General Hospital
ABC Executive Vice-President Vicki Dummer Chats On The Changes At GH: Writing Regime Switch, Tony Geary & Michael Easton's Exits & The Ratings Picture!
Courtesy/ABC
There has been a lot of change over the last several weeks at ABC’s General Hospital. Fans watched legacy star Anthony Geary (Luke) take his final bow and exit the series. Next, head writer Ron Carlivati was let-go after saving the series from cancellation, and shaping the Port Charles canvas for almost four years.
Carlivati’s replacements were named in the form of former Y&R co-head writers, Shelly Altman and Jean Passanante, who also have deep-history writing for the 52-year staple that is General Hospital. And still there was more! The audience learned that fan favorite Michael Easton was killed-off as Dr. Silas Clay in order to facilitate a major murder mystery whodunit.
With these major shake-ups, and more changes expected in the coming months, On-Air On-Soaps caught up with Vicki Dummer, (ABC’s Executive Vice-President Current Series Programming, who oversees General Hospital) at the Disney/ABC Television Group’s TCA 2015 All-Star Cocktail Reception to get some network insight. From discussing the decision to implement the change in the writing regime, what this means for GH current executive producer Frank Valentini’s future, to what Shelly and Jean bring to the table in terms of story focus, Vicki shares her thoughts. She also weigh-ins on why ultimately Michael Easton’s character of Silas Clay met his demise, and who really played a part on the decision on how Tony Geary’s exit scenes were crafted and would play out on-air. On making all those impactful and important decisions for her show, here’s what Vicki had to say.
What are your hopes with the decision on bringing in Shelly Altman and Jean Passanante to take over the reins as the new co-head writing regime of GH?
Photo Credti: S Bergman
VICKI: First, I think Ron Carlivati did an amazing job with General Hospital and with the transition of the show that he and Frank Valentini took on. I think the 52nd anniversary episode was one of the best episodes of GH that has ever been done. But, we wanted to dig into a little bit more of the romance. We want to dig a bit more into the adventure of the show. I think that is the DNA of General Hospital. It’s in the DNA of what I have loved about it since I was a viewer back in the 80’s, and really explore that with Shelly and Jean as co-head writers. They also know the DNA of this show, and I think they are the women to do that.
From a network level perspective – when you go with a major shift and change a writing regime, is that a difficult decision? The ratings in the key demo of women 18-49 have been down for quite awhile, and the show overall. Was that the major factor in making this move?
Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com
VICKI: I don’t think the ratings decline is a function of the storytelling, or a function of Ron’s work. I really don’t. That people are focusing on that for a motivation for a change is not really what the story was. For me, our entire daytime line-up is depressed right now, because I think we had a hole in it when Katie Couric’s talk show Katie left, which we are now looking at the FABLife to fill that gap in a big way. We have a lot of hopes pinned on that show, which will elevate our entire daytime line-up. That’s not under my purview, but I am very excited about it. I think that will bring more viewers to our daytime programming. And again, in regards to Ron Carlivati, I think he has done an amazing job for us. I think working in this genre in daytime is the hardest job ever, and it’s not given the respect that it should be given. You look at some of our primetime shows that are doing 24 episodes of television, and that almost kills them. General Hospital is on every day. It’s an hour of TV every day, and there is such a churn of stories. I think at a certain point you burn out a little bit. It’s just time to infuse a different energy into GH’s stories.
Why did you decide to bring in Shelly and Jean to be the next head writers at such a critical time in the show? What about them made ABC decide to go with them, instead of perhaps some other notable writers, or even some new blood?
Photo Credit: ABC/Paley Center for Media
VICKI: Jean has been on the GH writing staff, and I think Jean has been part of the whole process, and has a point of view of where we should be taking the show. And Shelly knows GH inside and out. Shelly has been over at Y&R and came in with a renewed perspective of the show. The two of them as a team is really interesting. I think the job is too big for one person, frankly. I think with the two of them and their history with the show, I think they are the two people to take us to the next level. We love Ron. We love his writing. He has a blind script with us in primetime that we are going to be focusing on for him. I think that’s important for people to know, and that we respect him so much. I just think at this juncture, and at this point in time, we just want to focus on some of the aspects that were so critical to the show over the years, and just put a little extra push towards that.
The very popular Michael Easton (Silas Clay) was just killed-off on General Hospital. That was another big decision that was handed down … that I assume, was difficult to make?
VICKI: Yes, that was a challenge. But what it did afford us was a really great opportunity to tell a murder mystery. That’s what we are really digging into now, and telling that story. So, we are excited to see how that all unfolds.
How did you feel about Tony Geary’s (Luke) exit, and his final moments in his last GH episode? Nathan Varni (Manager, Current Series ABC Entertainment) had revealed after fan’s questioning, that Tony did not want any retrospective montage. In addition, clearly there was no “goodbye” with longtime scene partner Genie Francis (Laura) on-screen. I think some in the audience may not understand it was not just about that the writing team’s creative decisions on how they wanted Tony to go out, but there seemed to be certain parameters, or guidelines from Tony given on how he wanted to go out.
Courtesy/ABC
VICKI: Here is the thing: Tony, of course, had thoughts on his exit, and there’s a certain plan that the writers have in mind for him. My feeling was … I didn’t want him to go ever! Oh, my God. It was heartbreaking. We had a very private goodbye for him that was amazing, and I was in tears. The editors had put together a video retrospective and Tony spoke so eloquently about what the character of Luke Spencer meant to him, and what his time on the show meant, and how the people on the show meant so much to him. It was very moving, and that was a very emotional goodbye. And his on-screen goodbye, personally, I really liked it. I liked how he walked off into the mist.
Many fans were trying to understand, and had commented, since ABC owns the character of Luke Spencer, how come from the network level you could not insist on a few things that may have played more to the viewers expectations who watched the character, and loved and invested in the character for thirty-seven years?
Courtesy/ABC
VICKI: We do own the character, but we love and respect Tony so much that we want to really honor his wishes, and really service him as the actor and as a person, and how he wants to say goodbye to the character. I do appreciate the fans, and welcome their input. They are welcome anytime to say what they like and don’t like about the show. That is part of what is so great about this fan base, as they are so engaged in the content, and everyday they have something to say. Sometimes they love it, and sometimes they hate it, but what they do is talk about it.
Has moving General Hospital in some key markets to the 3PMEST/2PMPST time slot, while it airs in other markets at 2PMEST/1PMPST, hurt the show rating wise?
VICKI: The thing is; if you look at how data is reported for the live same-day numbers, the following day; it’s really not an accurate picture of what the overall rating is. That is because there is so much delayed viewing on this show. A lot of people watch GH on their lunch hours, or the next day, or they watch it at night. The ratings have taken a dip this season, but I firmly believe it’s our overall daytime programming that’s taken a little bit of a hit, because up until now we had that hour that wasn’t replaced after Katie was cancelled. But as I said with FABLife coming in, I think it will elevate all of our ships, as it were.
Has your role in the ABC day-part shifted, giving you more emphasis on overseeing GH?
Photo Credit: ABC
VICKI: Yes. Things got changed: ABC News is now overseeing The View. Lisa Hackner’s group is overseeing the development of the FABLife within syndication, as well as The Chew, and I am overseeing General Hospital. But Paul Lee (President, ABC Entertainment) really oversees it all. He’s not overseeing The View, as that is really news, but the rest of our daytime line-up is being overseen by Paul.
GH fans also were concerned that you may make a change at the top at the executive producer level and replace Frank Valentini. Can you address that?
VICKI: There are no plans to get rid of Frank. He has been terrific with the show as far as finding new ways to shoot the show, and being so conscious of the budget, and figuring out ways to do some pretty amazing things, economically. Those are things that you admire most in a producer … how you can really stretch the budget, and also create some pretty terrific shows.
So, what do you think of Vicki’s comments on the writing regime change, the exits of Tony Geary and Michael Easton, the ratings picture, and more? Share your thoughts below in the comment section!
If they wanted a murder mystery, why not kill Hayden as she was in the hospital? Silas was finally some good storylines again being tangled up with Nina, Franco, Ava, Morgan, Kiki, Madelain, etc. I would have liked him to figure out Ric and Madelaine’s involvement, more than Morgan/Ava.
Maybe Helena will cart his body off to yet another undisclosed cryo lab. 🙂
Yes, why not kill Hayden, a lesser known character who happened to know something about Jake, for a murder mystery? Silas was a great character with so much potential and viewer investment. So many fans love and want to see more of Michael Easton, and he is great in romantic storylines. If romance is the direction, they could’ve taken the opportunity to use his talent and appeal. To think that a ratings decline is not a function of storytelling seems a bit ignorant (just listen to the fans), and reliance on other shows in the daytime lineup to boost GH ratings doesn’t seem an ideal strategy for long-term sustainability.
No one cares about Hayden. You have to kill off someone with whom the audience has an attachment to really have an impact. Personally, I think Silas was dry as dirt, and I had zero investment in the character (or, frankly, half the characters that Ron has brought on), but I know others like Michael Easton a lot. That said, he really had no storyline, and I’d rather see him go than lose someone important to the canvas or history so quickly after Luke.
the storytelling is the reason for the ratings decline. she’s in denial
I totally agree, a new show will not boost ratings. Michael Easton already had a following is a excellent actor without a storyline. Michael was invested in GH with a lot of possible story lines for him had they been given to him. Michael character was just starting to get good. Hayden dying or being killed off wouldn’t have mattered to the fans or make the impact on the show that Silas death has. Most fans only tune into GH and really don’t have time to watch anything else.
i so agree with you!!!!! Very pointless interview. Clearly this woman isnt listening to fans at all!
Because Rebecca Budig is a much better actress than no emotion Michael Easton.
So glad she is on contract.
Amen. I would rather watch Rebecca Budig acting over the vampire guy anytime. I never liked him on any show. He is just frankly not that great an actor. I hear he wrote a book, perhaps that is better suited to him. Who knows, maybe one day he will come back and become head writer and save the show. Just as long as I don’t have to watch his wooden acting anymore.
for how long?
Michael Easton is a very talented actor who displays a lot of depth and emotion in subtle, nuanced performances. And when given the material, he delivers. Not everyone needs over the top performances to appreciate the acting.
AMEN MIKE!
Michael East on is actually a great actor… But you gotta have a good story for any actor. I’ve watched Michael for years, long before OLTL, so I know he can act. Rebecca might be a good actor, but Hayden rubs me the wrong way. Thought with her falling into a coma that would be the end of the blackmail story, but at least with her rousing and seemingly saying he’d take of things if she were to wake up, he would be top of the list, or his grandma, if Hayden was murdered while in her hospital bed.
Sometimes lesser characters are killed off because the suspects actions, or police investigation or the murder trial is so much the better story than the murder victim.
Edit, that was to say that Nicholas would have been a top suspect
I totally agree. There are othe rpeople who should or could have been killed off :Madelyn, Hayden, Ric, Denise/Ava even Morgan.hey, I’m sick of Nicolas, and the creep he has become- killing him off would have been a great mystery.sSuch a great storyline could have been done with the information about Morgan and Ava that Silas knew. And it’s a hospital. We need some doctors in there.
killing Silas felt like it came out of nowhere. GH should be focusing more on the hospital,and not getting rid of doctors
I know… I keep so thinking if Nicholas is under Helena’s control all this time.
Long time ago, I even pondered if Nicholas is really Jason, and Jake is really Nicholas… Or such. 🙂
I’m outraged at her writing thiss is a murder mystery we’re gearing up for. yeah you do you not realize us OLTL fans lsot our charac cters but kept certain actors that we loved. You nwat us to buy why you got rid of Michael.
I love Michael Easton but I never felt the characters he played was a fit on GH. I was a fan of both OLTL and GH and as I said on many other comments; the destruction of JaSam for John bugged me. I liked the idea of him having beef with Sonny; although they could have come up with a better reason then the unbelievable “sister” crap. I liked the idea of him working with Anna. And while I love Sam, I was vested in her love story with Jason. Whatever chemistry ME/KeMo have wasn’t important enough to trash Jason and Sam; they forced that pairing at the expense of both JaSam and the Jolie fans who supported GH. And then when made him into Silas; I couldn’t find a redeemable quality; he honestly played him like John and RC regurgitated so many of the same lines he used on OLTL. I think most people just like John McBain and they supported that but the truth is; that wasn’t his world and it wasn’t Todd’s world either. Crossovers are fine, but that was poorly written. Silas didn’t have a good story, he hadn’t even been used so it really is not a shock that he let him go and quite honestly, it’s not the first time a popular actor has left or even gotten fired. I think they should have created a new character for him when he first joined in OLTL; perhaps he would have been more situated and more useful as time went on. And while people blame PP over losing John; well keep in mind that GH was only contracted to use the characters for a year; they are the ones that violated it and they didn’t want to share the characters when the reboot came. So there’s a lot that goes into why ME didn’t get a fair shot on the show. When he did his interview with TV Guide after they took John off the show; he said that they were “Pawns in bigger game” or something to that effect. He wanted to be a part of the relaunch of OLTL; he hoped they worked it out and of course he would; he vested 8 years of his life into John on OLTL and those were his friends even though PP was short lived. Shoot, at least they tried. And MIchael Easton said in his exit interview yesterday that when he came back the second time, he never “unpacked his bags.” So he may not have liked what happened, but he wasn’t too surprised after not being on the schedule for weeks at a time. So I wish him the best; I hope he finds a great platform.
First, these are still Ron’s stories. Secondly, why the hell would you kill Hayden? She can ACT!
