Deep Soap: Unsportsmanlike Conduct

By Sara A. Bibel
Fancast.com

Fanbase War – What Is It Good For?

We are a nation divided. Do you support Obama or McCain? Lauren Conrad or Heidi Montag? David Cook or David Archuletta? Lumi or EJami? Yes, today I’m talking about internet “fanbase “ wars. They usually start with a soap opera love triangle. Naturally, viewers have differing opinions about what the eventual outcome of the love triangle should be. Supporters of each potential couple band together. Usually they create a cute “shipper” nickname for their couple – and a derogatory name for the other. Soon thoughtful conversations about the storyline have degenerated into name-calling between rival factions. Each group creates its own fansites. Particularly passionate viewers “infiltrate” the other team’s message boards. Soon the fans decide to lobby the show’s Powers That Be so that the desired story outcome is achieved. It’s time for a fan campaign! Viewers pick an object deemed symbolic of the couple and send hundreds of them to the show’s writers and producers. Individual scenes are viewed as being “pro” or “anti” the couple. Interviews with actors are analyzed for subtextual meaning as if they’re James Joyce’s Ulysses to figure out what pairing they prefer. Certain dialogue writers are pilloried for favoring the other team. So is all this energy worth it? Do shows actually pay attention to fan campaigns? Should they?

It depends on the show and the campaign. First of all, some shows simply have more passionate fans. Days of Our Lives and General Hospital are known within the industry for having activist viewers. Oddly, the two highest rated soaps The Young & The Restless and The Bold & The Beautiful have the most mellow, low key audiences. My theory is that it’s because the shows are more focused on families and business than supercouples. Most viewers seem to enjoy or dislike the shows as a whole rather than focusing on specific characters and storylines. Apparently romance is what gets an audience riled up.

Days of Our Lives has been open about monitoring the show’s official fan boards on NBC.com. Kristen Renton (Morgan Holingsworth) credited on-line fan support as part of the reason why she was offered a long-term contract. Former DOOL writer Tom Casiello revealed in a radio interview that the writers were instructed to prolong the Colleen-Santos storyline because of the positive response on the message boards. (Unfortunately, stretching it out made the story nonsensical and the same fans who initially loved it quickly grew irritated.) This public acknowledgement has ratcheted up the “lobbying” aspect of the boards. Some fans have decided to play an elaborate chess game. “Ejamis” who want Sami (Alison Sweeney) and E.J. (James Scott) to live happily ever after, post messages supporting E.J’s rival, Lucas (Bryan Datillo) relationship with Chloe (Nadia Bjorlin). “Lumis” who favor Sami and Lucas, write about how much they enjoy E.J. and Nicole (Arianne Zuker). I don’t envy the board moderators. From a ratings standpoint, DOOL’s focus on the fans stated wishes has not been particularly successful.

As far as I know, other shows pay less attention to the internet. ABC is known for its obsession with focus groups. In my experience, CBS paid less attention to research, choosing to trust its writers and producers instincts. I have read many posts on message boards accusing head writers of pitting various couples’ fanbases against each other, or being overly influenced by them. In reality, the writer may not even be aware the fanbases exist. He or she sees the love triangle as a component of the show’s longterm story, not a battle. Few headwriters have the time or the inclination to read message boards. If one group of fans sends mood rings to the production office while another sends shoelaces, the show is not going to count who sent in the most items and resolve the triangle accordingly. It’s more likely that either A) both campaigns will be ignored or B) the show will conclude that the triangle should be prolonged since it inspires such a passionate response. However, I do know a writer who is grateful for one fan campaign. She now has a lifetime supply of Chapstick.

Surprise! Soap Fans Enjoy Watching Soaps On Soap Opera Channel

This summer Days of Our Lives fans who watch the show on SoapNet have been getting hosed. First the show was pre-empted every Thursday for the crappy celebrity reality/documentary show Relative Madness. Then came the Canadian primetime soap MVP. Starting next week, the DOOL will also be pre-empted Tuesdays for the second season of General Hospital: Nightshift. This is particularly frustrating since the show has suffered multiple local market sports preemptions this summer, rendering the SoapNet airing a necessity for daily viewers. With NBC airing the Olympics, SoapNet may be the only way for some viewers to see DOOL for a couple weeks. DOOL already only airs once a day instead of twice like all of its other current soaps. The network spends money on its original programming. Since it pays a flat licensing fee for DOOL, SoapNet arguably wastes money every time it chooses not to air an episode. Is it worth it? Let’s take a look at the ratings. (I know, SoapNet ratings are impossible to find. No, I can’t reveal my source.) In the all important Women 18-49 demo, DOOL significantly outperformed RM every single week by percentages ranging from 21% to a whopping 82%. (The wide spread is a reflection of SoapNet’s low ratings . Anything above 0.35 is pretty good. Tiny fluctuations can result in huge percentage changes. This isn’t unusual for a smaller basic cable channel that isn’t available everywhere.) With a similarly poor performance for last year’s Fashionista Diaries, it’s fair to conclude that SoapNet viewers don’t want to see non-soap related reality shows on the channel.

The results have been mixed for the heavily promoted MVP – a show that has been canceled due to low ratings in Canada. It has outperformed DOOL two of the four times that it has aired. Interestingly, its highest rated episode was on July 3, a day when DOOL was pre-empted nationwide by Wimbledon. It can take time for a soap to build a following, so the jury’s still out on MVP. The show’s appeal is hampered by its focus on hockey, which is not nearly as popular in the U.S. as it is in Canada. It has also been edited to remove a moderate amount of nudity. That’s an odd choice given that it’s airing on cable. I have no idea what SoapNet’s expectations were for the show, but I’ve got to assume that they were hoping it would consistently outperform the show it’s preempting. I can’t help wondering what would have happened if Disney had chosen to spend its money promoting its best soap, One Life To Live. Last week, without any billboards in Times Square, it outperformed MVP by 30%. In other words, SoapNet viewers prefer honest-to-God daytime soap operas. Go figure.