По поводу рейтингов - сентябрь 1990
Things have changed a lot over the last few months on Santa Barbara. The
show has gotten a new look, more sophisticated than ever. Some old
favorites have returned, like Lionel and Augusta. Kelly has returned to
her former position as the major romantic character on the show. Roscoe
Born is back. The storylines are a bit tighter and more consistent than
they have been. These are all good things.
On the other hand, the last vestiges of the trademark Santa Barbara humor
have been wrung out. Gina, Bunny, Lionel and Augusta, once outrageous and
wonderful, have become downright BORING. Mason and Julia have not only
lost their humor, they're starting to lose their edge. If TV Guide is to be
believed, Julia is going to have an affair with Dash Nichols. How on Earth
do they expect us to believe that Julia could be attracted to that limp
dishrag? The man has no personality.
John Conboy, brought in to bring up the ratings of a show with critical
success but low numbers, has definitely made his mark. He put his
trademark glitz into the look of the show. He's taken advantage of one of
the best-looking male casts in the soaps and created storylines around them
(The Four, twin Roscoes (Robert/Quinn) in a pentangle with Kelly, Craig,
and Flame, Cruz and the stupid Pasha). He also ran off his two head
writers, Sheri Anderson, now a story consultant on Days, and Chuck Pratt.
So what has been the result? In March, as the Conboy changes were starting
to come about, Santa Barbara was what they call a 13-share show. It's
rating (percentage of all TVs) hovered around 3.6, and it's share
(percentage of TVs in use) was consistently 12 or 13, making it the 10th
place soap on the air (out of 12). In August, Santa Barbara's highest
rating was a 3.3 (with a low of 2.9), and it's share had fallen to 10.
Santa Barbara has now dropped behind Loving to place 11th.
Jackie Smith, head of NBC daytime programming, personally asked Chuck Pratt
to come back to Santa Barbara as a story consultant for a few months until
he takes a primetime job in January. Said Chuck about his rehiring, "I
think the core audience was threatened and the network panicked."
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