.... is that both Y&R and B&B, the show's lead in gained last week.... but ATWT continued to slide.  The fact that ATWT didn't pick up viewers right along with them is not good.   I wonder if James Stenbeck's return can turn things around.  I'm not sure.  Some fans might tune in to see James.... but when they see the horror show that makes up Oakdale, I can see them tuning right back out.  I thought the Parker/Liberty story bored me silly, but the Dani/Chris/Ali/Aaron quad is just stupifying.  We don't care about these people and who they are sleeping with.  That's the key to a quad.  We have to care about the people involved, who winds up with who.  There has to be something 'there'.... and there's no 'there' here, if you get my drift.

ATWT should have gained viewers and it's odd as it's like people are choosing to turn the show off as if to send a message or something. It's not like they are turning the channel to OLTL as that show also lost viewers.

Remember ATWT last attempt at a quad? Not only did they wake Rosanna from a coma, but they brought back Cady McLain to play her. Then they canned the actor playing Craig and brought back his original portrayer. We all know the PAINFUL result as not only was it a mess onscreen but treated veteran actors like crap and left them jobless.

The fact that Chris' portrayer has been bumped down to recurring MAY say that this beyond boring quad may have already been put to sleep. Except it would seem that if Alison or Aaron's portrayers had been let go to live happily ever after in Seattle (as I keep suggesting) we would have also heard that bit of news along with the contractual changes that I am pretty sure will be the end of Chris.

I agree with you about Liberty and Parker as they bore me (pot brownies and stripped shirt-would be rapist and all), but they seem like GH's Luke and Laura circa 1982 compared to the quad. And look who is remaining from the last messed up quad... Meg and Paul.... Ugh. Even seeing the amazing Anthony Herrera chewing scenary when he was eating his sandwich with an evil eye on Paul and Meg, could not make up for how boring the show can get.

I know you have become a Katie and Brad fan, so I can only imagine how you hate seeing them being 5th bananas to a purse and bag of brownies. I don't love them, but I like them together and Jack and Katie, especially with katy becoming this new perfect person was to me worse than those who are appaled about Carly and Holden.

For two seconds, I was hoping that ATWT would shoot a remote in the Jersey Shore and sell it as Tahiti, and I'd laugh WITH them just to see certain adult characters not talking about, chasing, or supporting characters that should be tangential at best. Now even the Mauras and Michaels of the world must know how Elizabeth Hubbard has felt for years. I did not look at previews as I am going back to my old ways so that maybe not knowing something might add a twinge of surprise. I doubt it as I am sure the next show will have all sorts of Libery/Parker stuff as Brad will get charged with ..... for ......... Speaking of nothing, are the scribes so lame not to be able to come up with a different last name for the intern/rapist. Is he going to be a long lost brother of JJ's as he has the same last name as Julia #2 and Keith/Scottie Baldwin?

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... that Dylan Bruce (Chris) being dropping to recurring means the actor would be on his way out (and take this boring story with him).  The thing is, on this show they have so many actors (Julie Pinson, Meredith Hanger, Mick Hazen and Jake Silbermann) who are recurring who are seen regularly and have story.  So I'm afraid he'll probably be around, boring us silly with this dull quad.  The show really has a problem with Aaron, Ali, Dani and Chris.  The story clearly is not working.  It has spent much of the time on the backburner and now that we're getting more of it, audiences aren't exactly wowed and you can see how uninteresting it really is.  The problem is if you lose these actors, you lose most of your 20-somethings, not to mention the next generation of the show.  That would leave Luke, Noah and Casey.  Oddly enough, they are most popular and appealing of all the young folks currently on the show.  Yet, the three with the least amount of story. 

If I'm writing the show I'd age Luke and Noah a couple of years (easy to do since both actors are well into their 20's) and bring back Maddie for Casey.  They could act as a quad, but their bond would be friendship, not romance, much like Maddie, Casey, Gwen and Will were.  I'd marry off Aaron and Ali and send them back to Seattle.  I would keep Chris and either pair him with Dani or bring on a new character for him.   Chris is a Hughes and Bob and Kim's son.  He should be on the canvas.  The problem is he's not being used effectively.  And the writing for his been awful.

I wouldn't say I'm a fan of Brad and Katie.  I like the couple and I see their appeal.  I have more of a problem with what has been done to them, which is shameful.   The show took one of their hottest couples, took away everything the fans loved about them and then backburnered them.  And for what?  A teen couple that isn't wowing the audience and had the rating tumbling.  I know you have to feature your teens heavily during the summer, but the show HAD a hot teen couple that brought in the ratings (and we know who they are).  And what has been done to them is shameful as well.  But it looks like Brad and Katie will have a new story starting in October (that is not about Parker and Liberty).  That, along with Jack and Carly back in one another's orbits, plus a new story for Luke and Noah (that looks to be promising) just might help with the ratings.  It's what worked last year.  Though, the show is pinning a lot of it's hopes on the returns of James and Dusty.

 

Soaps stink on ice. And ATWT is no exception to that rule.