Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Does anyone remember Passions the soap opera that was on NBC many years ago?
It was a really great show and attracted a lot of younger audiences and was on NBC for 8 years from 1999-2007, but canceled it in 2007 due to low ratings, but then DirecTV picked up the rights to the series, but lasted only a year on their own network. Then it was completely canceled forever.
I personally think if NBC was going to cancel it, they should have just left it canceled, so that way all of the fans that were able to view it for free on broadcast television could have had closure and see a very great farewell.
But, instead NBC universal had to shop for other networks, especially cable networks to have them pick them up, so they can still make money. Guess what? None of them wanted the series because of the low ratings.
Even if another broadcast television network or cable network bought the rights, NBC universal would not have been able to make that much more money anyway. They were not even making that much money on it when they were broadcasting it their own NBC network television. This is all because the ratings were low.
Then DirecTV picked up the series and made it exclusive for their own network and tried to get the passions fans to get DirecTV to continue watching the series. This made a lot of fans really upset because many were not going to be that stupid to pay money for a TV subscription company just for a soap opera. Guess what? The show lost a lot of audiences and DirecTV did not get expected subscribers they wanted for the series and canceled it within a year. Now for the fans who switched to DirecTV just for Passions got all upset that it was canceled so soon.
And now for many fans who could no longer see the series have no idea what really happened on the series final season and leaving them in a cliffhanger. NBC should have just ended it, period. That way all of the Passions would have a happy ending and then just move on. In addition, NBC could have saved themselves a lot of time from shopping for other networks to pick up the series and could have been spending their time to create other shows that will boost more ratings and money.
I also do not understand why NBC universal left the official website on NBC.com with updating details of the series and promotional products when the series had left NBC and moved to DirecTV.
I know they probably did not want to bother with moving the website around and I understand that because NBC universal still owned and produced the series after taking it off their own NBC network and sold the broadcasting rights of the newer episodes to DirecTV, they decided to just leave it alone.
If they were not going to sell the website to DirecTV, they could have at least changed the site's name and took the NBC logo off and make it into its own separate independent website and only have DirecTV related contents, so this way everyone would know that it was no longer part of NBC and had moved only to DirecTV.
When NBC.com continued to host the Passions official website after leaving NBC and moving only to DireCTV, NBC related contents were still on there. Although they did include the link message to have the fans go to DirecTV's site to get their subscription to continue watching the series, it makes it look like it will return to NBC or if DirecTV and NBC are part of the same company.
I guess they made some kind of relationship deal to use Passions as a way to promote each others networks or something.
__________________________________________________ _______________________
What NBC could have done was move the series to a later time like 3pm or 4pm on a trial basis and most likely, they would have been getting a lot more audiences and it would have become a permanent time slot. The series mostly attracted the teenagers, college students, and the young adults anyway. By that time, more of the younger people are already at home from school.
The series attracted mainly the younger demographics, but the problem is because they aired it at such an early time; most NBC broadcasters aired it at 2pm local time, many of the younger people are not home yet, so that is why the ratings were so low.
__________________________________________________ _____________________
Not that I was happy with their decision to sell it to DirecTV, however I did not make much deal of it, but
here are the following things that they could have done to get more ratings and keep the loyal fans happy..............
If DirecTV was going to buy the rights to the series, they could have at least maybe added some scenes that normally would never be allowed on broadcast television, or made it commercial free or limit the numbers of commercials to add more scenes or something to make it so special.
They also could have started buying the rights to re-air the NBC episodes at another time slot. And maybe aired a once a week series about edited scenes and bloopers about Passions and all of the behind the scenes things that go on, and what is coming up and so on and so forth.
This way it would have made Passions look so special that they could have been able to get more of the fans to subscribe to their company and maybe attract more of their already subscribed customers to watch it.
I have seen the DirecTV commercials of Passions and they did not do such a great job promoting it. That is why it lasted only a year on the network.
Now NBC universal decided to leave the official site on NBC.com and they did create a deal with DirecTV to allow the DirecTV episodes available on the website, but for a fee for those who could not subscribe to DirecTV.
Since they left the official website on NBC.com, what could have been done was after each season was finished airing on DirecTV and on NBC.com for a fee, NBC.com could have made those episodes available for free, but with scenes edited/cut off and/or reduce the time to half an hour per episode to give fairness to the subscribers who get to see a whole lot more than the non-subscribers. The Passions fans who could not pay to watch it would be satisfied and the series could have lasted longer with better ratings.