Yes I agree with Anacarrie’s comments above. I too love Michael Easton and agree TPTB pushed and pushed to get him to fit onto the GH canvas and at what expense? McBain would NEVER leave Liam and Natalie especially after their reunion. They compromised his integrity by going after Sam (ugh) and trying to destroy Jasam. Again wrong. Two very strong fan bases that were affected badly not positively. And while Jasam got a HEA it was short-lived.
Ron could play around with the OLTL characters and fans could keep hoping for a reunion. Then comes PP and many fans waiting for a do over of what happened on GH. Sadly, Jolie fans were disappointed sine ME could not make it. We then get Silas and back to Sam he goes with recycled Jolie and OLTL lines. No way in hell did I support that. Silas was thrown together quickly with very little thought and it showed as well as Easton’s lack of passion for this character. It was uncomfortable for me to watch. I wish ME success and hope with all my heart that he and MA cross paths again. I hope it happens..
Jenn, thanks for that. And yes, RC kept regurgitating the same stories. I was AGHAST when they were writing that story about Jason being alive and John knowing about it and getting ready to embark on a relationship with Sam. THAT WAS STRAIGHT OUT OF JOLIE; probably one of their biggest and long lasting stories was the fact that Cristian was alive and John knew about it. That triangle between John, Natalie, Cris and Van lasted on and off over the course of 2 years. RC may have done some good to GH initially; I don’t think so but I respect that others do. But what he did was short lived and did not benefit the show in the long run. Especially since he can’t be creative which is why he reached in the vault and took Franco’s Franco character and turned it into something I just can’t even watch. And no offense, I have never been a fan of KA; she wasn’t a good actress on OLTL and she isn’t now and it means little to me that she won that award; it’s not like it is a lot to choose from. But ME and RH are great actors; but they can only work with what they they are given. And I also agree that Easton had a lack of passion for his character; they gave him little to work with so it wasn’t very motivating. I’d love to see ME and MA again but more importantly; I just wish them both the best.
If any one should of being killed off was Elizabeth. Lying – jour.
“We wanted to dig a little bit more into the romance…”
Couldn’t they just tell Ron that? Passanante/Altman’s Y&R wasn’t particularly full of romance or adventure so I’m not convinced they are the answer. I think a Carlivati/Passanante pairing would have been a better choice to take the show in the direction the network is looking for.
I agree with you Alan. I also thought that having Carlivati with Passante might have made an interesting mix. Too bad that didn’t happen.
Maybe, but ABC asked Ron for a wedding in order to drive up ratings. What did we get? Ric and Nina’s wedding.
network interference is hurting the show. the live shows were supposed to boost the ratings,it didn’t work. nothings working
No Harry!!
we got a Halloween wedding..
A wedding of great drama, Michael still hasn’t recovered ..
Franco brought it down BRAVO!
the phenomenal acting and intense drama of the halloween wedding is renowned..
Right Harry..calm down su0000..sometimes just UGHHH with your nonsense..seriously..the proof is in the article. Even this woman does not know the direction GH should take so she hearkens back to Gloria Monty yet again instead of finding the next Gloria Monty if that’s you’re direction..and once again she states that daytime is leaning more towards news/info/talk shows..Miss Thing..Katie Couric didn’t work because she replaced Oprah and was no match..Tyra Banks show is obviously a View hybrid to replace that sinking ship..getting caught up in daytime ratings wars instead of constantly moving the soap genre forward left us with four..the minute one of these networks finds a comparable replacement for soaps all soaps will be gone..what they don’t realize is that those 2 to 4 million viewers will be gone to. Soaps bring in respectable daytime ratings and deserve to be reworked/rebranded/refreshed..You can do a talk show with the last four sitting presidents and you still won’t generate the interest a soap does. ABC is so bad they have a lazy susan of hosts set up for the view next season..this lady is out of her depth and so are her cohorts..she has the nerve to say it takes a team to write a soap but the news and talk are not in her job purview..no wonder this network is tanking in daytime. And they’re sinking it even further. ABC and GH as well as NBC and DAYS are quite simply heading to the new format of no more daytime soaps..we’ll be lucky to have these two shows for the next five years but i highly doubt it. It’s a new model to come and ABC is trying to wait out NBC to bite the bullet first. MARK MY WORDS…we are going to be left with Y&R and B&B..and not in the too distant future.
Yes agree. Just suggest to Ron to add some romance! Still seems like he was a scapegoat. I hope he gives an interview. Sounds like she’s been reading Twitter and is using the fans responses! Vague answers!
it felt like Ron was thrown under the bus
Well said! My thoughts exactly! Our soaps always had to run things by ABC for approval& they granted Cartini trust & freedom. Here we go again, “Fire him” “Scrap that story” “Change her wardrobe” “Put this in” etc…Still ABC ignores what fans want…Except GH, #StillboycottingABC/D
I don’t feel like ABC is making the show for us. they sided with Geary over the fans
“Romance?” What is THAT these days? Oh, does she mean jumping into bed with someone you just met because there is plenty of that going on in the remaining four soaps.
Romance is sorely lacking in daytime these days. It is all about lust and bedhopping.
Ron doesn’t do romance. They asked for a romantic wedding and we got Nina and Franco and guess what? The ratings plummeted for that week. That’s just a fact.
ooops this was for Harry..
we got a Halloween Franco and Carly wedding..
A wedding of great drama, Michael still hasn’t recovered ..
Franco brought it down BRAVO!
the phenomenal acting and intense drama of the halloween wedding is awesome!!
@su0000
What Harry was referring to were the live shows. Ron stated that the netwotk asked for a wedding and a shooting. The wedding RC chose was Ric and Nina. Which was a week of record lows ratings wise.
Good Lord, Suoo, I saw your response to my post the first time, no need to repeat it.
Now I am thinking of Winston Churchill who said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.
Which makes me look at myself and why I feel compelled to argue with your seemingly insane statements.
Ron has said repeatedly he had neither the inclination nor the interest to write romance. And it showed, in spades.
Sorry but after reading this I don’t have much respect for this woman if she’s going to defend Tony Geary having control over his storylines and say the ABC lineup suffered because of Katie Couric’s talk show cancelled. How is a low rated talk show helping the line up?
Katie was a syndicated show so it how is it impacting ratings?
I blame ABC for allowing AG to have that much control over his character and story to the point that he just basically crapped all over GH, Luke and LnL fans.
blaming Katie for the bad ratings is stupid
Tony was on for 37 years. He doesnt deserve a say? You dont think Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt doesnt have a say when they make a movie?
MissSnow I agree with you, I blame ABC for giving Geary such latitude. For years he has been pushing bad story for self serving reasons. He loved the story about killing Jake, Eckert, etc–he has always pushed for dark stories. And as I say in another message, he interfered with writing, didn’t care that fans hated his stories, and then blamed everyone else. And ABC may still welcome him back even though most of the fans on the boards at least are happy he is gone. He is contemptuous of the soap genre, fans, and doesn’t care.
@Blake and MissySnow -Actually When RC changed that “Fluke” storyline on him that was when he finally decided to retire from GH [ but not acting]. That storyline was supposed to be a dual role. That was the storyline that was pitched to Tony. In the interviews that I have read, Tony was getting antsy way before having back surgery the “Fluke [dual role] storyline was the storyline that Frank pitched to him was supposed to be the one that was convincing Tony to stay on the show. He decided NOT to put too much input on that final exit storyline only exception was he agreed with the decision of not killing off the character. Originally Tony said when he was going to retire from the show he wanted Luke to be killed off GH.
Other sources have indicated that Geary decided to bail after the Fluke story line was so poorly received, and so thoroughly panned by focus groups, that Carlivati told him they would have to redeem Luke when TG returned in the fall. Tony didn’t want Luke redeemed, like the dark aspect of current Luke and decided to retire at that point.
Geary is and has long been a hypocrite. He insists on storyline rewriting and approval, but he never takes responsibility for the unpopularity of the darker Luke stories. No one liked Fluke, well he pushed for a darker storyline. He loved Bill Eckert–who else ever did? Geary thought of GH as place to express his own vision, he did not care about entertaining the fans. And he happily throws all the writers except Guza under the bus when his stories do not go well. The ones he contributed to, agreed to and so forth.
He is a hypocrite, he did not help GH by the end. If Carlivati had to go because of recent performance in ratings, Geary should have left years ago.
Well they are all coming out in droves these actors with their annals I never liked his writing most of the time and he needed to stay off Twitter and quit arguing. Now MB can’t wait to see you get your own cooking show because Jean & Shelly will have you cooking meatballs. Just actors shut up you get paid a good salary for reading lines. Please give it a rest! Heather Tom has won three Emmys for Brad and she is on the back burner do you hear her bitching on Twitter?? Grow up !
@Elizabeth and Megan – Well considering that Tony Geary has said he has never spoken to RC . How did Carlivati tell him anything? Besides he decided to leave before March when the ratings took a nose dive. That was in March. The ratings have been a 15 week low. Tony told Frank back in January that he was leaving- that was 3 months before that. He pretty much told him after he really gave it a good try after going along with the storyline shift of RC once again having no respect for GH history and changing the character of Luke! And actually he just liked the idea of playing a dual role and being challenged from what I heard. it was not so much playing Bill. Personally, I think choosing a character like Bill Eckert would have been soap suicide!! GH lost 2 million fans back in the 90s because they originally could not get Genie back . The show did not think that they could have Luke without Laura. The audience was dying to get their SUPERCOUPLE back. The network moved heaven on earth over there to bring Genie from one show to another to reconnect the pairing and to kill off Bill. The thing about Bill is that the way RC wrote Bill was NOTHING like the character that was originally written. Bill Eckert was a womanizer. He was romantically involved with Holly but he cheated on her and she left town. Bill was instructed by the cartel to kill Robert – he had no intentions of doing so and he told Robert of their plans so they staged a “faux shooting” and Bill killed Harlan . And one of Frank Smith’s men found Lucky and Sly [ Bill’s son] and Bill saw the gun and heard the gun fire a shot. Bill got shot protecting his family- Lucky [ his cousin ] and Sly [ his own son]. Clearly Bill does care about family. And after Bill “died” Luke took Sly in for a couple years and watched over him like he was family. The Fluke we have been seeing has ZERO regard for family . This storyline of him being Bill just did not add up ….. If he was Damian Smith, or Gino Solieto , RC had NO imagination or credibility on who Fluke really could have been. And when someone said anything of who it could be where he could look exactly like him and not have a mask. of course, ppl are going to think Bill. However, Sorry but it did not make sense for it to be him!! Once again RC Just rewrites one old storyline at a time….
[ BTW- Tony is not retiring!! He still wants to act!! he is just retiring from GH!!
Ron doesn’t do good romance stories but it might have been good to try him with a CO-HW, one that did the romance because truly Ron doesn’t know the meaning of the word romance, he thought it was playing musical chairs with couples
Such a shame, because he did such a great job in the romance department with OLTL, in its last three months. He knows what the audience wants, he knows how to give it to them, he just doesn’t choose to unless the show is ending and he HAS to. He delivered two weddings, and there would have been more if it weren’t for OLTL going to Prospect Park and he thought the story would continue there. Two beautiful, romantic reunions, though. That’s why I was so excited about him coming to GH! But in the three-1/2 years he’s been here, we have not gotten one really romantic story that ended in a wedding. The only “real” wedding was Felicia & Mac’s (who cares? Most of us want her with Frisco!). And you’re right, Ron’s idea of romantic buildup is, “let’s put them right in the bed, we’ll show them getting to know each other later with cute conversations IN BED. We’ll keep them there for days! And then we’ll bring in a third party to break them up.
Well I was both a OLTL and GH fan. And I am sorry, Ron Carlivati’s writing on OLTL wasn’t that great either. Don’t get me wrong. Ron Carlivati is CAPABLE of writing a good story. I enjoyed Rex and Gigi’s love story (except the Stacy/bag of blood crap) and I really enjoyed 2009’s Stalker Story that led to the return of Mitch Lawrence, Jared’s death and Jolie’s reunion. But he was a terror in 2011. It was bad enough that he tainted Jolie’s reunion with Natalie’s ONS with Brody, but to rob John of his son for 9 FREEKIN months was unacceptable and excruciating. That doggone Marty confession tape got passed around like a football and when Natalie finally finds out that John is the father of her baby, she gets thrown from a roof and loses her memory. And she never got it back! And Ron Carlivati absolutely DESTROYED Natalie’s relationship with her sister, Jessica. Natalie was SO LOYAL and protective of Jessica but they made her into this selfish, skanky person who would MARRY the man her sister loved EVEN THOUGH she wasn’t in love with him? Natalie was written Out of Character and then after all that damage, because the show is ending he rushes them through some quickie little make-up session at Xmas with Natlaie apologizing and admitting that she didn’t have to marry Brody to give Liam a family; that they could have just co-parented. DUH! Natalie has never been so dumb in her life. And as far as Ron thinking he could have more weddings with Prospect Park; well that’s true but he was wrong for that crap. Out of the 8 years that John was in Llanview, 6 1/2 of his stories involved Natalie. We were cheated out of their wedding in 2007, 2010 and 2011. And after finally revealing that Liam was John’s son, he STILL dragged out their reunion by making Natalie act childish and distracted John with Tea’s issues. Then we had to deal with one of the most boring kidnapping stories with Mitch; you could tell Michael Easton didn’t enjoy that crap either; his performance WAS SO DRY. Michael Easton gave an interview around that time and he said that he found it hard to believe that at this point, they would keep allowing stuff become between them. The only life he showed was his scenes with Natalie and Liam. And then he finally gets them back together literally 2 DAYS before the finale and he even tainted that when they kept running the promo that John was going to GH with no mention of Natalie whatsoever! Ron Carlivati admitted that he deliberately threw a few more obstacles Jolie’s way once they decided to go to PP. But even still, Jolie deserved an ON SCREEN wedding on ABC and as we can see John and Natalie never came to pass on PP. They stuck her with that con artist dirtbag Cutter who tried to scam her family not once, not twice BUT THREE TIMES! And what the heck was the point of killing Gigi off? That was horrible and then he wrote the stupidest story ever by having her sister get plastic surgery to look like Gigi and that it was really HER that got poisoned by carbon monoxide? Okay this is a soap but it is not science fiction. And what was with that stupid dog talking mess with Tina’s dog? And all that singing with Starr as though we really wanted to hear that? This is a soap, NOT GLEE. So I was never excited about him coming to GH and he proved that with the crap he wrote. He is all about the here and the now, from one plot point to the next and has no problem completely destroying key points of history and characters to meet his current goal and had no problem with alienating the fans in the process. Good riddance to him.
