Deep Soap: Anatomy of a Rumor

The Sky May Be Falling, Sources Close To Chicken Little Assert

It’s internet rumor time again.  Guiding Light is about to be cancelled! We know this because a mainstream magazine printed the same story that the soap press covered months ago!  CBS has shows in development! CBS is moving all of Guiding Light’s characters to As The World Turns, morphing the soaps into a new show called Guiding The World.  ABC is offering every Guiding Light star under 40 pounds of gold bullion and house in Malibu to join their shows. Jess Walton is leaving The Young & The Restless because she’s sick!  No, it’s because the show is going to cut her appearances to once a month and her salary to minimum wage!  Deidre Hall is going to take over the role.  No, Anna Stuart.  Actually, Jessica Lange and Goldie Hawn are going to dye their hair and split the role in a casting coup.  Even though the show can’t afford Walton. Wait, Walton just signed a new deal.  Nevermind.

The on-line hysteria that has followed these two stories is a combination of the current rapid news cycle and post-it-and-it’s-true mentality of the internet.  In both cases, I think there is a good deal of sound and fury signifying nothing.  Take the  GL rumor.  Every soap fan who follows the industry knew that the new production model was a last ditch cost cutting measure to save the show.  Everyone knew that the network is deciding whether or not it will renew the show when its contract expires.  All message board readers are convinced that the show needs to average a 1.8 rating to survive, though CBS has never confirmed it.  A few weeks ago another rumor stated that the show was quietly picked up for another year and taken as gospel by many.  Wow.  There sure are a lot of people on the internet who know the inner workings of Les Moonves’ mind.  Julie Chen, are you posting to message boards? And can you set up a pitch meeting for me?

Let’s break this down.  TV Week wrote an article about Guiding Light.  All other coverage of this story has simply been a restating of this story, referencing TV Week, with misleading headlines that the show is going to be cancelled.  Yes, articles about another article.  Here’s what the article says:

“CBS may soon decide to pull the plug on “Guiding Light,”

In other words, there’s a possibility that the network might make a decision.  That’s not exactly definitive.

“While no final decision has been made… But if CBS does drop “Guiding Light,” it likely would lock in a decision within the next month.”

Those are an awful lot of qualifiers.   The new information would appear to be that CBS will probably make a decision soon.  Well, of course.  The network isn’t going to suddenly pull it off the air with no warning.  That only happens in primetime.  As the article says, like every other soap, the show will be given enough notice to write a conclusion.  Given that the show tapes about two months ahead of air, and writes months ahead of that, the network must make a decision soon.

“In the most significant indication that the network is seriously pondering life without “Guiding Light,” CBS has been talking to outside studios about potential replacement programming for the show, sources said. Possibilities under discussion include both game shows and talk shows. In addition to contracting with an outside studio for programming to replace “Light,” CBS daytime chief Barbara Bloom has been developing possible in-house candidates for the soap opera’s slot.”

OMFG!!! You mean, CBS is making an informed decision, and considering what, if any, programming might outperform GL instead of having no plan whatsoever?  And programs under consideration include those is genres that have been proven to be successful in daytime.  Go figure.  Anyone could have guessed that.  If CBS were considering an animated spin-off based on the Yodeler character from the Cliffhangers game on The Price is Right, that would be news.  The most newsworthy take away from this article is that CBS plans to keep the hour of programming rather than give it back to their affiliates.  That is surprising, since both ABC and NBC have ceded programming hours to their affiliates when they cancelled soaps.  Developing potential programming is what network executives do.  I’m sure CBS had contingency plans in case viewers refused to accept a Bob Barker-free TPIR.  I bet CBS primetime also considered its options when William Petersen decided to leave CSI. It’s called doing your job.

I’m not saying that any of the posts purporting to be based on conversations with inside sources are false.  Just that the “inside sources” may not have the full picture themselves.   For example, about a month ago I had the pleasure of interviewing Scott “Jason Street” Porter about Friday Night Lights. He was sure the show was about to be cancelled.  Instead, to my delight, the show was just picked up for two more seasons!  There is a serious possibility that GL will be cancelled at the end of its contract.  The odds are no greater than they were last week or the week before.  All that has changed is that TV Week decided to report something we already knew.

As for l’affaire de Walton, it seems like it was a standard contract negotiation that unfortunately played out in the press.  Unfortunately, everyone in daytime is being asked to take pay cuts these days.  Hell, everyone in America is.  Nobody likes them.  Rest assured, your favorite soap star won’t be showing up at your local food bank anytime soon.  They’re still making six figures, just less than they were before.  Soaps often take the step of putting out casting calls for recasts when actors balk.  It isn’t a friendly tactic.  Sometimes it backfires (see Byrne, Martha). But, it often makes people sign on the dotted line.  That’s what happened here.  The winner, in this case, in the audience who gets to keep watching Walton in the meatiest storyline she has had in years.

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