ABC soap fans spent 18 months clamoring for the network to bring back All My Children and One Life to Live and when the network refused, they were thrilled to have The Online Network under Prospect Park decide to reboot both shows. Unfortunately since debuting in April there have been more problems for everyone involved than anyone could have imagined. Within two weeks of being shown online both shows were cut from 4 new 30 minute episodes a week to just two because people just weren’t tuning in.
According to Agnes Nixon, creator of both shows, they still haven’t found their online storytelling groove. On television story-lines played out for months or in some cases, years but online things have to move faster. Also the fans seem to be choosing one show or the other rather than making time for both AMC and OLTL. As of the most recent numbers, AMC has had a 25% bigger viewing audience and OLTL is on an indefinite hiatus.
As if trying to get a viewing audience to commit wasn’t tough enough, ABC has made it even harder. They originally loaned several established characters to both shows, allowing long time fans a chance to reconnect with old favorites while new characters were also introduced to the audience. The problem is that ABC then borrowed a few characters back to have them briefly cross over and make an appearance on General Hospital. That appearance was their last though because ABC killed off both characters on screen without giving Prospect Park any sort of indication that characters that they were still writing for were about to meet a fiery onscreen demise. That slick trick on the network’s part caused Prospect Park to file a lawsuit that has done nothing to bring both sides together to make the rebooted shows thrive.
Do you think that OLTL will actually return or will AMC also join it in an “indefinite hiatus”? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!