This interview is just a smoke screen; they have to play nice politically and not bad mouth him; and while they may let us in on some things; they will never truly admit the real deal; they could face all kinds of legal issues if they do. I don’t buy into the fact that RC SAVED GH; I feel there were several contributing factors that made it stay on the air. Katie Couric had already been promised GH”s slot; but when the stupid show that replaced OLTL totally bombed, they moved GH to OLTL’s time slot and at the time of cancellation; OLTL’s ratings was doing better than AMC and GH. Casting RH and ME helped it because their fans followed them. And at that time everyone had the “save the soap” fever after what happened to AMC and OLTL so most people who watched the other two joined GH because it was all they had left. Sure, did some aspects of GH get better? Yes. It wasn’t so mob focused. But keep in mind that ABC didn’t have a contender to replace GH; cause trust me, they probably would have. I love soaps but reality shows are the big thing now and soaps are expensive to make. Sure RC did bring back some old favorites but those were just stunts to get the old audience back but most of them left when their faves jumped ship. So whatever he did was temporary. Sure ratings increased here and there but they were never consistent and the treatment of the fans left a lot to be desired. For him to say that those watching for a couple or character is setting themselves up for disappointment is ludicrous. Cause most people who watch soaps do it for the romance. Sure the drama is a big part of it but if it wasn’t for the love and romance, the audience wouldn’t root for the characters TO get through the drama. If everyone who watched for couples or romance left, there would be no audience. So that’s just as ridiculous as that disgusting rape-mance story in 2008 that they had the nerve to give him an Emmy for which he totally changed as well when RH came back as Todd. I still don’t understand the story of the Two Todds and don’t even care to. Makes my head hurt. LOL
maddiehayes; yes be glad that you are able to watch all the things that happened to Jolie AFTER THE FACT because it was hard to go through it. He did give them a beautiful reunion in 2010 (minus the Brody crap) and he made John the best John ever. And their final reunion scene was the best. The Stalker Story was one of his best IMO so RC is capable of writing a good story once he gets over himself. He considers himself some type of soap god by recreating history all the time. But the good thing is while he was always on the head writing team, Jolie’s early stuff was great and he wrote some of their best scenes. If you haven’t watched them already, make sure you do. But yes it was hard and I knew he was gonna mess up some stuff on GH. He did some good things but they were few in comparison to the damage.
I stopped watching his crappy writing on OLTL back in 2007-8 ! smh…
lovesame1122, musical chairs? LOL HILARIOUS. You are so right.
You are absolutely right Annacarrie, we women watch for the ROMANCE. That’s NUMBER 1. If there’s no couple worth rooting for, I tune out. I remember very clearly in November, 2012, GH was dead as far as romance goes, but I saw a preview for OLTL, and I was hooked on John & Natalie right there and then! I switched from OLTL to GH and I was amazed at how much more fun it was to watch than GH. But that was in its waning months, and Ron was moving at lightning speed to wrap everything up. I’m so glad I didn’t put myself through the suffering of watching OLTL during all the garbage you described. Tear a couple apart, if you must, but NEVER give the audience the impression they are OVER. They need to keep running into each other, giving each other longing looks, etc., to give the audience hope of reconciliation .. otherwise, what is the point of watching? Musical beds? No thank you!
ICAM, it’s a real shame we never got a wedding for Jolie. I believe, at the time, Michael Easton was going to Prospect Park with Melissa Archer, so Prospect Park must have asked RC to save the wedding for them. Then PP fell through, and ME was signed to GH. By then it was too late to tape a wedding. Then, of course, OLTL did go online after all, and ME was paired with Cutter, ugh! PP AND GH tainted Jolie’s love so bad, just threw that couple away like yesterday’s trash.
Anacarrie, I did go to the “You Look Pretty” website and watched a lot of Jolie’s history. They were a great couple, yet I understand there was a big fan war with those who wanted John with Evangeline, too. So they had to kill off Evangeline, which just doesn’t seem right. Why couldn’t they have found a great pairing for a popular character like her? It reminds me of when GH was gonna fire Rebecca Herbst and kill off Jake, obviously just to squelch opposition to Jasam. Why not make the audience fall in love with your chosen couple instead of sabotaging the competition? Fans fell for Jolie because of things like John’s “you look pretty”, reserved just for Natalie. The little things he does only for her, even when he is supposedly with another woman. We need to feel like our couple is special, they have a special bond with NO one else. Otherwise it’s “musical beds”, which is as boring as heck!
maddiehayes, thanks for your reply. But it wasn’t PP that asked them to hold off on a Jolie wedding until the show. It was all Ron Carlivati. I can understand his thinking; after all that would be sure to have so many viewers. But at the same time, John and Natalie originated on ABC OLTL; John was created (by Josh Griffin) to be Natalie’s soul mate. Even RC said very publicly in an interview that the goals was always for John and Natalie to be endgame. At that time, Jolie was OLTL’s most popular pairing; their wedding should have been front and center or at least Viki and Clint; a staple couple in the show’s history. I loved Rex and Gigi, but we didn’t have to watch them go through half the crap the others did. RC said onece he found out PP licensed the shows; he changed up some things and deliberately threw more obstacles Jolie’s way; even ME was exasperated. So he put off something we wanted until the online show. Yes ME was among the first to sign on; he signed on before MA did. But it fell through and RC went to GH and did his damage. It was unfair. I watched OLTL 2.0 for about a minute but it was a shoadow of its former self especially since two of its main male characters could not be on it. Todd came for a limited time but that is because he was the only one who hadn’t initially signed a long term contract. Yeah they tainted it but at least in the end, John left and Natalie ended things with Cutter beforer the show got shelved. So as ME once said, if Jolie was on the opposite ends of the earth, they’d find their way back to each other. She was the one he loved so I strongly feel had the show came on; Jolie would have gotten back together but that still doesn’t get RC off the hook. Had Jolie come to GH; he would have had them sleep around Port Charles before reuniting them anyway. That’s his style.
Again, so true. Bottom line Easton and Archer have natural chemistry. I so appreciate the afore mentioned comments. To this day I miss Michael Easton and Melissa Archer’s undeniable chemistry and hope to see them together whether online , or onscreen.
Yes, yes, yes we did deserve a Jolie wedding! It was sooo hard to watch ME be paired with KM, MW and MS. His success came from playing a well loved character for eight years on OLTL. His fans followed him over and then were treated like crap! To this day it is so unfair what was done.
@Anacarrie, surprised that RC was able to admit that he deliberately did that considering the lawsuit between ABC and PP is still going on. If that is true. That could actually be the REAL REASON why RC was fired!!!
Jenn, I didn’t have an issue with ME being paired with anyone else; I only had an issue with JOHN being paired with Sam because I am both a JaSam and Jolie fan. I felt RC wrote them all out of character to force the pairing and it didn’t make sense to me. Once he became Silas, I didn’t care but I wasn’t bowled over by him with any of the other women. I love Michelle Stafford; was a big fan of her when she played Phyliss but didn’t find them a match. I love ME but I wasn’t a fan of the Silas character but I don’t fault ME for that. As John my favorite pairing with him was Natalie but he had chemistry with Evangeline and Tea as well. I couldn’t have cared less about Marty, Blair or that trashy fling with Kelly.
GH was ABC’s highest rated soap before they announced the cancellation of AMC and OLTL. It was not until that announcement that ppl started to show support for the genre and fans turned back in to see how the soaps- AMC and OLTL were going to end that their ratings started to go back up. I even tuned back in to see where the soaps were going ….. I stopped watching both soaps after 30 years.
I never got back into either soap again. Just tuned back in to show my support for the genre. I have been watching GH for now 44 years. RC has rewritten so much of GHs history and wrote the characters are almost unrecognizeable. Yes, for their 50th characters were brought back. However, do not think that was RC’s doing but that is the job of the Executive Producers. To tell you the truth- do not think it would matter if it was Frank or anyone else who had that position. Look at DOOL. They are bringing back their old characters too. Stephen Nichols, Wally Kurth , Peter Reckell, Alison Sweeney, Thaao Penghlis, and Jason Cook. I am sure there are others.
2009–2010 Season[13]
The Young and the Restless 3.7
The Bold and the Beautiful 2.4
Days of our Lives 2.2
General Hospital 2.1
All My Children 2.0
One Life to Live 1.9
As the World Turns 1.8 (Final CBS Season; ended September 17, 2010)
2010–2011 Season[14]
The Young and the Restless 3.6
The Bold and the Beautiful 2.2
General Hospital 2.1
Days of our Lives and One Life to Live 2.0 (tied)
All My Children 1.9 (Final ABC Season; ended September 23, 2011)
2011–2012 Season[15]
The Young and the Restless 3.5
The Bold and the Beautiful 2.4
One Life to Live 2.1 (Final ABC Season; ended January 13, 2012)
Days of our Lives and General Hospital 2.0 (tied)
2012–2013 Season[16]
The Young and the Restless 3.6
The Bold and the Beautiful 2.6
General Hospital 2.2 (50th Anniversary Season)
Days of our Lives 2.1
2013-2014 Season[17][18]
The Young and the Restless 3.3
The Bold and the Beautiful 2.6
General Hospital 2.2
Days of our Lives 1.9
2014-2015 Season
The Young and the Restless 3.6
The Bold and the Beautiful 2.8
General Hospital 2.3
Days of our Lives 1.9
maddiehayes, as far as John and Evangeline; I liked them too; they had lots of chemistry and Renee Goldsberry is still one of my favorite actresses. However, John and Evangeline broke up in 2005; she was paired with Cristian Vega in 2006. She and Cristian broke up in 2007; she was about to be paired with TSJ/Todd which I was really excited about as well. But it never came to pass. Evangeline was a victim of a hate crime and she was written into a coma; at that time she and John had very few conversations with John; in fact, John and Natalie were ending and they were moving John toward Marty. In truth, there were contract negotiations with Renee Goldsberry and ABC and they were unable to come to an agreement. Renee left the show in 2007, Van went into a coma. So from 2007 through 2010, Van was in a coma; she was not killed off until 2010; Van’s mother and sister, Layla unplugged her from the machine that was keeping her alive during the Eli/Bennett Thompson mystery. Her being killed had nothing to do with John. You Look Pretty was a good source but they don’t have all the scenes and they don’t include all of the story.
Guest, please allow me to clarify as I do not want to represent and want to be sure my words are not taken out of context. The interview I am referring to in which RC said that he deliberately threw more obstacles Jolie’s way took place in 2011. This was long before the reboot went live and before the lawsuit was filed. It was a video interview and he said that the goal was always for John and Natalie to be together and that he deliberately threw more obstacles their way in anticipation of PP’s reboot. However, when it was revealed that PP had to shelve OLTL; everything was already filmed and too late to change anything. So that is what I am referring to. The other behind the scenes information I spoke about are things that were revealed much later in 2013 after all the controversy with GH and the 3 actors being locked into their contract. So that had nothing to do with RC; currently being fired. I am sure the interview is in Michael Fairman’s archives; if you’d like to search for it. But again, those are two separate entities; I was only commenting on it in line with comments of how RC has a tendency to mess up and trash good romances for the purpose of plot points and because he feels that couples can’t be happy or they are boring.
@Anacarrie -Actually from what I understood GH NEVER had the right when ABC sold PP the rights to OLTL even when it was shelved [temp] to offer ME, RH, and KA long term contracts as John, Todd and Starr. PP was nice enough to give the roles/ character to GH on a SHORT term basis with storyline approval [ that went for any and ALL OLTL characters used on GH . ] If that was not the case. The PP lawsuit against ABC would have been thrown out a long time ago and all characters used would not have had to leave GH and come back as new characters. ABC was supposed to advertise which they did not do much of either. ABC did not meet the agreement when they sold the shows. That is the problem! And ABC still expected to be paid when they continued to air shows as part of the deal. Which is why they stopped making the shows and why they declared bankruptcy.
PP taking over was a lot different than any webseries . It takes time to iron out kinks. Trying to pay salaries and keep production costs down. A new adventure always takes time and seems like fans just want, think it is all about them, and forget all about that!
example- I remember when the amusement park opened for Disney – once again – new adventure – takes time for something new to run smoothly. Think ppl have to be patient.
Think every other day alternating between AMC and once OWN brought in onto cable it was running like clockwork. Also, online gave it too much freedom. People were binge watching instead of watching everyday . So, PP found that it was not cost effective to run a new episode daily. They were losing money doing an episode daily.
It is like SOAPnet. They started with millions of viewers and then it dwindled down. 3 years before they got rid of it all together it got down to only 185,000 subscribers. The company was losing money. Can’t run a network on that. They gave it a try for 3 more years before getting rid of it all together. It continued to go down in subscribers. They had no choice.
