Will General Hospital Be Cancelled To Make Room For Katie Couric on ABC?

TMZ has just reported that Katie Couric is thisclose to signing a $20 million deal with ABC. Apparently, Katie would be doing nighttime specials for ABC News and 20/20 and would also get..."a 1-hour, 5-day-a-week syndicated talk show that would begin in September, 2012." Uh-Oh.

Could this be the end of General Hospital? The final nail in the coffin of ABC soaps? Not necessarily. As the folks at TMZ point out, "ABC is also realistic, believing that one of its new 2011 syndicated shows will fail, leaving room for K.C."

I feel sick.

To read the TMZ piece Click Here

Update: Just wanted to add that on April 22nd, we reported/speculated that GH would be off the air by September 2012. Read about it Here

Update2: To read a more detailed piece about Couric's possible deal with ABC from Deadline.com, Click Here (again in this piece it's pointed out that this may not necessarily mean the end of GH.)
*thanks to my twitter peeps OLTLfan4life and xxAnne8xx for letting me know about the Deadline article :)

-Melanie/SoapOperaBabble/daisyclover

KEEP CALLING HERSHEY'S!

Come on Soap fans we can do it! I just got off the phone with Hershey's and they are really considering pulling their advertising from ABC, but this is ONLY going to happen if they get more calls! The lady who answered the phone did not have specific numbers at the moment, but she said that the more calls they receive the better so come on, it only takes a few minutes and all you have to say is "Thank you for considering pulling your advertising from ABC!" and you're done. So come on, get to work and let's Save OUR SOAPS!

You can call Hershey's at:
1(800) 468-1714

Oprah Winfrey Says Soaps Are Over in YouTube Message

As most of you know, many soap fans have been asking Oprah to help save All My Children and One Life to Live by possibly moving those shows to her newly created network OWN (humbly titled Oprah Winfrey Network.) In a YouTube video she's just released, not only does Winfrey say No, but she essentially tells fans soap operas are dead calling them "an institution that for all intent and all purpose indicates that that time has come for it to be over."

Watch the full video:

DISLIKE! I find it interesting that Winfrey could have just said she wouldn't be able to help, but she decided instead to tell fans that there was no hope for the soap genre. A little strange, no? I've heard people say that OWN is funded in part by Disney, but I'm not sure of that (if someone has a link to that info, please post it in the comments!) But I do know this - Oprah has had a long and profitable relationship with ABC/Disney - they helped make her rich and famous, so with that in mind, this script - oops, I mean message - isn't such a surprise.

I'm certainly not going to let the Big 0 discourage me. She's not right about everything (remember "Beloved"?) Good luck to her and OWN - I hear they have tons of reality shows - oh boy, just what we need more of! I won't be watching...

What do you guys think? Was Winfrey just telling it like it is? Did she go too far in declaring the genre to be over? Do you think Anne Sweeney or Brian Frons wrote that script for her? (I'm only half-joking on that one)

Keep the Faith Soapies!

-Melanie/SoapOperaBabble/daisyclover