Monday, March 18, 2024

Why Oprah Wants the ABC Soaps: Tyler Perry’s Soap Has Saved Her Network

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Remember, Oprah Winfrey said she didn’t want the ABC soaps. She sent out a YouTube video last year telling her fans why soaps were dead and she wasn’t interested in buying “One Life to Live” and “All My Children.” But then a funny thing happened. Oprah, looking for ratings, bought Tyler Perry’s “The Haves and Have Nots.” Perry’s prime time soap pulled bigger ratings than anything ever on OWN.

Last week “The Have Nots” pulled 1.77 million total viewers– a million more than Oprah’s own show on the network. And the network doubled its order for episodes. Suddenly Oprah needs more soaps. Soaps work. What a surprise. So now, for relatively nothing, she’s bringing “AMC”and “OLTL” to OWN on July 15th. If they work, and I think they will, the shows will stay on OWN– and Oprah will look for more soaps they can add to their line up. Maybe she can convince Procter & Gamble to revive the shows they carelessly killed off.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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