Now Pop has over 80 million subscribers.[ which is why the Emmy’s were picked up by Pop.] And they still had less than a million viewers watch] Y&R and B&B air reruns. Heard they are most likely adding DOOL next. They have a great line up The Love Boat which originally aired on ABC reruns on Pop. maybe if GH gets its act together they too will show reruns. GH is the only soap left that is not syndicated world wide.
Guest, I pretty much agree with your comment except that Roger Howarth and Kristen Alderson had not agreed to sign on with PP on their initial intent to launch in 2012. So they were free to go wherever including GH. ME also was signed to PP but his terms were obviously different from the others as he was also free to move on GH when the opportunity came his way. So ABC unscrupulously signed ME along with KA to three year contracts KNOWING they only had permission to use John, Todd and Starr for a year. So PP had a right to the characters, but GH had a right to the actors. RH only signed on for one year initially and he was able to appear on OLTL 2.0. For what it is worth; I never blamed PP or looked at them as the villain; their efforts were good and so was their intent. But they had little to work with and not having ME was a BIG DEAL even if others do not admit it. He was crucial to PP as well. In the long run, it worked out better for him because he did have a long time gig that lasted 3 years. But PP tried and perhaps some things could have been done better but I don’t have an issue with them. I do have an issue with the OLTL characters stories on GH because it was disrespectful to the legacy of their characters. But as far as the actors themselves, I wish them nothing but the best.
I wish you had asked if ABC regrets killing OLTL. They should. That’s what’s wrong with their afternoon ratings. €##%*[]s.
that’s why I stopped watching gh ,I still miss OLTL .
I would love the Silas murder mystery to be resolved by it being someone in a mask or how about it being Stephen Clay. Silas is off somewhere hidden. I can’t even fathom that GH thinks letting Michael Easton go would be a wise decision! Do they have any idea how much they will lose in ratings?
Silass is boring! I do not notice when he is not on. Sorry! Think they should have made him a Cassadine. As a doctor the character was just not right! imo!
They could have done so much different for ME’; they could have made him a new character in the beginning; he has a strong support base. But instead they capitalized on the popularity of John and then RC had to hastily figure out a new character for him and it just didn’t fly. He has no imagination and Silas was just not worthy of a man with ME’s talent.
At this point the ratings are dropping precipitously because the writing is so bad. Any incremental drop in the ratings for other reasons is probably negligible at this point. Although I think Silas had far more viability long-term than Franco, Nina, Kiki or Ava. Would have rather they kept Silas over Julian also.
I still can’t believe Julian is back from the dead; I thought all of those Jeromes was killed off. As I said before, it’s a soap, not science fiction. Bringing back old characters is one thing but it takes more than those stunts to maintain a show and keep their audience.
I can’t remember. Did they have a body for the ‘vampire’ brother? It could be him that was murdered and Silas could be elsewhere …. Just an idea.
The only thing to do now is bring back Vanessa Marcil as Brenda Barrett, to bring rating up. Lbs
PFFT!! They blew it getting rid of Michael Easton IF it was ALL for rating!!
just saw the latest ratings. the murder didn’t pop the ratings
i’d say most Easton fans chose not to watch.
not surprised. No offense to Michael Easton or his fans, but nobody cared about that character. Actually, nobody cares about any of the characters that are eating GH (Madelin, Dr. O., Franco, Nina, Kiki), so why would anyone watch.
It was a mutual decision that he left! The murder was not even in the ratings yet.
It was NOT a mutual decision, Michael Easton has confirmed that much.
lol ohh geez..
they killed off Silas for a murder story, how sad.. 🙁
The very popular Michael Easton (Silas Clay) was just killed-off on General Hospital.
(( That was another big decision that was ” handed down ” … that I assume, was difficult to make?——))
I gather it being ”handed down” came from the top and Vicki said;
”VICKI: —— Yes, that was a challenge. But what it did afford us was a really great opportunity to tell a murder mystery. —–
apparently ”us” she killed Silas off ..? yah the suits did..
yet, she never said why except to create a murder mystery..
And like a “murder mystery” is groundbreaking storytelling, huh?
I wish TPTB had shown the Luke retrospective she mentioned in the article. Luke’s exit is hands down the worst exit of a veteran character I’ve ever seen. Geary may not have wanted the fuss but the character and the viewers deserved it.
If they wanted a murder mystery why not have the victim be Luke? That would have been a true umbrella story because of his significance. If not Luke then why not Franco,Nina,Madeline,Kiki,or Julian? Silas is a doctor and GH should focus more on the medical staff instead of criminals and buffoons.
we definitely deserved a better Luke exit. Bringing Jake and Frank Smith back was so stupid
Tony wanted Luke to die so I agree that would have been a good murder mystery with Laura going away for a long long time!
The show just literally drags on to no end…Will that change?
They need new younger writers not the same old people switching from soap to soap. Ask the fans what they want. It is a disgrace how they treated the Silas character. Didn’t give him a storyline except now that he was killed off. The show needed a cancer doctor especially since it effects everyone nowadays. I hope they bring back Michael Easton as Silas or a new character. It doesn’t matter the time slot die hard fans will watch, it does make a difference though when GH is interrupted for unnecessary news stories. Time will tell which direction these writers go.
LOL. If you ask the fans what they want GH will be a mess with 100% different answers depending on the day of the week!
So basically… it won’t be any different than it is now?
I agree. You know, I like Michael Easton but NO ONE was talking about him until he had a knife sticking out of his back!
I love GENERAL HOSPTIAL. but these stories are to much the jason story line is so slow an stupid i dont understand how long do we have to wait .my childrens. Kids we see jason know hes jason before i will.
the Jason revele was put on hold because of Luke’s exit story which would have dumped on Jason’s revele..
Tony’s exit has ended and now Jason is being revealed..
I luv Jake so don’t really care about Jason.. lol
Michael Easton may be “very popular” with his fans, but Silas as a character was a dud.
Yes, Silas was a huge bore.
not to everyone just sayin’
A number of characters are boring. Silas was not one of them to me.
It comes down to writing compelling, character driven story along with integration of newer characters. There was a huge missed opportunity there.
Silas may have been a bore, but that was not ME’s fault. The writing afforded to him has been horrible.
Now RH as Franco is a complete bore and he was never a bore on OLTL.
Sorry, this is a lot of spin and not convincing. Of course it was the ratings. If people were watching Ron would still be here. The rest of the daytime lineup is suffering? Please. If that was the case and the determination for why GH ratings were down and they’re just waiting for The FabLife, Ron would still be here. These answers make as much sense as Ron’s answers did for his story holes.
If Drummer is the one in charge, I have no confidence that things will get better from this interview.
GH is in the tank because of terrible storytelling but also because of the focus of those stories. Too many new actors and characters that GH fans don’t care about; a show that GH fans don’t recognize; a show that core GH fans tuned out from after finally saying enough bait and switch, OOC characters and killing off vets like AJ and Duke. Enough Todd from OLTL and Phyllis for Y&R, we don’t care about them and if they had enough fans that did, the ratings would have always been better with them. They never were. The only real increases came with AJ, the 50th, Nurses Ball and Robin.
Ms. Drummer and every other executive at ABC knows that it is near impossible to get new viewers to tune in for anything. The biggest audience out there for GH is the GH fans who left. People who know the show and its history, and there are plenty out there in the 18-49 demo. There aren’t a lot of people out there dying to see Todd from OLTL play James Franco’s creation on GH. There just isn’t. People who would come back to a GH they recognize; updated, but still GH.
All the new actors and characters brought on were as much Frank’s doing as anyone; so many of them and most not even tied to core families and vets. All she credits him with is budgets and money. Right, he makes the trains run on time. Not a ringing endorsement for an EP with so much creative control.
And as to Geary, I don’t believe there wasn’t a way to accommodate him and the fans, sorry. And no flashbacks/montage or final LnL scene was not the biggest problem, the story was awful. And maybe TPTB should be more concerned with what the fans want than what any actor wants, whether it is creative control or a job.
As for killing Silas being a challenge but allowing them to tell a great murder mystery, sure. A character that no one really knew or cared about murdered and most of the suspects are new characters that no one cares about. What a great story concept. Again, this gives me zero confidence.
And even though Ms. Drummer says it isn’t about the ratings, the most current numbers are out. Geary’s final day, 2.9 million, not great, but then what? The Franco/Nina show takes over and total viewer number collapses and 18-49 stays at the all time lows. GH fans are not going to tune in for Franco, Nina, Ava, Julian, Nathan etc and the actors don’t have enough fans who will start watching GH. They haven’t yet and they’re not coming. Better writing, more romance, for these characters will not do it either. We don’t care about them. And no one wants to see Franco in a romance.
If somehow FabLife does well and GH does benefit a bit from it, so what? What is the goal? To get back marginally decent ratings that might appease the bean counters or to achieve the largest audience potential possible? You only do that by cleaning house of the likes of Franco, Ava etc, bring back beloved vets and families and write those adventure stories and romances for characters that GH fans care about, that a lot of us care about; not a very small number of people who are so enamored with an actor that they have his picture as their screen saver. There aren’t enough of those people out there and we know that now.
Franco and Nina are loved by many! 🙂
Franco is one of the best characters on GH..
Ava is gold, her acting is beyond reproach..
many of the loved vets are retired, doing other projects or just simply do want to come back, really some oldies do not want to come back, seems logical…
If one did, the families are gone as are their once long ago stories..
the Q’s= Tracy / and RC brought in Dillon to keep the Q’s alive, and that makes 2 Q’s.. and i believe he has Jake/Jason ready to be a Q, again..
The Cassadines, Webers, etc all near gone .
RC brought in a Spencer- Valerie yuck to keep that dying Spencer family alive, it was down to Lulu and Bobby .
ALL the families are gone and no way on this earth is there a budget to hire 9 or more to’ recreate ‘ the old families..
in youtube and in the 80’s GH
that is where you will find the long gone families not in 2015 GH..
there are no numbers in the families left in GH..
2 or 3 members per family do not make for long involved stories..
(the only large family are the Corinthos and they are ..
sonny, michael, morgan avery and RC just brought back Kristina also a Davis to keep the family alive..
I0t hink your vision of what will fix GH would do the same damage. The young audience they want is not going to tune in to see characters that were old 20 years ago and who now are getting close to senior citizen age. Lets see maybe they can bring back Stuart Damon and do a storyline with him hiding his usage of viagra and depends. Maybe they can feature Jackie Zeman and her horrible botoxed face more. Hmmm lets see oh yea maybe they can have Rachel Ames as Audrey on 5 days a week dealing with dementia
Matt- Your answer is ridiculous, I guess the best way to deflect is with nonsense.
You’re completely wrong and have no understanding of the “young” audience you are referring to. The 18-49 demo contains many fans who watched GH years ago, 15-20 years ago who would return to a show they recognize to see characters they know and love.
You use Stuart Damon and Rachel Ames to make fun of their advanced ages and take a cheap shot at Jackie Zeman. First, GH could use a little Alan Quartermaine, Stuart Damon is well loved by many.
But there are many GH vets who viewers would love to see who are not pushing 80. Mac, Felicia, Kevin to name a few. Who are the actors who have been brought on? Stafford who is 50. Howarth and Devry pushing 50. Gati mid 50’s. Maura West, 40 something. Does she look any younger than Kristina Wagner if at all?
What about 74 year old Donna Mills? Is she bringing the young viewers that Stuart Damon wouldn’t? A lot of young viewers enjoying her getting it on with Ric?
Vets are important and fans would want to see them. This notion that GH can somehow attract new younger viewers is a ridiculous notion and certainly not with the formula and the actors they have brought on, most middle aged, all playing characters no one cares about.
Replace Franco, Nina, Ava, Julian tomorrow with Mac, Felicia, Kevin and Lucy and you start to fix the problem and give GH fans a reason to start coming back. Then you hire some younger actors to expand their families and build their legacies and you are doing much better than you are now.
Everyone clamors for Felicia and Mac, Kevin, etc….
John Lindstrom has an acting role on a prime time series.
Kristina Wagner (along with Jack) has a role on a series on the Hallmark channel “When Calls the Heart.” These folks are not going to be giving up their prime time roles to return to GH.
Damn, AJQ shoots and scores! She or he is spot on here.
You’re so right AJQ, thank you! The more un-recognizable GH becomes (more focus on new, unknown characters), the more the ratings fall. Su000, you and Tim can bash the vets all you want, but the fact is, the numbers are falling because of new characters like Franco and Nina. LOOK AT THE RATINGS.
Exactly, AJQ. There are a few fans who will follow a certain actor wherever he/she goes, but I’m not one of them. I will tune in out of curiosity, of course, but if the storyline isn’t great, I don’t stay. Come on, it’s not the actor, it’s the CHARACTER we love the most. GH fans love GH characters. Y&R fans love Y&R characters. OLTL fans .. etc. I am hopeful that, now that Tristan Rogers is on “recurring” at Y&R, GH will offer him a contract. His appearances have consistently brought up the ratings. Give Mac & Felicia something to do. Bring back Robin. Pass the torch to the new generation, but have the older generation there to give them guidance! Look no further than the popularity of Downton Abbey to see how it’s done. Who is everybody’s favorite? Octagenarian Maggie Smith! Everybody loved the romance between Mary & Matthew, but they also loved Carson & Mrs. Hughes.
