It looks like there will be a light at the end of the tunnel for ABC soaps All My Children and One Life To Live. The programs, which were scheduled to end September 23 and January of 2012, respectively, may now be headed to an online format, where they will continue to please stay-at-home moms and other sorts of daytime loafers. I’m not speaking in reruns; the idea is to let Erica Kane and co. and whoever populates One Life To Live continue to produce episodes for an Internet audience.
The deal to get the two programs moved to the Internet was brokered between Disney/ABC Television Group and Prospect Park. According to the stipulations of the agreement, Prospect Park will present new episodes of All My Children and One Life to Live in the same format and length, and also the same quality, as the current productions. According to Deadline, the two shows will reach audiences via online formats, but also through additional sources, including Internet enabled television sets.
The real question then is: What does Prospect Park stand to gain from picking up ABC’s dinosaur soaps? ABC dumped them because of lack of profitability and interest. Sure, kicking the programming online might help Prospect Park pick up advertisers. However, in order to keep up the same quality, length, and basic format, the company is going to have to shell out—and keep shelling out—a boatload of cash to cover writers, actors, and all the extras necessary to creating a decent television show. It just seems as if the toddler media company is begging to wallow in a money pit.
Only time will tell whether this experiment will prove profitable. In the meantime, it’s nice to know people will be keeping their jobs.
