The View

Earlier today CBS released a promo touting its daytime lineup for “Bringing Sexy Back,” and not to be outdone, ABC has released its own daytime lineup promo. With the phrases, “Why just live when you can love. Why just smile when you can laugh. Why just watch when you can feel,” viewers of “The View,” “The Chew” and “General Hospital” are all embraced by the ABC Television Network.

The behind-the-scenes drama that’s been brewing since Prospect Park filed a lawsuit against ABC on April 18 is about to get even soapier! According to a story in The Hollywood Reporter, Prospect Park producers wished to buy ad space for the revived “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” during broadcast soaps (“General Hospital,” “Days of our Lives,” “The Bold and the Beautiful,” and “The Young and the Restless”), but CBS and NBC allegedly refused to help promote the competition — and in light of the $25 million lawsuit Prospect Park launched against ABC, the alphabet network won’t be running spots for the show, either!

ABC’s “The View” is hosting a very special “Guy Friday” episode, and guess who’s popping in to co-host? The beloved Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing, “Dallas;” ex-Stephen Logan, “The Bold and the Beautiful”)!

As previously reported, Anthony Geary appeared on today’s edition of ABC’s “The View.” Geary was there to help celebrate and honor the 50th anniversary of “General Hospital,” whose cast he’s been part of for the last 35 years (off and on).

Today, April 1, ABC’s “General Hospital” celebrates its 50th anniversary in style! Before the anniversary episode airs (note: due to a national network preemption on Wednesday, March 13, this episode was originally scheduled to air on Friday, March 29; the Tuesday, April 2 episode was the episode previously scheduled to air as the anniversary episode on Monday, April 1) fans of the soaps most recognizable couple can watch “The View” for Anthony Geary (Luke Spencer) or “The Chew” for Genie Francis (Laura Spencer).

Daytime legend Susan Lucci, who portrayed Erica Kane on all 41 years of “All My Children,” will be appearing on the Monday, February 25 edition of ABC’s “The View.” The actress is expected to sit down with the ladies to discuss her new Lifetime series “Devious Maids,” and the second season of her Investigation Discovery series “Deadly Affairs.”

ABC’s “General Hospital” and “The View” ranked #1 in Women 18-34 for the week of January 21-25, 2013. Both series averaged a 0.7 rating in the key sales demo. This marks “GH’s” 10th time in the past 11 weeks to rank #1 in the demo.

In the latest issue of Soap Opera Digest, which just happens to be the mags annual Best & Worst issue, columnist Carolyn Hinsey (“It’s Only My Opinion”) shared her views of the best and worst of 2012 in the world of daytime soaps. While you can read her input by picking up your own copy, it is her statement that “OLTL will be back” that peaked our curiosity.

Over the years we’ve found that a number of our readers and community members are interested in topics other than what’s happening on their favorite daytime soaps. Therefore, Soap Opera Network is happy to present you with our first edition of our weekly Daytime Talk/Morning TV Listings. Here you’ll find out who will be appearing on some of your favorite talk shows and morning news programs. Listings for “CBS This Morning” and “The Talk” were not available at press time.

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).