GH is completely unrecognizable. They need to get rid of the newbies and focus on the core characters
and that is the biggest problem with GH a group of fans that are too exclusive. that will be GH’s downfall
Elizabeth, Jon Lindstrom is on True Detective which films only a few episodes and he has been finished with it for a while. Jon has also tweeted recently and favorited the tweets of fans calling for him to be back on GH. He isn’t a series regular on The Big Bang Theory, taping 8-9 months a year.
Same goes for Kristina Wagner. These primetime gigs you are referring to are not full time work. These two actors would love to be on GH. However they are actors and seek other work because they are not. And John J York seems to be spending an awful lot of time on the golf course.
Imagine, Mac Scorpio is on the golf course and Franco is on GH five days a week now. Anyone want to know why ratings are in the tank?
Can I just CO-SIGN the poster AJQ ?? Spot on posts and exactly what is wrong with GH. I am a 45 yr GH viewer who is currently 3 weeks behind on my viewing because I come away SAD every time I watch my beloved show. Every soap has it’s own “feel” or “vibe” if you will and GH was at the top of the heap in both story-telling & cast. We had the love stories of Luke & Laura (which TG seems to forget gave him the star status that he’s enjoyed for the past 35 yrs), Frisco & Felicia, Robert & Anna, Sonny & Brenda. The HUGE Sonny/Brenda/Jax triangle that I couldn’t get enough of back in the 90’s. They have the most talented cast. The core families – The Quartermains, The Webbers, The Spencers. Then Bob Guza decided that GH should be turned into “The Sonny Show” and within 1 yr GH was NOT the soap we all knew & loved….and it has never been restored to it’s former glory. We didn’t need the former OLTL actors. We didn’t need the big name actress, Michelle Stafford (who I think is phenomental BTW but NOT a good fit for GH). We don’t need one newbie after the other, the new characters that we don’t know nor care to know. We DO need those core families that formed the GH foundation. There is still a huge place for the vetrans that we know & love. Monica & Tracy as the Quartermaine mothers & grandmothers, both bringing different sides to the family dynamic.Lucky, Lulu & even Nicholas as the adventurous, live on-the-edge Spencers and I can even tolerate the Corinthos family b/c the mob is now an integral part of GH and fans seem to love Sonny. GH has wasted the talent of Jason Thompson this year and Dr Patrick Drake has been given nothing to do except lust after Sam. The Drakes could be another interesting family but the writers need to either recast Robin or allow Patrick to truly move on from her. Allowing “Robin” to lurk in the background just isn’t doing his character any justice. And the pacing of the stories and only seeing favorite characters sporatically is just not working. Trim the cast to the essentials and WRITE for them. We want the drama, adventrue, heartbreak & triumph. And we want well-written romance, and love stories we can’t wait to get home to see. I want MY GH back, dammit!!
You say it well! “Heartbreak and triumph, with emphasis on “triumph.” The real world is dark enough; fans want to see, as you say, “well-written romance and love stories” like we had with the Luke and Laura story and countless others. And, yes, we want to see the so-called “good guys” win and we want them to win with integrity. That’s what OUR GH used to be; as you say, give us our GH back.
It’s rather simple, you see!
And I think Ms. Drummer is barking up the wrong tree; we don’t need a Katic Couric lead in. We can watch the news as we wish, but the audience is ALREADY THERE for the kind of GH we want to watch. We watch GH for the reasons I (and you) cite here. We want characters we can root for, we want love and romance (and that’s female AND male viewers), and we do want to be taken to a more idealistic approach to life–what life COULD BE with courageous, moral characters (or “immoral” characters, for that matter!) who struggle but ultimately “win”–either morally or physically. We want to live vicariously through these characteers we are rooting for; we want to feel our soul ELEVATED–that is, historically and classically, what all good drama is supposed to do–no matter if it is “daytime drama,” nighttime drama, a movie, a play. As I said above, it’s simple!
Wnen GH did the show “Night shift” on the Soap Opera Network it was would GH should now be. A drama based on characters from the hospital. There are so many things that go on in a hospital. Look at Greys Anatomy, its still on. GH needs to get back to GH! Start by recasting Robin and have Jakeson be Jason Q and make him the doctor he was going to be long ago.
I love AJQ’s post!! Everything said is spot on. I would much rather see Stuart Damon as Alan arguing with Tracy or Monica then Nina and her mother. I miss the Q’s Thanksgiving. We havent even had a real one in forever. Bring back Jon Lindstrom as Kevin as he could be essential to alot of stories including murder mysteries! And give Monica a storyline , and stop leaving her in her room upstairs for 6 moths at a time. I love Anna, and love her relationship with Patrick, why don’t they give a storyline that involves Emma and have the two of them work together.
This Kiki has got to go, I dont like her character at all. Maybe they will kill her when Lexi A comes back as Kristina (one could only hope). You can see the 18-49 group love their vets and you can see it by the way the ratings spiked with Robin, Nurses Ball, 50th anniversary, Lucky coming back just recently. This is what we want to see…
So much to support in your comments AJQ. It is unfathomable to me that ABC would give preferences to an actor’s bias about his exit versus doing what is better for the sustainability of the show. How insular and shortsighted are these people?
Maybe their density is purposeful, maybe Ms. Drummer sees it as her personal mission to succeed where Brian Frons failed (that is, at getting GH cancelled). This makes as much sense as her blather about the ratings being meaningless and reflective of the broader daytime lineup…
AJQ , as a 44 yr long term viewer I agree with you!!! And IF they can bring back Jake [ as ridiculous as that was- well, now they can certainly bring back just about anyone now- but show some imagination ( for goodness sake – IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO IT)
This show is called GENERAL HOSPITAL and it has stopped resembling that for A LONNNNNNNNNNNGGGGG TTTTTIIIIIIIIIMMMMEE!!!! The Hospital should still remain the the main focus like it has been the first day I tuned in and it has always had some sort of mob element to it. , however, now you can count the staff on your hands. If Dummer wants a show that is currently being shown in GHs place currently in its place well change the title. WE ARE NOT seeing the show that was created by Frank and Doris Hursley in 1963 – not even close. Yes, there is Dr. Liesl O’brecht, Dr. Lucas Jones, Dr. Patrick Drake, Liz, Felix, Brad Cooper “Lab Manager ” [Heard about but not seen much ] Dr. Monica Quartermaine, Epiphany, Dr. Kevin Collins] The rest of the staff is either named. “Doc” or ” Nurse” . I have always loved the little “mob” element to it. Before Frank and Ron came to the show there was always a medical adviser as well as a storyline consultant. Think it is obviously that once they came on board neither one are present. The medical storylines are convoluted and a hot mess and hold no truth to it same goes to the continuity of storylines. I believe that if they DO want to continue both are desperately needed. Ever since ‘The Sopranos’ became the #1 Drama series of all time- GH wanted to make the show more like it. However, it just NEVER could be that. David Chase is not currently working on any other projects that I know of. If GH was smart they SHOULD really consult on a TV14 level and see what he could do to make it a bit more believeable . Yes , Emmy Lead Actor [ which BTW there have only been 2 on GH- Tony Geary and Maurice Benard in this Category ] – Maurice Benard aka Mr Dimples overall the Gangster is more loved than “hated” or else he would not have been on GH since 93. However, overall, and I am going to quote this here so this is not my opinion but rather a fact …” In 93-94 season – ratings were a 6.2 [ that was the season MB came on… Y&R was #1, AMC #2 and GH#3. ] GH was already starting to go downhill from there.Actually ALL soaps were … Nelson Mandela , Crisis in Rwanda, a lot was happening in the world , MLB strike, Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the back of the knee, Whitewater scandal begins to be investigated, Mass suicide by Order of the Solar Temple, 700 paintings looted from Germany revealed, OJ Simpson trial, Another Kennedy Funeral, Kurt Cobain’s Suicide, etc…. think that also had a huge impact on the ratings … GH slipped to # 5 -1995–1996 Season
1. The Young and the Restless 7.6
2. Days of our Lives 5.8
3. The Bold and the Beautiful 5.3
4. All My Children 5.2
5. General Hospital 5.0
The Oklahoma City Bombing, Conviction of Sheik and 9 followers over bombing, OJ Simpsons found inocent, October 4,
Ebola Virus Hits!, The passing away of Jerry Garcia , Rabin assassinated, Train-School Bus accident
A commuter train hit a school bus on October 25, 1995, killing 7 children. It occurred in Fox River Grove, IL, northwest of Chicago. Windows 95 released, Divorce!
Princess Diana and Prince Charles are divorced. She has her ‘HRH’ removed, Rapper Tupac Shakur Is Gunned Down., Lance Armstrong Got Cancer, JonBenét Ramsey
A beauty pageant contestant who was found murdered in the basement of her parents’ home in Boulder, Colorado, United States, eight hours after being reported missing. And The ratings still fell… GH went back up 1996–1997 Season to #3. Then slipped to #4 until 2000-2001, however , for the 1990’s it averaged #3 for the decade. 1990s Rankings: #1: The Young and the Restless; #2: All My Children; #3: General Hospital. And for the 2000s Ratings it also ranked #3- 2000s Rankings: #1: The Young and the Restless; #2: The Bold and the Beautiful; #3: General Hospital. Which is why when ABC when it came down to its cancellation announcement it Announced the lower ranked , least amount of Emmy winning Soaps- AMC and OLTL.
Why it decided to bring on Frank and Ron from a defunct soap instead of bringing on a Multi-Emmy winners who actually know GH inside and out and who wish to grow on GHs rich history like all the previous EP and HWs before – NOW that is what they should have done. I have NEVER seen a HW rewrite so much of GH history than RC and his crew! It is like we should just forget everything we ever knew about the show because he will just rewrite it anyway… ONE episode at a time! Hey from the very first episode. If it was up to him – he would rewrite the show from the very beginning at it would be , “Dr.Steve Hardy, who? smh ……… I actually think he likes insulting the intelligence of the viewer. We get more flashbacks of things that just happen 5 seconds ago [as if we have the attention span of a gnat] and yet with Luke’s “10 week exit arc [ more like 8 week] we get 1 flashback between Bobbie/ Luke and what is sad that was the lowest rated day of his exit storyline – which means the rest of the “fluff” that day was a waste of time that no one wanted to see….
Still in shock that “fans” were told way in advance when Genie’s first air date was and that day the ratings were 2.5 million viewers with a 1.9 ratings. Sorry but RC should be ashamed of himself. Throughout those 8 weeks. Ratings should NEVER have been below 4.5 million viewers and a 2.6 rating. We should have been setting record highs NOT Lows!! Remember this is the couple that still holds the record of the biggest event in Daytime history! Perhaps flashback and montages to back things up would have pushed the ratings over ! But obviously nope, no respect.
Respect to Tony would have been since he made this clear. No clip of the wedding. Since he said he was sick of THAT specific clip. However, there endless hours of clips. Someone was LAZY! smh
Those EIGHT Weeks… COULD HAVE been Emmy worth for GH. For TG. I am sure he could put something together. But for an actual win…. Nope. The Clips with flashbacks and montages to back it up IS NEEDED. SCREWED UP BIG TIME!!!!!! NOT ONE TEAR!!!!! BLEW IT !! That was not the exit TG deserved! 🙁
I think she is in denial. The stories are the reason the ratings have gone down. The quality of GH started to go down when she became more involved with the show. I don’t understand why they chose AG over the fans for Luke’s final episode. Their should have been a montage. It is sad to see the fall of ABC daytime,the once gold standard of daytime television. I do think ABC has lost a lot of it’s viewers to CBS,CBS daytime had it’s highest rated second quarter in years. I predict FABlife will be a flop. I can’t believe she said FABlife will be the answer to their rating problems
The ratings started to drop with the whole Luke/Fluke nonsense that Anthony Geary just had to have!
That was classic Ron Carlivati; he couldn’t leave that duo personality, dark side good bad stuff alone. Took it straight from OLTL. GH is better off without him IMO.
Anacarrie,,,AG is the one that requested the dark story, so why is that on RC?
Because what is the answer to a failed talk show (i.e., KATIE), but ANOTHER freaking talk show.
What has happened to Hollywood?! Cheap, cheap, cheap (reality, talk) and filled with sequels, prequels, reboots (my favorite, rolling eyes).
How I long for the days when the mornings were game shows like SALE OF THE CENTURY, THE PRICE IS RIGHT, etc., etc., and the early afternoons were FILLED with soaps. You had like three on every channel. THEN you had your talk shows in the later afternoon before news. Now news is on every freaking hour. With all these digital channels, can’t they share? Thank goodness for the digital channels we do have for providing something other than talk, talk, talk. I would give anything for that Decades channel to pick up an old soap (like SANTA BARBARA or LOVING) and run the heck out of it like it did with DARK SHADOWS a while back.
People DO NOT want talk shows anymore! Look at the View, it is on its last leg. Cast members have hurt it more than anything but fans are tired of all the chitter chatter. We want to escape from all the BS in the news, dont care about peoples VIEWS and want a good soap!
For a murder mystery to have real emotional impact long term, it needs to be a beloved character, though Michael Easton was probably far more beloved than others.
There are way too many characters on the canvas right now and the new writers would be wise to pare it down somewhat.
And, this applies to all the remaining shows, please do not hire soap veterans without a well defined character for them to play.
Nah. The murder mystery could have been a knife wielding serial killer that took out Franco, Silas, Kiki, Nina, Dr. O, Hayden, Valerie, and Sloane, because the killer (Rosalie) ate way too much beans at lunch and was suffocating with gas!
Now, that is the best idea i’ve read so far MissySnow. Housecleaning is needed and enought with the stunt casting!
GH needs to stop the stunt casting
if the beloved character is murdered why hang around?
Michael can always come back as one of the other Clays we have never met.
