ATWT and its sister P&G soap are in trouble: With these numbers (Nov 10-14), I can't see how they won't be cancelled

P&Gs leadership isn't lacking at this critical time, if that's what you mean, because now isn't the critical time. This is the way they have been operating all along. It's pretty obvious that P&G's leadership began to crumble the day after Luke and Noah first kissed and they have been faltering and stepping from one cow pie onto another ever since. It's comical if you want to look at it that way and ignore the fact that what they've been doing to Nuke was done to try and appease the AFA crowd, and every other misstep was just plane stupid writing and producing. As a matter of fact I think that the writers and producers of the show have gotten a free ride because of Nuke. They can blame every personal error on the limitations that P&G have imposed on the show. I don't know how long that lasts, but the board of directors at P&G certainly owe them a debt of gratitude, not that anyone expects them to pay out.

By skyrocketing in the ratings last fall, ATWT was the envy of every single soap, and perhaps the most remarkable rise of any soap in history because of Nuke. (btw, that can be accredited to Passanante and Goutman) That was the "critical" time. What did ATWT do with that success? They bought new cameras and a new studio facility. I don't think that P&G can handle success because they can't, they certainly can't handle the success of a gay coupling. They looked at Nuke as a short term gain and that's how they wrote their future: they are now in the same rating they were the year before last (maybe even lower), except that they are producing the show on a cheeper budget. That is what Nuke's success has come down to for them.

I think we're on the same page there, Guillermo, and I agree on what you say about Goutman. But I believe that Passanante and Goutman (would that be p&g to the big P&G?) are getting high scores from the board of directors, even while they are getting low scores from viewers. P&G have many subsidiaries, and for what ever reason P&G have done shameful things with their soaps. Why is anybody's guess. I'm saying that it's intentional and not the problem of middle management and the writers (p&g.)

Do you know who I think is calling the shots on this show? Somebody's halfwit, right-leaning maid. I'm serious. The board of P&G (And by board, I mean the twelve or so people who run P&G and it's many, many subsidiaries of which ATWT is only gnat poo) are only interested in being involved in this show as much as it effects P&G, that usually means the bottom line. They look at a sheet of numbers once a month on how the show is doing. If the numbers are up, they do nothing. Pretty easy job. If the numbers fall drastically, they have to work on the 'problem' and try to fix it. They become annoyed and have to get off their ass, or become invigorated and turn into problem solvers who work their magic. I think that's how things ran pretty much prior to Nuke. The board didn't have to do much work for an arm of the organization that didn't produce much revenue (for the investment) and but who's only benefit had more to do with tradition and brand.

Goutman's job is to make sure that the numbers on that monthly report to the board look agreeable, and he needs to be able to explain the drops in the numbers and come up with a plan when there is a drastic drop. I have no doubt that he has been doing his job effectively. You don't fire someone like that.

But since Nuke, there was a new equation in the way things were run, that being the old pebble in the shoe of the P&G board, known as the AFA. A division (ATWT) that could once describe itself as a branding arm of the organization, had suddenly become the worst possible branding iron. Considering the meager revenue produced by ATWT, it wasn't a good enough trade off when they started to piss off the AFA and the board put a quick kabash on any kissing or what have you on the gay couple. Problem solved. Job done. Everybody goes to bed and wakes up the next day to work their magic all over again.

Hard to say that the board didn't want to just ditch the show and kept it alive merely for tradition. That's where the maid comes in. I don't think anyone on the board gives a flying monkey's flip about whether the show survives or not. It successfully brings in market share for advertising in an increasingly unstable and falling segment of the TV audience, namely daytime broadcast. (As I've said before, the breaking point right now seems to be around 2 mil for total views. When a soap falls below that their head is on the block. What has been typical of the ratings for the last two years is that the soap positions from 3-7 aren't that far apart and hover above 2 mil.) The whole genre of "day time" soap is losing ground to "prime time" soap. And losing relevance.

I feel like what is really keeping this show alive is the opinion of a maid. Someone who has the ear of a member of the board of directors. It may be a metaphorical maid. But I imagine a board member sitting on the head and reading an ATWT spread sheet in the men's room just before he goes into the board meeting and he calls over the stall to the man who hands out towels (the maid, because I don't know what you call that attendant) and asks what he thinks about ATWT. And that is the only opinion that matters, as far as viewers goes. And that maid happens to be a gay republican.

Goutman made his biggest mistake in blood letting, that is letting too much blood, to the point of making his shows anemic. When blood letting shows up on the bottom line is when he risks losing his job. He should be fired for cutting Martha, if that was his decision, but not for the way he did it, as despicable as that was. He should be fired for cutting Martha because that was a very stupid thing to do -it's the main reason we're seeing the low numbers posted above. The show has never recovered from it, and probably won't.

As fans of the genre, you're seeing a huge dearth. Like a chasm. Where soaps were always outrageous, they were also relevant, exciting and challenging even while they worked your nerves. What happened? Because I am yearning for a show like that again. Believe me, the first outrageous soap to do that is going to break TIVO records, whether they have a gay character or not, but it would be hard without. ATWT should be unconcerned with the AFA crowd and start paying attention to YouTube.