Soapnet Strikes Again
There are three things in life you can count on: Death, taxes, and the instability of Soapnet's schedule. After luring viewers into a false sense of security for the past few weeks, Soapnet struck again yesterday by announcing that they were making changes to their Sunday schedule, effective this Sunday.
The OLTL marathon which previously aired from 7 a.m. - Noon, will now air from Noon - 5 p.m. The GH marathon which was airing from 2-7 p.m.--or was it Noon - 5 p.m.? Oh, it doesn't matter, cause it's now gonna be on from 5 - 10 p.m.!
From 10 p.m. - Midnight, the network is airing what they refer to as "GH: Heritage", or what TV Guide calls "Relax & Relapse." According to TV Guide Online, Soapnet refers to these as "essential, historical" episodes of GH featuring "pivotal moments and key characters." When asked to elaborate, the spokesperson discussed Brenda's return and the train crash.
Now, I know my audience, and I know you have two questions:
1. What's replacing OLTL on Sunday mornings? Well, this took some digging, since Soapnet didn't even acknowledge the time slot in their press release. But, we have our ways of finding things out here at SWI, and we can tell you the replacement is...
Dude, did you even have to ask? It's a three hour block of 90210 from 7-10 a.m. The 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. block will be filled out with specials such as "Come Rain or Come Shine: From Grey's Anatomy to Private Practice", and "Desperate Housewives: Secrets and Lies". 11 a.m. - Noon will feature I Wanna Be a Soap Star.
2. Where is the DAYS marathon? It's been pushed back to Midnight. That's right, it's early Monday mornings in Salem all over again. This is the fourth change for the DAYS marathon since June, when the block was moved from its' long-time 7 p.m.-Midnight slot, and pushed to Midnight - 5 a.m. After a couple of months, the block returned to primetime, airing from 9 p.m. - 2 a.m. for one week, before hitting its current slot of 8 p.m. - 1 a.m.
Keep in mind, that at Soapnet, they're in the business of "giving our viewers the schedule they seem to be asking for."
I really wish we could be on Saturdays again, I don't why they flipped us
with AMC when they did last year. We looked better airing the same day as
Y&R as we are both very high-end classy programs. Now SoapNet has built a
Target next to Nordstrom's.
Frons strikes again.
Anyone remember when Soapnet used to show Ryan's Hope in blocks on Saturday
nights WITHOUT commercials??!!
Yes! They'd be done in 4 and a half hours instead of the usual five.
I'll be really curious to see if any of the GH "Heritage" episodes are any
older than 2-3 years old. Would love to see 20-25 year old non Luke/Laura
episodes.
Larry, it looked to me like they reduced the number of commericals. They
were shaving twelve minutes off of each show. Since actual program content
is only about 38 minutes for an hour soap, they could run all the content
and still have time for commercials.
SoapNet has shown some older non-Luke and Laura episodes in the past. They
have aired Mac and Felicia's wedding where Ryan tried to bomb it and Paul
and Jenny got married instead, as well as a 1995 and 1997 episodes showing
off characters like Sonny, Brenda, Ned, Lois, Kevin, and Lucy, and of
course, my favorite marathons, SONNYLICIOUS and Jason!
Jill - How about a Quartermaine marathon - or a Webber (Rick/Lesley/Jeff)
marathon, or a Steve/Audrey/Jesse or a Bobbie marathon? Cancel that last
request - we know how you feel about Jackie Zeman.
Hooray for more Kelly and Donna!!! :P