Oprah has certainly changed her tune from the two-minute YouTube video she made two years ago titled, "Why Oprah Can't Save the Soap Operas," (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc23W861mKI). The video began a backlash Oprah and OWN were ill-prepared. In a major turnaround, Oprah released a thirty-second video this week titled, "Oprah's Summer Fling with All My Children and One Life to Live on OWN," (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY9e8OYifMs&feature=youtu.be). In the newest video, Oprah tells the world that she heard soap fans and is going to be airing a limited (40-episode) "fling" this Summer of the newly produced, back-from-the-dead, All My Children and One Life to Live.
In the video she announces the return with all the gusto of a true soap fan. But her announcement and gusto leave some soap fans elated and some bitter. It also leaves open-ended questions about the future of the shows after the "fling" is over.
The forty episodes will be the first forty relaunched episodes produced by The Online Network (TOLN) (http://theonlinenetwork.com) and aired on Hulu (http://www.hulu.com/all-my-children) (http://www.hulu.com/one-life-to-live) and iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/all-my-children/id621724634) (https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/one-life-to-live/id621724081). The big question on everyone's mind is, what happens after the "fling," is over? Do viewers just get left hanging without OWN or network access to the continuing content? ... or do the two shows become part of OWN or another network's regular programming lineup at that point? Only time and TOLN will tell.
Response in the soap fan community, although generally positive, has been somewhat mixed. Some have accused Oprah of jumping on the bandwagon after everyone else's hard work to bring the shows back. Well of course she is - she is a businesswoman.
For many soap fans it was very disappointing to watch the condescending manner with which Oprah handled the pleas of fans two years ago. It lead to my writing a CNN iReport, "Oprah Has Her Own," (http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-594848).
However, time has passed and apparently Oprah has seen the light and the financial benefit of testing the soap opera waters of airing All My Children and One Life to Live on a limited basis. It is a great deal less costly for OWN to license the forty episodes from The Online Network (TOLN) than to produce them. It is also less costly and risky to air a limited amount of episodes and test the waters versus entering into a long-term commitment with the shows to air in a regularly schedule time slot at this time.
For All My Children, One Life to Live, and soap fans, this can be nothing but good news. It is an opportunity for the shows to gain widespread viewership on a cable network channel, provide the opportunity for viewers who are not online to get to see and sample the shows (if they get OWN through their cable service provide and tier of service), provide added revenue for both shows that can be reinvested for future production, and be a measurement of the feasibility of the shows being profitable on a cable network.
The bottom line is if a fan of the shows gets OWN and watches the shows this summer on the OWN channel it can only help strengthen chances that the shows will continue production and fans will be able to continue visiting Pine Valley and Llanview online and hopefully on a network for a long time to come. The greatest strength of every soap fan is their viewership.
What do you think?
