After a lengthy legal dispute with online production company Prospect Park, ABC got back the rights to its cancelled soaps “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” in 2016, and during the recent 2019 Television Critics Association tour there was talk about whether the shows might have another life to live after all. Suffice it to say that struck a chord with our readers. They want both shows back as soon as possible. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for our complete poll results, and vote here if you haven’t already.
Thousands of fans responded to our poll and the vast majority of them (90%) said that the soaps should be brought back to broadcast TV. “AMC” has been off the national airwaves since 2011, and “OLTL” ended a few months later at the beginning of 2012. Both shows had online revivals in 2013, which were the cause of all that litigation, so they were cut short.
When the soaps started streaming in 2013 the era of original programming online was still in its infancy; that was the same year Netflix debuted its groundbreaking shows “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black.” Six years later the medium has exploded with original programs from Netflix, Amazon and Hulu competing at the Emmys, including digital daytime dramas like “The Bay.” So maybe streaming versions of “AMC” and “OLTL” are more viable now than they were before. But only 8% of respondents are interested in another attempt at an online revival.
That leaves a mere 2% of readers who think the shows should stay gone. Read some of our readers’ passionate comments below, and join the discussion on this and more with your fellow daytime TV fans here in our forums.
Gigi Midyett: “Yes! The soaps never should have been taken off to begin with.”
Marla Truitt: “These shows need to be put back on the air, with as many of the original cast members, writers,and production crew as possible.”
Evelyn Lewis-Keene: “I agree they should have never canceled them in the first place. Bring back ‘AMC’ and ‘OLTL’ to TV. We don’t want to see them online.”
Joseph McGlinchey: “Amen, and watching them on a computer screen was ridiculous.”
Tessa Aura: “They need to be on regular TV. Too much negative, repetitive news and talk shows.”
Marilyn: “I watched ‘One Life to Live’ faithfully for years and years. Their storylines were great and kept me interested day to day. When they took it off the air and replaced it with ‘The Chew’ I wanted to throw something through the TV. This was a huge mistake!”
Tess Grainger: “I would really love for ‘All My Children’ and ‘One Life to Live’ to come back to TV! They were my favorite soaps,and I was really po’d when they were canceled!”
Rhonda Catrett: “It was a huge mistake to have taken them off the air in the first place. It would be great if they were to bring them back to TV, but they have been off air for a long time.”
Be sure to make your Daytime Emmy predictions so that Hollywood insiders can see how their shows and performers are faring in our odds. You can keep changing your predictions until nominees are announced on March 20. And join in the fierce debate over the 2019 Daytime Emmys taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our daytime TV forums. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
