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General Hospital's Ratings Plummet to New Lows - Save Our Soap!

Viewers Turn Off Their TV Sets Refusing to Take The Abuse

Over the last several weeks, General Hospital (GH) viewers have soundly rejected the inferior product being produced by ABC Daytime management and writers. For the week of June 14-18, 2010, General Hospital lost more female viewers in the coveted Women 18-49 year old demographic than all the other soap operas combined as GH experienced its smallest 18-49 year old audience in its history.

GH was the worst performing ABC soap in total viewers and barely beat out As the World Turns (ATWT), which is slated to end in September 2010, for last place. As a matter of fact, ATWT had a larger total audience than GH on Monday, Wednesday and the all-important cliffhanger Friday show. On Friday, GH received a rating of 1.6 and had only 2,152,000 viewers, its fewest viewers in the history of the show.

The SOS/Save Our Soap! General Hospital campaign has repeatedly noted that the audience is tired of GH's plot point writing, full of stunts and stunt casting, where the plot points masquerade as storylines. Unfortunately, it seems GH management is not listening and viewers will continue to be fed a "predictable story, lacking layers and depth, that is only different in that the characters' history is constantly being re-written and their core-values are constantly being ignored."

When will the abuse of viewers stop? How many more viewers can GH afford to lose? Viewers have spoken by turning off their TV sets in record numbers and many wonder if the viewers GH loses will return even if the writing does improve.

Recently, Anne Sweeney, Co-Chairman, Disney Media Networks and President Disney/ABC Television Group, was quoted in TV Guide as saying, "We're watching what our viewers do and we're adapting our business model to fit them rather than expecting them to adapt to us." This particular comment would almost seem humorous if it was not such a blatant misrepresentation. If this were true, GH's ratings would be increasing, even if only by small amounts.

Instead, GH's ratings have fallen to all-time lows multiple weeks in a row with GH recently experiencing a day with its fewest viewers in the history of the show. GH, the show that everyone considered "the last soap opera ABC would even consider canceling," now seems to be the show with the audience ABC is paying the least attention to.

Maybe ABC Daytime's management has missed the many messages fans have sent stating they want more interaction between characters across storylines and more focus on keeping families together, or maybe it simply does not care. Maybe it is a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, in which case ABC has a much bigger problem to deal with than the writing and production of GH; it needs to reorganize and rein in ABC Daytime's management.

A simple study of what is happening on-screen and how it is reflected in the ratings indicates that GH viewers enjoy actual storylines that include favorite characters that are already on the canvas interacting with one another and across more than one storyline at a time. While viewers enjoy occasional visits or guest stints by former characters or new characters, those characters serve a much better purpose when they are simply used to forward storylines, not to take over or "save" the show.

Many viewers have indicated that they have mixed feelings about the upcoming storyline with the return of James Franco. There is no doubt that he is a talented actor, but whether or not he is an asset to GH is still under debate. While many well-loved veteran characters are either being destroyed or seem to have been put in a closet until the next holiday, this actor is returning with another 'performance artist' friend and his own real life mother, garnering more negative reaction than positive from many fans. Then there is the long, long, long "awaited" return of Vanessa Marcil as Brenda Barrett.

While many have stated that they are excited about her return, equally as many are wondering what the point is when so many characters are underused as it is and if her return will set up just another 'angst filled storyline' that goes nowhere and has no purpose. Interestingly, the ratings have continued to decline even after the announced returns of these two major actors/characters.

It seems quite a gamble for management of ABC and GH to do such major stunt casting in the wake of the recently less than impressive returns of other past GHers like Sara Joy Brown and Jonathan Jackson. Neither of them brought any significant ratings boosts with their returns. Was this due to viewers' attitudes toward the actors and the characters they portray(ed)? Was this due to the poorly written material they were given? Was this due to a combination of the two? In any event, things have not panned out for GH's management with a return to top ratings; conversely, they are even lower now than they were when the actors were brought on to the canvas.

If ABC and GH's writers were truly "listening to their audience and adapting accordingly," they would stop re-writing the history and core values of the characters. They would allow the characters to grow and have new challenges to face instead of writing them as stagnant, regressing or unrecognizable. GH would return to the soap opera it once was where the characters, who were all related and intertwined within one another's lives, would actually now be relating to one another and be intertwined within one another's lives and not simply have the same three or four characters interacting with the same three or four characters.

The SOS/Save Our Soap! General Hospital campaign was established a year ago (May, 2009) to implore ABC/Disney to "Save Our Soap." Based upon the ratings, elements shown on-screen and common complaints of many viewers through different media outlets, a list of ten remedies was compiled to explain to ABC/Disney why may long-time viewers have been leaving the fold. Sadly, management at ABC/GH seems determined to do just the opposite of what is cited in the list, causing many viewers to believe that ABC/GH is purposely trying to cause the 47-year old show to be canceled.

The soap opera genre is a long-running genre, which has been full of traditional and cutting-edge elements throughout its history. In what appears to be some sort of attempt to be "cutting-edge," the writers of GH are alienating GH's viewers. Due to the cyclical nature of viewers and viewing habits, perhaps management needs to consider a traditional approach, rather then trying to "kill" the very genre they are supposed to be promoting.

Every week, many more fans of GH are joining together with fans of Sonny and Kate, Jason and Elizabeth, Patrick and Robin, and Jax and Carly as part of the SOS/Save Our Soap! General Hospital Campaign. All share a common goal of asking ABC/Disney to stop the abuse of viewers and make changes by delivering character-driven storylines, being true to the characters while allowing for growth and development, respecting the rich history of the show, respecting and including veteran characters in storylines, creating an emotional balance for the characters, focusing on families, promoting enduring couples that viewers can root for, heightening romance, minimizing sleaze, and creating an enjoyable escape.

For more information or to comment on the campaign, visit the SOS/Save Our Soap! General Hospital page on Facebook, follow on Twitter @SOS_GH or visit the SOS/Save Our Soap! General Hospital website at www.saveoursoapgh.com.