Disney/ABC Television Group

While CBS has the most nominations amongst all television networks, the Disney/ABC Television Group is the most honored programming group with nominations for the ABC Television Network, Disney Channel, Disney XD, Syndicated programming, and more. The television arm of The Walt Disney Company highlights their nominations below:

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On the Thursday, April 4 edition of “Katie,” Katie Couric takes you behind the scenes of ABC’s “General Hospital” as she prepares for her “GH” debut!

Donna Svennevik/Disney-ABC Domestic Television

While the talk show host conducts sit down interviews with a number of your favorite stars from the soap on her set, including Genie Francis (Laura Spencer) and Anthony Geary (Luke Spencer), it’s the behind the scenes videos from her time at “GH’s” Prospect Studios in Los Angeles, CA where the real dish lies. In fact, Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis Davis) even provides viewers with a humorous “size me up” that even Couric can’t stop herself from laughing over…until the ladies duke it out over Colin Firth!

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Donna Svennevik/Disney-ABC Domestic Television

“General Hospital” has seen a whirlwind of publicity celebrating its 50th Anniversary, and it looks like “Katie” is the next show to join in on the fun and feature the iconic soap and its beloved stars. Host Katie Couric and an audience filled with die-hard “GH” fans will be spending a full hour paying homage to the long-running drama, and several Port Charles residents are slated to participate!

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Rick Rowell/ABC

As “General Hospital‘s” 50th anniversary celebration kicks into high gear this week with a very special episode airing Tuesday, April 2 (episode was originally scheduled to air on Monday, April 1 as the 50th anniversary celebratory episode), fans will have no chance of avoiding the cast of the series as they grace your TV screens in more ways than one.

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For more than 10 years fans of daytime soap operas have been coming to Soap Opera Network to find out how their favorite soap was faring in the weekly ratings report. From time to time we would also provide analysis of how they stacked up when compared to their broadcast counterparts in the talk show and game show genres, but we’ve never looked at how the broadcast soaps (and to a lesser extent the broadcast talk and game shows) compared to syndicated television. Not that it wasn’t easy to provide a comparison, it was just never something we found necessary. In recent months, with the introduction of several syndicated talk shows including “Katie” and “The Steve Harvey Show,” which together took over the 3:00 PM slot from “General Hospital” in much of the country this past September after “GH” moved to 2:00 PM, and the second season without “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” things have changed. Recently, Broadcasting & Cable came out with a report that showed how syndicated programs might be a solid alternative to our soaps in the key demographics when it comes to Madison Avenue buying advertising time. While we wouldn’t want advertisers to give up on our favorite shows, B&C does provide a solid rationalization and even highlights the value of soap operas when it comes to the all important key women demos (Women 18-49, Women 25-54, etc).

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Photo Credit Disney/ABC Domestic Television

via Press Release

Ratings Report, Week of September 10, 2012

(Metered Market Live + Same Day Ratings)

“Katie” Opens as the Definitive No. 1 New Daytime Talk Show in HH and W25-54

Freshman “Katie” Outranks Key Returning Shows in Women 25-54, 

Beating the Premiere Weeks of “Dr. Phil,” “Dr. Oz” and “Anderson Live”

Winning the Week in Each of the Top 3 U.S. Markets, “Katie” 

Ranks No. 1 in its Time Period in 14 Metered Markets Among Homes

“Katie” Finishes Out its Premiere Week with a Kick, Spiking 

+29% in HHs and +38% in W25-54 from Thursday to Friday

“Katie” Debut Week Ratings (w/o of 9/10/12)

Debuting amidst one of the most competitive landscapes in years for syndicated talkers, “Katie” opened as the clear No. 1 freshman daytime talk show, winning all 5 days of its opening week in Homes. On average during the week, “Katie” held wide advantages over its freshman competitors in both Households (2.3/7) and Women 25-54 (1.2/7), including “Steve Harvey” (+64%/+33%), “Jeff Probst” (+188%/140%) and “Ricki Lake” (+229%/+200%).

Newcomer “Katie” also performed extremely well against the returning talk shows.  In HHs and W25-54, freshman “Katie” towered over sophomore “Anderson Live” in its first week (+92%/+140%) and beat out the premiere of veteran “Dr. Oz” by 5% and 20%, respectively.  Furthermore, “Katie” bested the premiere week of “Dr. Phil” by 20% in Women 25-54 and ran in a near-tie in Households (pacing within 1-tenth of a rating point and tied in audience share).  Overall, “Katie” opened as TV’s No. 3 syndicated talk show in Women 25-54.

“Katie” delivered the No. 1 position in its time period in 14 metered markets among Households, including the Top 3 U. S. markets of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.  In addition among Women 25-54, the new show won its time slot in both New York and Los Angeles for the week. 

Finishing out premiere week with a kick, “Katie” shot up from its Thursday telecast to its Friday telecast by +29% Households and by +38% in Women 25-54 from day to day.

“Katie” is executive-produced by Katie Couric and Jeff Zucker and is distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television. Co-executive producers are Kathy Samuels and Michael Bass and the program is directed by Joseph Terry.