I am very disappointed that Silas is gone, I think it was a really bad move to kill him. Also the girl that is currently playing Kiki needs to go back to acting school. She’s a very pretty girl and I’m sure with hard work she could do better but her acting is very unnatural and appears to
It’s nice that according to Ms. Dummer they ‘love and respect’ Tony so much that they wanted to ‘honor his wishes’.
But where was the love and respect for the FANS of Luke and Laura? How about honoring THEIR wishes instead? It’s absolutely ridiculous that an iconic love story – which was promoted in the media by OTHER networks during Tony’s retirement announcement- ends with not one single scene between Luke and Laura. Unless you count a letter addressed to “Angel” [thank you Ron].
If it came down to a choice between respecting Tony Geary’s wishes or respecting the fans, the fans should have won this debate.
Because without fans, you don’t have a show.
Why? AG has made it very clear that Mommy and Daddy aka LnL were not getting back together and fans should just move on which I think is a hideous way to treat the people that supported the show and actor.
Right, and the fan DID move on; ipso facto, TG got his wish–the fans didn’t even factor in the equation–and this interview proves that. The blind spot persists.
Not a good predictor for the future ratings to go up.
So it remains the same. Might as well “call the whole thing off,” if the fans don’t count. Who does she think is watching??????????????? The suits and TPTB?
WHAT???
they chose Geary over the fans which is sad,i have stopped watching
I have too. Just can’t force myself to be interested in Franco, Nina, Denise De Muccio, Dr, Obrecht, Kiki, Madelaine. Sabrina and Jake are only tolerable because they at least are better integrated with core characters. I might check back in with the new writers and Genie Francis coming back on screen in October, but by then I’ll also be out of the habit of watching.
And let me say how much I do NOT EVER want to see Tony Geary back.
It’s plan and simple. They do not care about the fans, they would rather kiss Mr. Geary’s posterior and give him whatever he wants in the hopes that he graces all of us with his presence again someday. They would rather burn bridges with the fans then with him. It’s quite sickening. After all, we are just “numbers” to them.
I agree with all of you. I also have tuned out.
Ali,
I second your every word here!
They honored AG’s wishes, not the fan..buy WHY? And what’s wrong w/a montage for Pete’s sakes!? Why was AG whining about that! It’s old stuff he’s already filmed-give it a rest Geary! That man wears me out! I couldn’t believe how much ABC promoted his exit, and while the ratings for his last day were 2.9, it was by far the highest watched day of the whole week. I can’t help but think if they had done a stronger sendoff folks would’ve tuned in the next day. I think they fled in disappointment!
The 1st thing I read after Luke’s last day was how Geary may not be retired after all-Geary was just kidding-he wouldn’t rule it out. It was all over the media from many sources. I just thought WTF? WTF? WTF? Then, I thought he left because of Ron since he clearly has no respect or love for him in his interviews and now that there’s new writers he’ll try working with them. Seriously I thought maybe ABC planned the montage but pulled it when Geary told him he’d come back if Ron was gone. Seriously. This crossed my mind.
It seems AG has a lot of control within his contract that ABC should have sent him packing with a long time ago, and we fans would not have these issues with how Luke or LnL.
If your theory is correct then the entire management structure at ABC doesn’t have a clue. Which certainly seems evident.
I can understand them playing softball about RC but to deny that ratings are falling because of the direction/storytelling of the show and instead it’s the entire lineup (side eye). That’s complete denial. And FV is staying? Great, so much for investment in GH’s future. I’m already not watching but now I guess I can take my attention completely off any GH news period because these people at the top don’t get it. It’s like they do things halfway and we had such a good chance at something good with both RC and TG gone.
RC pitches his stories while FV and the network give their input, so if RC was sent packing so should the other people giving the approvals. RC really needed a co-HW to help with the romance on the show and reign in his tendencies to go overboard and NOT write character but too much focus on plot.
RC wasn’t a decent plot writer while on GH either. That may have been his strong suit at OLTL, IDK, but if so he was burnt out by the time he got to GH. That burnt out part may be the only truth in the entire interview. He had no clue about romance, none at all. They really needed to let him go sooner before he completely fell down to save him some embarrassment. I don’t hate him, He just was not the right fit for GH. Dummer def needs to go with FV. I’m adding her to the list. Step it up or go so the fans can enjoy their show again. We’re tired of waiting around through more than a decade of letdowns. That Dummer receives a paycheck at all after that interview is more OTT than any RC plot.
FV’s hiring frenzy is every bit as bad for GH as RC’s writing. They BOTH needed to go.
@Elizabeth,,,,we will agree to disagree. I think the network and FV should have told RC to reign in his crazy stories and write character driven / romantic stories, and for FV to STOP hiring every other actor that he decides just needs to be on GH!
Good luck with the FABlife!
The fact that television execs think “The View” is a news program speaks volumes about the sorry state of TV journalism.
So true.
Thanks for the interview Vicki! With all the madness it’s nice to just seen some sensible answers to questions.
ME is a great actor but it was time for silas to go. He had no story and its a waste of ME’s talent and our time. And as far as telling ron to write romance….he has stated that happy couples bore him, and he isnt interested in character development. It was time for him to go too. I cant wait for this new writing team to start. I might watch more than i ff now.
PREACH. RC only cared about romance if it was a couple that he wanted to stick together. And I love ME but Silas has been there since 2013 and nothing about his story; even when he was with Sam, was earth shattering. He is a wonderful talent, I hope he has a better platform.
Agreed. Silas did ME no favors. His most powerful acting was as McBain. I resent GH destroying OLTL characters’ legacies and that is why I would welcome seeing ME and MA again. Their story was not finished. Hope springs eternal
More romance ? Than why get rid of one of the sexiest leading men in daytime …bring back Michael Easton as a cop or a not so good Cassidine and make Nik good again. Bring back ME!!!
I have a bad feeling about these changes . Jean Passanante /Altman were horrible on Y&R IMO. It just looks like they want the ratings to go down even more so they will have an excuse to cancel the show and replace it with cheaper programming.
Wow this was a good interview I won’t romance and adventure to but it need to
be with the next generation of Spencers females.
I want Dante and Valerie to get a chance as a couple. Can the show get better lighting too. I want to see more of Bobbie and Felicia and Mac. and Baby Goergie..
Adventure has long been left out in the cold at Gh and never fully re embraced. Gh at its best was an action adventure romance and bringing that back full force would bring back old viewers and not just women. Bring the Wsb back, Anna and Robert front and center. The spencer and the jones girls should be the second coming of their parents in some way or another. This has me excited. Adventure
Frisco should come back.
So let me get this straight an executive producer holds no responsibility for reigning in his head writer. RC had a lot of crazy stuff going on I agree masks back from the dead but I guess I am confused at no point did he might want to say you need to dial it back a notch. I hope they turn it around and Geary is gone can we move on as for ME he has a lot of talent going he just really never caught on with the viewers but I feel the same way about Franco and Kiki and Nina and Ava. Note to these shows just because you are popular in a role on one soap does not mean you are going to wow them on another. It looks to me like they are right back to mob stories. Geary’s final scene handing a gun to Sonny and walking off in the mist really ? I still think he should have danced on the pier with Laura fell in and got eaten by a shark and Laura says Gotcha!
FV ran the show with input from the network, so if RC had to go he should have followed him out the door and I say this as someone that thinks RC should still have his job, and ABC / FV admit they made just as many mistakes. RC needs someone to reign him in and that should have been FV, his immediate boss.
Nice post MissySnow. I think Ron should still have his job as well.
My bottom dollar she doesn’t even watch the show regularly. She was like “Kill Silas? Okay. ” You can tell by her ridiculous answer. You want a murder mystery, you kill off a small character. Not one who makes the top 5 actors in every issue of ABC SID! That’s ridiculous! Hell, she didn’t even answer the question. Just agreed and moved on about a murder mystery that won’t matter anyway in the end. It’s scary to think these people who know little or nothing about the show and characters make big decisions. Look at the numbers! Michael Easton was hardly ever on and is still the number one pick in the ABC magazine this issue. Silas and Sam were the number one couple as well. If he has that big of a fan base, do yourself and the network a favor and keep him! This is dumbfounding!
well said! Horrible interview. I have no fsith in this Exec. Kill Kiki off!!! That would be a great murder 🙂
ok ok ok!
Passanante; GH -breakdown writer-
was one of the writers who followed Ron Carlivati to General Hospital as breakdown writer from May 3, 2012 until November 25, 2013
(((She was with GH for a very short time as a breakdown writer during the very recent years of 2012/13 (google)
Shelly;
Associate head writer: August 10, 2011 (GH’s near cancelation)
January 6, 2012; February 28, 2013
Co-head writer: January 9 – February 20, 2012 (google)
(((not even 2 months as co-head writer lol)
Both together have very little General Hospital experience, History..
Near GH newbies..
Y&R threw Jane and Shelly out most likely because their writing is too lackluster too weak even for Y&R..
Their snooze style of writing was not what JFP&Pratt wants for Y&R..
They are trying to give it life, not put millions to sleep..
If Y&R threw them out, there was a reason ( Y&R all time low plummeting ratings under them) and now GH dragged them in … ahha! go figure..
— 2014 Y&R music box story and all the other terribly boring stories were by the duel..
Y&R went down to it’s lowest ratings under the two..
I will give them a chance, see what they have to offer..
I will enjoy RC last month that is now playing, he is kickinazz and bringing it.. !
ohh tidbit; just ‘cuz
On a typical soap opera there are three tiers of writers —
the head writer or writers, the outline or breakdown writers and the scriptwriters.(google)
Head writers; are responsible for coming up with long-term story.
Breakdown writers; take a week’s worth of story and turn it into five outlines, one for each day.
Scriptwriters; take these outlines and turn them into scripts.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know about all that jazz. “Show us the money”!
I agree.
Letting Michael Easton go was a bummer, like other posters have said previously, they could have a who done it murder mystery with anyone! I am not happy with this and hope the show gets better soon. Get on with the Jason story line, good lord how long can everyone in town know who he is? Getting OLD!
While the interview questions were well thought out, the answers made me shudder. Why? Because I felt the VP was giving us a massive snow job. The constant air kisses sent Ron’s way seemed false and self serving while the explanation of Silas’s murder made no sense. There were way too many other characters who were incredibly disposable–Kiki, Nina, Ava, Donna Mills (who is so useless, she is still just Donna Mills) Rosalie, Hayden, Morgan and Sabrina. Moreover, the VP just dodged the truth over and over throughout this interview. The real reason Silas was killed off was because he was written into a corner after existing on his own isolated canvas apart from Port Charles society.
Finally, she is just dead wrong when she says that the writing has no connection with ratings. I am not even sure if she believes what she says here.
The truth is if you write good, fleshed out, interesting and complex characters who develop over time, the good stories will follow. And if you have good stories, the people will come…..it’s like the Field of Dreams that way.
PS. This woman asserts that the ratings dived not due to the writing but due to Katie Couric being cancelled? The ratings nose dived long before KC was canceled–there is no connection.
Morgan can go and sell skin cream! Please clean house regroup and gosh finish the Jake/Jason storyline so Billy Abbott can go back home.
The ratings drop started March 2015 and Katie went off the air May 2014!
That’s right–there is a huge span of time in between Katie’s cancellation and GH’s ratings plunge. There is no connection between the two.
I agree, Harry!
Bravo, Harry!!!! While the character of Silas may not have set Port Charles on fire, Michael Easton transcended the banal nature of his role for many a fan. His soulful portrayal exuded a quietude and dignity that no words from the pen of Ron C could have ever provided. And for those of us who followed Easton’s varied career, that was enough….as long as there was always hope for a better tomorrow for Dr. Clay, along with the chance to see the actor bask in the moment as the epitome of cool and class—both such uncommon and underrated commodities these days. Quite frankly, I’ve been unable to view most of the episodes since ME”s announced departure….seeing him lying there with a knife in his back was simply too much to fathom. (Although it was a most fitting metaphor for what happened to him at the hands of “The Writer!”) Watching the utter mess he left in his midst has been totally unbearable…..all of these meaningless, useless people he left behind as they continue to insinuate themselves onto the GH audience is most disenchanting….particularly the insufferable Nina. If anyone should have been killed, it were this grating scenery-chewer of a character….it’s way past the point of common sense why anyone should care about this train wreck of a woman…the only interesting thing she could possibly do is to suffer a heinous death, leaving mother Maddie with the fortune she so greedily desires, Franco with a slim possibility of starting anew in another more palatable direction and Ric with a permanent one-way ticket out of town. Ditto the bye-byes for Ava, her bro and boytoy….a major shift away from these Carlivati-imposed regulars would be an absolute blessing! (Add to that Sappy, Val-Chops, Hayden, Grossalie and Jordan….) If GH is to make a scintilla of a case for survival, it must return to its roots and those players that are so beloved….put Anna back in charge upon her return, get Frisco into the fold again, with Robert Scorpio, too, and let the right-minded adults run things….enough of “Sonny Got His Gun,” and Carly’s worship of this repugnant thug. We need more goodness and light in Port Charles, with strongly defined heroes and a few well-chosen villains….and in that mix should be a new role for Michael Easton….he’s done it before, he can do it again….John McBain aside, his Caleb Morley and Steven Clay were poetic bad guys….if need be, let him revisit their darkness to curse (and grace!) the GH canvas once more. He possesses the versatility to equally fulfill the requirements of either angel or demon.
