News: So The Revolution Has Been Cancelled! What Now?

With the exciting news that General Hospital has been renewed for a year, it's time to take a breath and figure out what this all means for the viewers, the network, and other ABC daytime programs.

When will General Hospital air?

The daytime schedule has not yet been set by ABC. Best guess is that once Katie debuts in the fall, GH will move to 2 p.m. However, that is not definite.

Since The Revolution has been cancelled, what will replace it pre-Katie?

Beginning in July, with the end of The Revolution, ABC will air a spinoff of Good Morning, America called GMA In The Afternoon. ABC is undoubtedly floating a test balloon to see how this show does, with an eye toward airing it as a possible replacement, perhaps for General Hospital, down the line.
Is there any chance General Hospital will be taken off the air before its year is up?
I'm guessing no, for one reason. ABC can get a lot of mileage (read ratings) out of General Hospital's 50th anniversary, which will occur in April of 2013.

Will General Hospital be renewed beyond a year?

Well, we can never say never. If GMA in the Afternoon and/or Katie tanks, and General Hospital's ratings go up -- really up -- it may have a chance.

Some of it is up to us. No matter what the cynics tell you, the fans were heard by ABC. And the fans boycotted The Revolution.

You should all pat yourselves on the back, but the activism can't stop. The network needs to know by your viewership what you want to see, and as the renewal time for General Hospital approaches, it will again be time to let ABC/Disney know how we feel.

If so many prime time shows have a continuing, soap opera format, if telenovelas are so popular, then the soap opera template is not dead.

It was pointed out in a post elsewhere today that the fans are emotional and forgetting that the networks are a business. I tend to look at it this way: the fans are emotional and the networks have forgotten that they are supposed to be entertaining people, not hoarding money so that executives can get $13 million raises and bonuses. I know what's going on in corporate America because I've worked in it. Don't let people tell you that department budgets are cut because a corporation is losing money.

The days of General Hospital earning $50 million a year (1980s money) are over. No, college kids probably aren't glued to the show like they were in the '80s. No, women aren't at home during the day like they used to be. Yes, cheap reality shows have in many ways replaced soap operas - we can now see real scuz buckets rather than fake ones cheating, lying, and manipulating.

So maybe it's a time to revamp -- to revamp the ratings system, to fashion different types of stories, have the stories move faster, make them more relevant -- whatever it takes.

We don't know what the future holds, but today, the news is good. I'll leave you with that famous line spoken by Bette Davis in Now, Voyager (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, go rent the movie): "Let's don't ask for the moon; we have the stars."

(About.com)