Saturday, September 3, 2011

ABC’s The Chew will be Eaten Up and Spit Out


[See the latest Chew ratings - TV Takes All: Ratings for The Chew Week Four Flat and Still Behind All My Children]

Friday, September 23 is the final day All My Children will air on ABC, though most know it will run on the Internet, beginning in January.  On September 26, The Chew will debut in its place at 1 p.m. weekdays.

What are the prospects for this new program to focus on the exploration of life through food?  That description pretty much says it all for me.  ABC is trying to capitalize on the nation’s current fascination with cooking and interweave that topic with lifestyle issues.  It is a bit preachy, a total stretch and a recipe for failure.

The Chew will include a so-called diverse panel of co-hosts - Iron Chef stars Mario Batali and Michael Symon, Clinton Kelly of What Not To Wear, Top Chef alum Carla Hall and health and wellness person Daphne Oz.

The network is going the inexpensive route and trying to capitalize on the success of The View, which starts its 16 year next week, albeit with a new spin.

"I really don't believe that disgruntled refugees from 'All My Children' and 'One Life to Live' will swallow 'The Chew,'" TV analyst Shari Anne Brill told the Associated Press. "This is about how it's become more expensive to produce scripted content."

What TV executives fail to realize again and again is that you can’t recreate chemistry.  The View works because it has historically had a talented group of people who know how to talk and producers who book the right guests.  Viewers don’t need more than one show of this type.

Witness what happened when CBS blatantly tried to copy The View with The Talk.

The ratings have been dismal and the program hasn’t worked.  After the first year, two co-hosts are gone – Leah Remini and Holly Robinson Peete, probably the two most appealing of the group.  Creator Sara Gilbert will remain with Sharon Osbourne and Julie Chen, wife of CBS president Leslie Moonves.  Former Saturday Night Live star Molly Shannon is being tried out, as is Kris Jenner of Keeping Up with the Kardashian’s fame.

In January, yet another talk show will take over when One Life to Live moves on to its next life on the Internet, and possibly cable.  Called The Revolution its hosts will be Project Runway’s Tim Gunn, celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak and American Idol alum Kimberley Locke.

From the producers of Biggest Loser and Masterchef, The Revolution is said to be about health and lifestyle transformations with a heavy focus on weight loss.

Clearly ABC is putting America on a steady diet that will include what’s good for you, not what you like.  I can’t imagine that typical daytime viewers would rather be preached to about food and lifestyle than watch the lighthearted fare of the soaps they’ve loved for so many years, especially when they already have plenty of talk.

18 comments:

  1. I for one, after the final episode of OLTL airs, have no need to watch ABC. I keep GH on only because it comes on after OLTL and it's on only because of habit, not because I enjoy GH. Since I won't be turning the TV on in the afternoon once the final episode of OLTL airs, I won't watch GH anymore, either. It makde me SO angry that Brian Frons thinks he "knows" what daytime viewers want. Well, he didn't ask ME what I want!

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  2. I agree and thanks for commenting. ABC's afternoon viewership will decline.

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  3. I will no way watch ABC in the day time anymore, and I will actually avoid watching ABC all together, it was a mistake to take away All My Children. It's only a matter of time before " the chew " gets canceled. Horrible decision ABC!

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  4. I can't wait to see the ratings for The Chew. Although they will probably sugar-coat their poor numbers somehow. They wanted to attain a younger, hipper viewership. With a preachy food show?
    The ads for the show are grotesque, the Chew's crew is unappealing except for that blonde woman Daphne Oz... The ads look like they are heavily sponsored by the meat industry! (Frankly I don't want to see raw meat up close on an ad at 10AM.)
    I can't wait until it fails and they have to haul something else out. Unfortunately it will be too late for my beloved All My Children.

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  5. Blogger note: The comment above from "Deb" saying "I will no way watch ABC..." is not from blog author Debra Caruso.

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  6. i know nobody in this house watched today, and we never will. Not the 55 year old man , othe 54 year old female, not the 18 year old girl and certainly not thr 16 year old boy. we aall were loyal fans of AMC. I cant magine any current viewers tuning in, regardless of the demographics.

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  7. These shows will tank for sure. They are copycats of the crap that is already overly saturated on the TV. Who needs to watch it? Do they really think that people want to sit around and watch these crappy shows? When I stayed home, I always watched the soaps, especially AMC. I always recorded it when I was working and rarely missed a day over the past 37 years...... I don't know where they are getting their data from saying that there is not a good audience for the soaps anymore.

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  8. I will NEVER EVER foul my living room with "The Chew." I miss AMC!!!!!!

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  9. Over the years, I've seen ads for other ABC shows as I watched my soaps, and as result I ended up watching mostly ABC. Now that my soaps are going, I won't be seeing those ads and since ABC didn't feel that my loyalty of 41 years was worth squat, I won't be watching any ABC shows. It might be cheaper to produce but in the end it's going to cost ABC viewer across all their shows.

    Taking my loyalty to soaps aside, who wants to watch an hour every day of a food show? Who is going to DVR a show like this to watch at night? Not many.

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  10. If ABC thinks that this crap that they call the CHEW can stay on the air for forty one years like ALL MY CHILDREN did then they are as stupid as the CHEW itself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  11. ABC will have to answer to ratings and their stockholders when this and their other talk shows fail. Replacing shows that have had fan bases that span generations with cheap unoriginal crap is not a great business model. Smells like New Coke.

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  12. Now that AMC is off the air, I will never watch ABC again. And since ABC is owned by Disney, I am boycotting them too. I am now recording The Price is Right in place of AMC and it's better viewing than The Spew!

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  13. I will not be watching the chew. It is claimed that we are an obesed state so why give us more to chew on for us to gain more weight. We already have Rachel Ray in the mornings so what sis we need to chew on. AMC should never have been taken off the air. This show is going to go down like Conan O'Brian and Jay and the net work NBC looked stupid after. We will see how ABC is going to end up taking this show off the air by December because the ratings will continue to tanked

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  14. I hope the AMC viewers continue to boycott this chew . I also stop watching DWTS too. It makes no sense

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  15. I think it was very shortsighted of ABC to assume they could cancel a program beloved by many for 41 years and simply substitute it with yet another reality show. ABC had a built in viewership which they just trashed. I don't imagine their sponsors are going to be too happy about that.

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  16. +The VIEW, the Chew-oh unwow-, and the pooh-- on ABC... how I still feel about AMC being axed by another executive male who thinks he knew better than a 41 year viewership. I watch The View, now less frequently out of disgust that even they were visibly afraid to voice concern about AMC's disappearance... and could careless about the rest--even DWthe Stars? reruns of what seems like too many years NOW.

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  17. WELL I GAVE UP SOAPS YEARS AGO, BORING SAME OLD SAME OLE,they were all the same too,thank goodness they are gone, I LOVE THE Chew and reality shows.The talk made a mistake getting rid of Holly and leah

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  18. Won't watch either of their stupid shows. I have tuned into other soaps now. Forget you abc greeeeeeedy thats it. Ratings are falling bad. Glad to hear it abc chew on that! I think it will taste mighty goooooood! Flush abc! These people on the chew don't know what a barber is nor what makeup is I sure hope they wash their hands! Thats scary folks they won't come in my home

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