I felt much the same way re:snow job when I read her answers. And she even admitted ABC let Tony have his way over the fans. Any other business I know would find a way to keep a loyal fans/customers base they already had while adding newbies. If you look at it, soaps have been doing this for years. Instead they probably looked at their costs spreadsheets, became scared and reactive, cancelled OLTL and AMC, and then they keep substituting shows that haven’t had any staying power. Not that soaps don’t need refreshes to keep relevant, but you don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
So Ms. Drummer thinks the FAB is going to boost ABC’s daytime ratings. What’s she going to say when it fails like all the other OLTL replacement shows have done?
Again, I agree with Kay.
Don’t worry, Linda, I am positive they have another crappy talk show waiting in the wings for when this new one fails. They always do.
While it’s all well and good that that everyone at GH loves & respects Tony so much, the fans are the ones who made TG who he is. And that was because there was a Luke & Laura! The fans feelings should have been taken into consideration also. At the very least, Genie Francis should have been in the last scene on the dock with him. I was not at all happy with this send-off and I’m sure I’m not alone! And what about the letter he left for Laura? When do we get to learn what was in that letter?
I would’ve been happy with just a goodbye even if she wasn’t in the last scene. Luke would never leave PC “forever” and not even tell Laura he’s going. It was just so disrespectful. I doubt we will ever know what’s in that letter. That was just a symbolic apology to the audience.
I totally agree – TG didn’t want Genie in is last scenes. I loved him as an actor but think he was a diva and he even admitted it. She made his career!
Yep…
So agree with you, MissySnow! Also agree with me3 and Joanmarie K asten
Shit happens. You pay school taxes, your kids go to school. You have VERY little say in their education if it is a public school. You dont like it, you move your child to a different district. Same here, you watch GH, you are a fan and count for the ratings. STILL, you have NO say in the character. You dont like it even though your buying products advertisers sell during your show, you turn the channel. Its life.
Yes, shit happens but again Luke would not be Luke without his fans and if there was never a Luke & Laura!! And also again, I’m sure I’m not the only one of this opinion! Your reply sucks.
Shit indeed happens because this story was shit, and it happened. But clearly those complaining aren’t ready to give up on GH just yet. So here we are. And guess what? Fighting for something you love, is not shitty… but it also happens.
You people dont get it! Tony didnt force you to watch the show! He owes you NOTHING!
Well, she certainly ‘tap dances’ well when she answers questions eh?
She had class.
I didnt see her tap dancing. If it were a video you may have seen that. She answered the questions.
Huh? Timm, are you talking about the ABC suit interviewed here? Because she did not answer the questions. She did in fact dance around all of the questions and deflected, deflected, and deflected.
Joan, you call that class? I call it bullshit.
What I meant is if the interview had been streaming instead of just in print it would have been easier to read her body language. Like I said, at least she came forward with SOMETHING! I’m still waiting to see the report from CBS where Michael Muhney molested Hunter King! Of yeah, it NEVER happened! Braeden wanted Muhney out!
There is a petition online to bring Michael Easton back to GH. This wasn’t Michael’s decision to exit GH, this was a creative decision and a bad one. Michael Easton is a Popular Veteran of 3 of ABC’s Daytime’s Soap Operas. If you are a fan of Easton and have supported him in his nearly 15 years at ABC then please sign the petition. We are trying very hard and need all the signatures we can get. It only takes a second, please SIGN:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/914/044/258/bring-back-michael-easton-to-general-hospital/?taf_id=14208719&cid=twitter
Last count was around 6,100 signatures of the 7k needed by 8/14.
I saw that..
not a lot out of millions..
I wish it would get a million!!
I’ll wait for the petition to bring back Scorpio, Jones, Stephan, AJ, Ned and Robin.
At least it shows he is getting the signatures needed. I am sure it will not amount to anything as I believe Michael Easton will have a better opportunity (in whatever medium) down the road. It is respectable of the fans, though.
I love all those characters too. I started watching GH in 1985…Quartermaines and Scorpios are my all time favorite characters. I would sign a petition for all those characters to return as well.
I have it on good authority that the producers and the network wanted him gone. So he’s not coming back.
You may be right but it can’t hurt to try and I am a believer that if you don’t ask you can’t receive. This may very well not amount to much but Michael has been a favorite on this Network for 14 years and if nothing else, it shows him that it meant something to the fans even if it didn’t to the Network. That can’t be bad as he is such a humble and gracious man.
One more vote from me!
It was up to 6875 with my vote
done, thanks for the link, Leah !!! Every vote/petition counts!!!!
I can’t thank you all enough for your support…it means a lot to every Michael fan. I am sure when Michael sees the petition, it will mean a lot to him as well. He will probably be overwhelmed and without words in true Michael Easton fashion.
They want to get rid of GH. Who are they fooling. Tony wanted his way all the time and should have let them had Genie and him have a decent goodbye. What a slap in the face in my opinion. I also think fans want stories to go to quickly and Tony made the Fluke story longer than it should have been because he was ill. He also demanded long vacations which made the writers have to scramble every year to accommodate him and other actors on other shows were pros and took pay cuts (because of the economy). He was a diva and a great actor (not denying it at all) but should have shown respect to some of his fellow cast and crew – in other words – if he didn’t get his way – he was a brat. He finally realized that GH made his career. As far as Michael Easton, maybe RC did not see Michael’s interest in any storylines since Kelly and him fizzled. Michael showed boredom to me even though I liked him. RC did his best but probably saw ME’s boredom and I hate when networks bow down to actors that want to write their own stories. Let the writers do it. My opinion only.
I loved Michael too but I can be honest when I like someone and admit that most of the people who want him back are his die hard fans. They like seeing him but if they are honest, they may see that his stories weren’t up to par. GH wasn’t just about Michael Easton; there are lots of other longtime veterans from GH that I would have like to see in storylines . It’s like they had him there and didn’t know what to do with him.
I am not a die hard ME fan but I truly believe that ABC does not want any more soaps. These writers had to deal with Guza’s writing which people loved but I was bored as heck. So they bring in FV and RC who made the show suspenseful and campy at the same time. Maybe ABC, CBS and NBC should stop thinking about their money (they make enough) and think more about their soaps instead of boring or wacky talk shows or reality shows which are cheaper. IMO
Do you work for a living? If so, if your boss told you to take the summers off, we’ll see you in October, wouldnt you do that?
I don’t care why or how they axed Ron, it was a decision that needed to be made. His writing is so slow-paced and has become an absolute bore to watch. There was nothing exciting going on in the past year’s time, so I hope that Jean and Shelley are able to bring in that new POW that the brass at Disney-ABC are looking for!
RC’s Fluke story was dawn out tedious..
All his other stories were on the edge..
Ron had many intriguing, suspenseful stories..
Ron is the king of the twist and turns surprises and shockers, that kept us guessing and wondering..
RC gave surprise when long gone vets turned up, it was exciting..
When he brought back the Nurses Ball it was exciting..
He brought back Lucy and Scotty and others.. recently he brought back Laura..
RC gave us thrills and spills but he never bored..
Fluke was a mistake when he wasn’t killed when Tony had to go for 6 months..
Now, that Fluke and Luke are gone Ron’s past 2 weeks have once again brought his A-Game.. !
Sorry, but Ron is not the “king of the twist and turns and surprises and shockers”. There are other greats in the industry who could do that. Ron’s writing has always been stale and recycled, and the past year has truly been a trainwreck to watch, more so than usual.
Scott: Yes! Ron’s “twists and turns” could be seen a mile off. Look at the Fluke story, we all figured out Fluke was Bill Eckert long before the reveal so oops! They had to rewrite it and what did they do? DID. AGAIN. I was never, ever surprised by anything Ron wrote on GH – maybe because I had already seen it all on OLTL.
su0000, the past couple Nurses Balls were horrendous! I’ve seen high school plays that had more talent and packed with way more entertainment than Ron’s BALLS!
I agree, RC could pull out a brilliant ending unlike most writers today. There is nothing remotely as interesting happening on Y & R or Days of our lives, B& B is another story–it would have been nice to have GH be a bit more like that show. But in terms of great endings, RC is hard to beat. I will miss him on daytime, but I expect we will see him back soon.
‘Holly, High Camp, Batman…Silas SLICED’,…that little news headline shows what is wrong right there…too much silly campiness for one thing…the headline shouldve read: Local GH doctor Silas Clay found dead!!!…the other way was tasteless and tacky…yes, bring back the romance, drama and high adventure..more focus on the hospital like it used to be…it is called General Hospital!!! I know a certain fan said hospital stories are boring…well, real hospitals are boring but this is a soap and the hosptal storylines ive watched on this show and NBC’s The Doctors were far from boring and often informative…its not all medical—we learn about the lives of the doctors and their patients but when it is medical it can be a lifesaver to viewers who may be suffering from something and the info given may help save their life…it has happened!!!
Jimh !!!
there are 2 doctors.. Patrick and Lukus lol
Liz is there.. Felix and Brad.. and the hidden Dr. O..
just what can be done with them lol
General Hospital needs a name change..
I always felt the boring go nowhere title ”General Hospital” is a killer for the soap..
Nobody in this era wants to watch a hospital named soap haa..
Now-
the Young and the Restless title has much much more appeal to watch by title..
as does the Bold and Beautiful..
people really do get an impression of what will be behind the click in..
and General Hospital is not an enticing title for a click in.. really is isn’t..
heh! rename GH to ”Dark Trilogy” and it would get a 100 click-ons a day .. 🙂
No one in this era wants to watch a hospital soap???? Two words for you…Grey’s Anatomy. Your posts are increasingly bizarre and non sensical, even for you. Ron is gone…deal with it
I heart Aden.
Aden
Greys Anatomy is not a soap and the title is not shouting hospital and is in a different league than a daytime soap opera..
If Grey’s were a soap on daytime it would be a different world, imagine it lol
General Hospital is not about a hospital however, long long ago it was about doctors and nurses and their families revolving around a hospital..
It is no longer.
A whole new cast of doctors and nurses and their families, even friends and foes would need to be created or recreated to have general hospital be a designated hospital anything and that would take decades to do if there even the money to do it, and there is not.
The title ”General Hospital” is deceiving.. 🙂
really Su000? Tell that to fans of Grey’s Anatomy.
“Silas Sliced” is suppose to be campy because the newspaper is a spoof of the NY Post and Julian is its owner.
I just hope we do get our romance and adventure back. Not liking how it started with a dead Silas and the decimation of the best couple, Dante and Lulu, but I’m holding onto my faith they will fix what Ron messed up.
This is what I have been hoping for more romance and adventure. I am so hoping that this means a new direction for GH. But I do miss ME I thought he was a great actor who just did not get the best writing. And I believe Ava would have been a better murder mystery. Pretty much everyone in pc hates her.
I agree with Alan that Ron should’ve been informed of what they were looking for. And what’s wrong with having romance & adventure….there should be a mix just as in real life! I’m sure Ron would’ve been receptive to suggestions.
Receptive to suggestion?!! Anyone who dared to suggest something or disagree with Ron got a public lashing on Social Media!!
” Why kill off Silas, he has been great in his sorted storylines?” You have other actors that appear seldom why not take out one of them for a murder mystery?? I can think of a few, Lucas, Brad, Felix, Patrick (they are all okay but not as good as Easton)! I don’t think the age factor plays a declining rating, I’ve been watching GH since it started, and through my working years I always taped the show to watch at what I called “my quality time with my dinner”. I’ve grown up with GH’s older generations and consider GH very much my family! I hope there will be a resurrection for Michael Easton as was with others… Thank you
They needed a “Name” to kill. If Rosalie would have ended up dead none of us would be posting any of these comments!
Soooo…..
They knew what fans wanted, they even wanted it themselves. So they gave themselves the moving and emotional goodbye privately that they refused to give the fans who have followed the show for thirty years. And enjoyed it and are proud of it. Enough to brag about it.
Their primary concern was that Tony Geary should be pleased with his goodbye because they respect and care for him so much. And fans are welcome to say anything they like (or, to be more accurate, don’t like) about what ended up on TV. And, I daresay, to vote their feelings by taking GH off their DVR. While I can certainly see that they wouldn’t care *for* people who have watched GH year in and year out, it certainly was my previous opinion that they cared *about* them and their viewing choices.
To paraphrase Kent Brockman in Simpsons Treehouse of Horror VII, “Well, a refreshingly frank response there from Disney executive Vicki Dummer.”
Well said by you. Do they want great ratings or not? Then give us what we want. NOT what TG wants. Simple, right? Most fans don’t want him to return if he’s writing the script so no worries about upsetting him on his way out the door.
Haha! Nice.
It seems obvious from this interview that they are looking to cancel GH since they don’t care what fans want.
I agree with you Judy, mark my words General Hospital will be cancelled next year. Vicki is lying through her teeth. Who cares about Tyra Banks talk show. with her 5 panel robots. lol. GH has gone down hill. Bring back One Life To Live and All My Children back. Enough with the talk shows.
I don’t about the mystery; I am upset that Silas was killed off. It hasn’t been that long ago that AJ was killed off. Also upset about that. Only murder that would’ve made sense would have been either Madeliene, Ava, Nina or Kiki. Well one can hope.
I’m happy that they got rid of Ron. I’m excited to see what Altman and Passanante can do with the show since both have written for GH before. I’m hoping for some better romance. The only decent couple right now is Michael and Sabirna. Jason and Sam could be great again, it is obvious in their scenes. End Jason and Liz for good. Get rid of Nathan, Franco and Kiki. The murder mystery is a good idea, Silas was just to boring of a character and only semi-popular. I am hoping that two women at the helm will help. I am just glad that ABC apparently does care about GH!
well abc and dummer seem certain of things. her love for tony geary was a bit overstated. FABlife no thanks though I did love ATM years ago. The Chew doesn’t appeal to me at all. there was wonderful romance and love stories last year, so Ron was capable of it. at this point, i don’t really care. good luck to GH but i’m giving it all a pass. i think if i need a show to while away the time i might give DOL a shot. Eric Martsolf has caught my eye a few tiimes but tried to remain loyal to GH and one mindless soap is more than enough in my life if at all. so no thanks vicki enjoy your exciting (not) murder mystery.