Source: WRAP Overnights, Weighted U.S. Metered Market Averages, Live + Same Day (w/o 09/10/12).

via Press Release

SEASON PREMIERE

VIEWERS CRAVE SECONDS

ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, “THE CHEW” RETURNS WITH BIG GUESTS, THEIR FIRST
BOOK AND EVEN BIGGER APPETITES, AS SEASON TWO KICKS OFF ON ABC

Katie Couric is the Featured Guest

The Chew: FOOD. LIFE. FUN to Be Released Tuesday, September 25 by Hyperion

ABC’s “The Chew” returns for its second season MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 (1:00-2:00 p.m. ET), bringing with it a smorgasbord of exciting guests, culinary creations and tips and tricks to make life healthier, easier and, frankly, a whole lot more fabulous. Season Two will also continue to showcase the hosts’ signature series, including “Five in Five,” “Mario’s Simple Italian,” “The Power of Oz,” as well as “Clinton’s Craft Corner” and “C&C Food Factory.”

Katie Couric is the featured guest, stopping by to preview the first day of her new syndicated talk show, “Katie,” with hosts Mario Batali, Michael Symon, Carla Hall, Clinton Kelly and Daphne Oz.

On TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, Hyperion will publish The Chew: FOOD. LIFE. FUN, a companion book that gives viewers more to “chew on,” featuring seasonal recipes and commentary from the co-hosts.

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Andrew Eccles/Disney-ABC

In an interview with John Nogawski, president, CBS Television Distribution, Broadcasting & Cable revealed that Disney/ABC Domestic Television is spending roughly $80 million just to get its Katie Couric hosted talker, aptly named “Katie,” off the ground in the next couple of weeks.

“I think [Disney/ABC] cut a bad deal,” said Nogawski. “They did get very large license fees, but the majority of those license fees are attributed to ABC’s owned-and-operated stations. ['Katie'] is going to have to do a very large number for them to make money.” By comparison, CTD is spending roughly $30 million to launch “The Jeff Probst Show” ($24 million on production, $6 million on promotion).

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Craig Sjodin/ABC

Prior to our posting the press release from the Disney/ABC Television Stations Group which revealed the premiere date of “Katie,” Soap Opera Network learned via its sources that ABC had quietly been informing their affiliates of the pending cancellation of “The Revolution,” which has greatly underperformed in key demographics and viewership compared to the series it replaced (“One Life to Live“) back in January.

While this in no way guarantees “General Hospital‘s” placement on the Fall 2012-2013 ABC Daytime schedule once the network cedes the soaps timeslot to affiliates beginning Monday, September 10, the fact that “GH” continuously increases its audience over the performance of “Revolution” in all categories including an uptick of over 900,000 viewers (2.34 million for “GH” vs 1.40 million for “Revolution”), a 100% gain in Women 18-49 rating (1.0 demo for “GH” vs 0.5 for “Revolution”), and a 66% gain in Women 18-34 rating (0.5 for “GH” vs 0.3 for “Revolution”) during the week of March 5-9, 2012 places “GH” in a better position of continuing beyond this summer.

As previously reported, a decision on the future of “General Hospital” is expected to be made in mid-April. Should the soap continue beyond the launch of “Katie,” it is expected to move to 2:00 PM ET/1:00 PM PT/CT timeslot on the ABC Television Network.

Disney/ABC Television Group

(SoapOperaNetwork.com) — On June 6, 2011, ABC finally announced (after months of rumors) that it had signed a deal with former “CBS Evening News” anchor Katie Couric to host a new daily syndicated talk show, and that said show would replace veteran soap opera “General Hospital” in the 3:00 PM ET/2:00 PM PT/CT timeslot. Initially the decision brought fear to soap opera fans, who only two months prior learned that ABC Daytime’s two other veteran soaps (“All My Children” and “One Life to Live”) would be replaced by two new food and lifestyle centered talk shows (“The Chew” and “The Revolution“). Now nearly a year since the announcement it looks like Katie Couric may just be the lifesaver “General Hospital” desperately needs.

According to TV Guide‘s Michael Logan, sources have informed him that the talk show host and her executive producer (former NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker) have expressed their concern to the Disney/ABC Television Group brass, producers of her new talk show, in regards to the poor ratings performance that has been “The Revolution” – Since the talk shows debut in January the program hovers at just over 1.5 million viewers on average. By comparison, “One Life to Live,” which “Revolution” replaced, averaged more than 2.3 million viewers on average and performed better in key sales demos during the same period of time on the year-ago. “Couric and Zucker want to see ’GH’ get that slot because it’s a stronger show, Nielsen-wise, plus Couric does not want to face the wrath of ‘GH’ fans and risk the chance they’ll organize a boycott. Who the hell needs that? So she and Zucker want ‘The Revolution’ to go bye-bye,” the website stated.

With “General Hospital’s” recent uptick in key demos and total viewers since the new dynamic duo of Frank Valentini and Ron Carlivati (executive producer and head writer) debuted just a few short weeks ago, for the first time in over a year the soap finally has a fighting chance, but will ABC listen? “They may not have a choice,” said Logan. “In fact, they might even agree at this point. Our spies at Times Square Studios — the new tag for ABC Daytime — tell us the commitment to nonscripted shows remains firm in the ABC daypart but no one is doing handstands over the ones currently in development, which include a doctor show and a game show. While ABC technically has time (though not much) to replace ‘The Revolution’ with more reality, that option is looking way too chancy.”

Should ABC end up keeping “GH” on the air and canceling “The Revolution,” the soap will move to the 2:00 PM ET/1:00 PM CT/PT timeslot beginning in September. According to sources, a decision on the eventual outcome on either series will not be made until at least mid-April.

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