prime time shows aren't written poorly too. God knows, there are a lot of pretty bad shows with good ratings. But, they deliver - which is what the networks care about.

Edited November 12, 2014 by kristabell

[SlovakPrincess]

They would really, really, really need to trim the cast (possibly do some recasts), rethink most of the plots and get some decent writers if they wanted to survive in prime time. It really is a gigantic mess right now.

I actually think it's unfixable at this point ... Unless they want to erase the last 2 years of story and have it all be someone's nightmare.

(Good candidates might be Robin - "I just kept getting kidnapped again and again!" - or Carly - "Franco came back somehow, and I slept with him ...eeeewww!")

[jennifer6973]

It could be someone's dream (or nightmare) and it can erase the last 20 or so years of story.  Possibly Taggert's nightmare of what would happen if Sonny actually ran the town.

 

 

That erases all the deadbeat but not Sonny deadbeat dads.

[Box305]

 

I did toy with the idea of having him say, "Oh, and by the way, I did tell Carter to rape Michael," but I thought that was just one step too far.

 

Glad he showed some restraint there because ew... 

[Sake614]

In other news, ratings are in for Halloween week, and they're not good. I do expect it to rebound for last week and possibly this week, but that's a pretty big loss.

 

http://daytimeconfidential.com/2014/11/08/ratings-rants-raves-days-jumps-among-w18-49gh-slides-major-demos/

 

 

The week of Oct. 27-31 was a rough one ratings-wise for ABC Daytime’s General Hospital, despite the soap opera climaxing storylines all over the place. Meanwhile, NBC’s Days of Our Lives was afforded a Halloween a bag of treats, not tricks, from the Nielsens.

 

GH lost 69,000 total viewers over the previous week and was down 134,000 year-to-date. The sudser fell in households, among women 18-49, W18-34 and among W25-54

 

[BestestAuntEver]

I'm not surprised that the year to year ratings are down. Last year for November sweeps we got GH: Espionage Edition.

For me, the Sonny/Nina & nothing like oringinal Jason NuJason Show leading up to sweeps was hard to stomach.

[Fylaki]

 

For me, the Sonny/Nina & nothing like oringinal Jason NuJason Show leading up to sweeps was hard to stomach.

I think this was the problem,  the last week was good, but the lead in was awful. This is one of the main things that GH would need to over come if it went primetime (even on ABC Fam or some other network let alone on the Big A) Sweeps for Soaps, like for local newscast, have become stunts. In truth you could watch GH (or DOOL or YnR or BnB) in Feb, May and Nov and really see everything you need to see all year. Ron and Frank have to stop building towards sweeps and make each week as good as sweeps. Now not every episode is going to be a hit, but you cannot keep going weeks on end with drivel and then expect the audience to suddenly appear for sweeps

Edited November 12, 2014 by Fylaki

[Chairperson Meow]

If they did a better promo for Billy Miller, freaking morons.

My God. Jasus please.

[MrsBerk]

I think the idea behind the primetime move would be to bury it on Saturday nights, which is historically the lowest rated of the week.  Then the suits could say something like, we tried to keep it alive but the ratings don't support that and kill it that way.

 

All I know is that I'm barely watching these days. And I know a bunch of longtime viewers who feel the same way.  I DVR'd the show last week because of reading this board and saw a glimmer the show I grew up watching and loving.  At the end of the day as great as last week was, we all know Sonny is never going to jail, Carly is never going to lose anything and Kiki is the worst. These are the reasons GH may need to be euthanized once and for all. 

[kristabell]

In other news, ratings are in for Halloween week, and they're not good. I do expect it to rebound for last week and possibly this week, but that's a pretty big loss.

 

http://daytimeconfidential.com/2014/11/08/ratings-rants-raves-days-jumps-among-w18-49gh-slides-major-demos/

 

Imo, the reason the demos keep falling is that Ron does not write for a female audience. I hate to make broad generalizations, but I'm going to anyway. Ron does not write with a "typical" female audience in mind. Consistent winners in that category are things like Scandal; even the Hallmark channel gets higher ratings in the demos than GH does. The same thing happened at OLTL. When Ron wrote his "rapemance" (I really hate typing that word), by and large the female audience was completely turned off, but the male audience (again generally) liked the storyline. Ron doesn't write with heart, he doesn't do characterizations, he doesn't do relationships, he doesn't do family, and he doesn't do romances. That's what people are looking for when they tune into a soap (daytime or primetime). There's a reason the CW shows always do well in the demos. Soaps are supposed to be a "women's medium," but Ron does not write for that audience, imo.

[ulkis]

I think Nina is so damn annoying that I really think she's one character who can be solely blamed for bad ratings.