I’m done with General Hospital until Michael Easton returns. If he never returns neither will I. I could care less about a murder mystery. This viewer is gone.
GOODBYE!
Okay, let me try to understand this. ABC and GH are excited about having a who done it murder mystery? A character that GH didn’t even know what to do with. And the character that was murdered wasn’t even likable to begin with. Since he wasn’t likable, why should we care about who did him in? Shouldn’t we care about the victim in order to get excited about who did it? As a longtime view, I cared about Micheal Easton, I just never cared about the character that he was forced to play. Personally, ME’s days were numbered the moment that Prospect Park filed their lawsuit and forced GH to get rid of John McBain.
When I was reading Ms. Dummer’s comments, scenes from “Soap Dish” came into my head. Talk about being out of touch! The she goes on to say how a writing team that has been fired from just about every soap that they have worked on will bring new energy to GH. What would bring new energy is bringing on writers who haven’t been bounced around from one soap to another. Open up the doors and allow new blood and fresh ideas to hit the canvas. Be inventive. Be a visionary. Even go as far as bringing in a long time viewer to inject some ideas. The reason why GH continues to go down hill is because they keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Each time they expect a different result and sooner or later that result will turn out to be cancellation. Once that happens, that will hurt my soul.
I hope this is not the demise of GH. GH has a certain style, changes sure but getting rid of Silas( great character) . Getting rid of Ron Carvilati was a mistake
Absolutely correct. ABC wants t his show cancelled (IMO). Fans don’t want suspense they want stories wrapped up in 2 seconds – that is not a soap.
no connection to Katie Couric at all!
I know the comment about Katie Couric was strange. However, I always like to read how the network spins things and the Katie Couric comment was a head scratcher!
Instead of firing RC, everyone from the network to FV should have taken a step back to see what was working and what needed to go, like, now! There are just way too MANY newbies that I don’t give a flip about and those were the ones that Heather Webber could have come into town and taken out with her trusty little knife!
@ MissySnow
yeah, where is HEATHER and her trusty little knife??? As loney tunes and out of control Heather is, I can usually warm up to her character, because Robin is an amazing actress. She’s such a talented gem. The other “villains” on the show, like koo-koo Franco, and Dr. O, Mad Maddie and Nina are over the top, way over the top!
I hope we see Heather Webber return though, I’m sure she’s craving a BLT!!!
Breaking News
(WATCH) 2024 Daytime Emmy Nominations Special Live!
After exciting morning for your favorite daytime stars when they were revealed to be nominees for the 51st annual Daytime Emmy Awards comes tonight 10th annual Daytime Emmy Nominations Special.
Beginning at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT, several of the nominees will talk with Michael Fairman on their reactions to the news they have been nominated for a Daytime Emmy, share what scenes they submitted that landed in the top five or six in their respective performer acting categories and much more.
Scheduled to appear are: Days of our Lives nominees, Tamara Braun (Ava), Eric Martsolf (Brady) and Linsey Godfrey (Sarah), The Young and the Restless nominees: Allison Lanier (Summer), Michelle Stafford (Phyllis), Courtney Hope (Sally), Bryton James (Devon), The Bold and the Beautiful’s John McCook (Eric), General Hospital nominees, Finola Hughes (Anna) and Alley Mills (Heather), and The Bay’s Mike Manning (Caleb).
Photo: JPI
The 51st annual Daytime Emmy Awards will be broadcast live on CBS and streamed on Paramount+ on Friday night, June 7th and emanating, once again this year from the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
Photo: JPI
For a full list of this year’s nominations click here.
Now, watch below as the stars chat it up as we celebrate their Daytime Emmy Nominations. If you have a potential question you might want posed to any of our guests, drop it in the comment section below and we just might ask it on air.
Breaking News
51st Annual Daytime Emmy Award Nominations: CBS Soaps Score Most, Eric Braeden, Dick Van Dyke, Guy Pearce Receive Nods
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) have officially announced on Friday, the full list of nominees for the 51st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards.
While Thursday brought with it four reveals of the nominees in the Outstanding Daytime Drama, Talk Show Host, Lead Actor and Actress categories (as presented by various entertainment news programs), today’s nominations include all the other categories not previously announced.
The Daytime Emmy Awards telecast is set to be presented live on Friday night, June 7, at 8 PM EDT /delayed PT, on the CBS Television Network, and available to stream live and on-demand on Paramount+. This will mark the 18th time that CBS has broadcast the Daytime Emmys.
Photo: JPI
In addition, The Daytime Creative Arts & Lifestyle Emmy Awards will be presented on Saturday, June 8 at t9 PM ET/6 PM PT and streamed on The Emmys apps and at watch.TheEmmys.tv. The ceremonies will take place at the Westin Bonaventure Los Angeles.
Television icon, Dick Van Dyke has received his first-ever Daytime Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Guest Performer category for his touching portrayal of Timothy Robicheaux on Peacock’s Days of our Lives. The nomination makes Van Dyke the oldest Daytime Emmy nominee in history at 98-years-old. In addition, motion picture and TV star, Guy Pearce, is also nominated as Guest Performer for his longtime role as Mike Young in the reboot of Neighbours.
Speaking of Neighbours, the Australian soap opera also received its first ever Daytime Emmy nomination for Daytime Drama Series now that its a revival can be streamed on Amazon Freevee. In addition, The Young and the Restless iconic, Eric Braeden (Victor Newman) received his first Daytime Emmy nomination in more than 20 years in the Lead Actor in a Drama Series category.
Photo: AmazonFreevee
In the Daytime Drama series categories, CBS’ The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless each scored 12 nominations more than any other show. Leading the acting nominations was B&B, who landed 7 performers in the various categories, a first in its 37-year history.
In a statement, Adam Sharp, President & CEO, NATAS expressed, “We are happy to once again honor the creative talent both in front of and behind the camera of America’s favorite Daytime programs. We look forward to celebrating the icons who enliven the days of audiences across the country.”
Photo: JPI
Brent Stanton, Head of Daytime, NATAS added, “Producing the Daytime Emmys is a labor of love for all of us at NATAS. The huge popularity of these shows continues to be must-see viewing for their fans.” NATAS also revealed that Lifetime Achievement Honorees, Hosts, Presenters, and Silver and Gold Circle honorees will be revealed at a later date.
The Daytime Emmy Awards recognize outstanding achievement in television programming honoring work in a variety of categories, including daytime dramas, talk shows, instructional programming, hosting, culinary, and legal/courtroom programs. In 2021, NATAS and the Television Academy jointly announced plans to realign the Daytime and Primetime Emmy Awards to be organized by content genre, as opposed to program airtime.
The 51st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards will be produced once again by NATAS and Associated Television International (ATI). Adam Sharp and Lisa Armstrong are executive producers from NATAS, while David McKenzie executive produces from ATI.
Congratulations to all the men and women in front of the camera and behind the scenes for their recognition as we take a look at who will be going for gold come June. Here are the nominees below starting with the Daytime Drama Categories.
Photo: JPI
OUTSTANDING DAYTIME DRAMA SERIES
The Bay
The Bold and the Beautiful
Days of our Lives
General Hospital
Neighbours
The Young and the Restless
OUTSTANDING LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A DAYTIME DRAMA SERIES: ACTRESS
Tamara Braun, Days of our Lives
Finola Hughes, General Hospital
Katherine Kelly Lang, The Bold and the Beautiful
Annika Noelle, The Bold and the Beautiful
Michelle Stafford, The Young and the Restless
Cynthia Watros, General Hospital
Photo: JPI
OUTSTANDING LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A DAYTIME DRAMA SERIES: ACTOR
Eric Braeden, The Young and the Restless
Scott Clifton, The Bold and the Beautiful
Thorsten Kaye, The Bold and the Beautiful
Eric Martsolf, Days of our Lives
John McCook, The Bold and the Beautiful
Photo: JPI
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE IN A DAYTIME DRAMA SERIES: ACTRESS
Jennifer Gareis, The Bold and the Beautiful
Linsey Godfrey, Days of our Lives
Courtney Hope, The Young and the Restless
Allison Lanier, The Young and the Restless
Emily O’Brien, Days of our Lives
Photo: JPI
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE IN A DAYTIME DRAMA SERIES: ACTOR
Robert Gossett, General Hospital
Bryton James, The Young and the Restless
Wally Kurth, Days of our Lives
A Martinez, The Bay
Mike Manning, The Bay
Photo: JPI
OUTSTANDING GUEST PERFORMANCE IN A DAYTIME DRAMA SERIES
Linden Ashby, The Young and the Restless
Ashley Jones, The Bold and the Beautiful
Alley Mills, General Hospital
Guy Pearce, Neighbours
Dick Van Dyke, Days of our Lives
OUTSTANDING WRITING TEAM FOR A DAYTIME DRAMA SERIES
The Bay
The Bold and the Beautiful
Days of our Lives
General Hospital
The Young and the Restless
Photo: JPI
OUTSTANDING DIRECTING TEAM FOR A DAYTIME DRAMA SERIES
The Bay
The Bold and the Beautiful
Days of our Lives
General Hospital
The Young and the Restless
OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DIRECTION
General Hospital
The Jennifer Hudson Show
The Kelly Clarkson Show
The View
Photo: ABC
OUTSTANDING TECHNICAL DIRECTION, CAMERAWORK, VIDEO
The Bold and the Beautiful
Days of our Lives
Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade
The Kelly Clarkson Show
OUTSTANDING CASTING
African Queens: Njinga
Days of our Lives
General Hospital
Start Up
The Young and the Restless
OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION/SET DECORATION/SCENIC DESIGN
African Queens: Njinga
The Drew Barrymore Show
General Hospital
The Kelly Clarkson Show
The View
The Young and the Restless
OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN/STYLING
African Queens: Njinga
The Bold and the Beautiful
The Jennifer Hudson Show
Sherri
Photo: WarnerBros
OUTSTANDING HAIRSTYLING AND MAKEUP
African Queens: Njinga
The Drew Barrymore Show
Sherri
The View
The Young and the Restless
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG
“Shine” General Hospital
“Unexpected Truth”Unexpected
“We’re Home” Reconnecting Roots
OUTSTANDING DAYTIME TALK SERIES
The Jennifer Hudson Show
The Kelly Clarkson Show
Tamron Hall
Turning The Tables with Robin Roberts
The View
Photo: ABC
OUTSTANDING ENTERTAINMENT NEWS SERIES
Access Hollywood
Entertainment Tonight
Extra
OUTSTANDING CULINARY SERIES
Be My Guest with Ina Garten
Family Dinner
Selena + Chef: Home for the Holidays
Valerie’s Home Cooking
What Am I Eating? with Zooey Deschanel
OUTSTANDING LEGAL/COURTROOM PROGRAM
Hot Bench
Judy Justice
Justice For The People with Judge Milian
The People’s Court
We The People with Judge Lauren Lake
Photo: Disney/ABC
DAYTIME TALK SERIES HOST
Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin, Ana Navarro, The View
Kelly Clarkson, The Kelly Clarkson Show
Mark Consuelos, Kelly Ripa, Live with Kelly and Mark
Akbar Gbajabiamila, Amanda Kloots, Natalie Morales, Jerry O’Connell, Sheryl Underwood, The Talk
Tamron Hall, Tamron Hall
OUTSTANDING CULINARY HOST
Lidia Bastianich, 25 Years with Lidia: A Culinary Jubilee
Valerie Bertinelli, Valerie’s Home Cooking
Eduardo Garcia, Big Sky Kitchen with Eduardo Garcia
Emeril Lagasse, Emeril Cooks
Sophia Roe, Counter Space
Buddy Valastro, Legends of the Fork
OUTSTANDING DAYTIME PERSONALITY – DAILY
Frank Caprio, Caught in Providence
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What do you think about the nominations for the 51st annual Daytime Emmy Awards? Who do you think deserved to get in that did? Who do you think got snubbed? Who are you happiest to see receive a nomination? Let us know via the comment section below.
Make sure to be with us live starting tonight Friday, April 19th at 8pm ET/5pm PT for the Michael Fairman Channel’s 10th anniversary edition of its Daytime Emmy Nomination Special 2024, featuring some of the just announced daytime drama nominees.
Breaking News
51st Daytime Emmys: Outstanding Daytime Drama Series Nominations
On Thursday, the 51st annual Daytime Emmy Awards revealed nominations in several key categories via four entertainment news programs: Access Hollywood, E! News, Extra and Access Hollywood.
Three of the four announcements were major categories in the field of Daytime Dramas.
The nominees in the Outstanding Daytime Drama Series category are: The Bay, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of our Lives, General Hospital, Neighbours and The Young and the Restless.
Photo: JPI
General Hospital won this category last year, and has the most all-time wins for a series in this category. For the first time, the beloved Australian-based soap opera, Neighbours is now eligible for competition due to its reboot which streams on Amazon Freevee.
Photo: AmazonFreevee
The 51st annual Daytime Emmy Awards will be handed out in ceremonies in Los Angeles and broadcast live on CBS and streaming on Paramount+ on Friday night, June 7th.
Previous categories announced tonight via the entertainment news outlet included: Lead Actor and Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
So, what do you think about this year’s nominee for the Outstanding Daytime Drama Series? Who do you think should win? Comment below.
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