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<blockquote data-quote="Carrie Fairchild" data-source="post: 444255" data-attributes="member: 673">On the subject of Guiding Light, I’ve recently started watching the run of episodes leading up to Joan Collins’ appearance as Alexandra Spaulding in 2002. Despite knowing little about the show, it’s been easy enough to pick up the storylines - Cassie owes money to the mob and is trying to sue her sister Reva, who caused the death of Cassie’s husband, Prince Something of Somewhere; Phillip’s wife Beth wrote a diary about her promiscuous life as Lorelei, an alter ego while she was having a mental breakdown, and Phillip’s father’s wife/girlfriend Olivia is suspected of having sold it to a publisher; Phillip is involved in a custody battle with ex wife Harley.From what I’ve watched, it’s a well produced, well acted and well written soap. This would’ve aired 7 years before it ended for good, which got me interested in the state of the show’s ratings and what led to the axe. I was surprised to see that GL was basically in the middle of the yearly ratings pack from the mid-80’s onwards, always beaten by its timeslot completion on ABC (General Hospital) but never on by NBC’s Santa Barbara. From the mid-90’s onwards, the only soaps rating lower than GL were those that were on the cancellation bubble like Loving, The City, Port Charles and Sunset Beach.What I’m wondering is, how did it manage to escape cancellation for so long? Despite being near the bottom of the ratings pile, were the numbers decent enough for CBS to keep renewing it? Or were CBS tied into some deal with P&amp;G that kept GL and As the World Turns running?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Carrie Fairchild, post: 444255, member: 673"] On the subject of [I]Guiding Light[/I], I’ve recently started watching the run of episodes leading up to Joan Collins’ appearance as Alexandra Spaulding in 2002. Despite knowing little about the show, it’s been easy enough to pick up the storylines - Cassie owes money to the mob and is trying to sue her sister Reva, who caused the death of Cassie’s husband, Prince Something of Somewhere; Phillip’s wife Beth wrote a diary about her promiscuous life as Lorelei, an alter ego while she was having a mental breakdown, and Phillip’s father’s wife/girlfriend Olivia is suspected of having sold it to a publisher; Phillip is involved in a custody battle with ex wife Harley. From what I’ve watched, it’s a well produced, well acted and well written soap. This would’ve aired 7 years before it ended for good, which got me interested in the state of the show’s ratings and what led to the axe. I was surprised to see that [I]GL[/I] was basically in the middle of the yearly ratings pack from the mid-80’s onwards, always beaten by its timeslot completion on ABC ([I]General Hospital[/I]) but never on by NBC’s [I]Santa Barbara[/I]. From the mid-90’s onwards, the only soaps rating lower than GL were those that were on the cancellation bubble like [I]Loving[/I], [I]The City,[/I] [I]Port Charles[/I] and [I]Sunset Beach.[/I] What I’m wondering is, how did it manage to escape cancellation for so long? Despite being near the bottom of the ratings pile, were the numbers decent enough for CBS to keep renewing it? Or were CBS tied into some deal with P&G that kept [I]GL[/I] and [I]As the World Turns[/I] running? [/QUOTE]

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