Another option that could have been done to allow the non-subscribers to watch was NBC could have bought the rights to the DirecTV episodes and changed the content into a nighttime drama and edited the scenes.
That is just my opinion.
I know this series ended so long ago, but wanted to know if anyone had opinions about this.
This was one of Directv's first forays into original programming. They were looking to start having their own exclusives. "Passions" probably was an inexpensive place to start.
As far as pushing the envelope now that they were on a cable show, one has to remember the cast signed up to do a soap. They may not have wanted to loosen the reigns.
Either way, fans should be happy they got the extra season. Most shows dont get that once they are cancelled.
You said how much you enjoyed it, and I'm glad you did. I just don't think enough viewers of daytime soaps were willing to suspend disbelief to the degree one had to in order to view Passions alongside more traditionally-minded daytime soaps. It never really had a chance to catch on because NBC mis-managed its introduction.
The soap that was cancelled to make room for Passions was Another World, a more 'grounded' soap that had been on for over thirty years. NBC hastened the demise of Another World (and another of its soaps, Sunset Beach) to make room for Passions, which made a lot of the fans of those two soaps angry enough to ignore Passions when it premiered--a boycott, as it were. The fact that the show openly touted the wackier aspects and de-emphasized its soap opera base in advertising and promotions did not endear itself to these displaced viewers, either. In an era when daytime audiences were starting to decline, they needed to hold on to the audience they already had (the AW and SB viewers) as well as attract new viewers who had not wanted to watch AW or SB. Instead, NBC basically told those viewers to take a hike by producing a totally different type of product.
NBC also made the big mistake of allowing the NBC affiliates to choose when (or even IF) they wanted to air the show. While it inherited AW's timeslot in a lot of markets, many stations aired it at 3pm, or 10am or some other less-advantageous slot. Many stations decided not to air it at all, choosing instead to syndicated programs they could make more money off of by airing more local commercials. If NBC had somehow been able to get all their affiliates to air the show, and to air it in a uniform slot, the ratings might have been better. And as is usually the case, as their ratings dropped during the run of the series, more local affiliates were dropping the show and replacing it with other shows (mostly talk or local news), causing the ratings to go down even more. This behavior by affiliates is what killed such long-running soaps as The Edge of Night, Ryan's Hope, and Guiding Light, too.
The soap that was cancelled to make room for Passions was Another World, a more 'grounded' soap that had been on for over thirty years. NBC hastened the demise of Another World (and another of its soaps, Sunset Beach) to make room for Passions, which made a lot of the fans of those two soaps angry enough to ignore Passions when it premiered--a boycott, as it were.
A longtime fan of Another World, I did not watch Passions. Not one episode.
Another World was my favorite daytime soap ever, but I blame NBC (and, to a lesser extent Procter and Gamble, the owner of the show) for its demise. Passions would have premiered regardless of whether NBC had kept Another World or Sunset Beach on the air because NBC was determined to give Jim Reilly (the creator of Passions who was also a head writer at Days of Our Lives) a show to showcase his wacky brand of storytelling, a show they would own outright (and thus own all the ad revenue). NBC's ability to turn its daytime fans against one another, then against NBC itself, seemed to be a recurring theme in recent years, when we see how they ousted Anne Curry from Today and severely hurt the show's ratings.
I never watched more than half an episode or so of Passions, mostly because AW spoiled me for all other soaps. I sampled a few scenes near the beginning and later on in the run just to see if it was as "out-there" as the soap mags claimed. From what I saw, some cast members were playing it as parody while others played it straight--which made me uncomfortable because they did not seem to be on the same page.
Blast from the past. Once upon a time, I auditioned to be on this show. I watched some of the show, but didn't keep up with it as I was a Days of Our Lives fan back in the day.
Since DirecTV canceled the series so abruptly, NBC universal should have just made the DirecTV episodes available for free on NBC.com, but limit the scenes and/or reduce the episodes and maybe make it like 35 minutes per episode instead, so this way the fans who could not subscribe to DirecTV or NBC.com to pay a fee could have been able to watch the episodes for free and it would have given fairness to the ones who actually made the effort to subscribe to watch it.
Since NBC universal was still the owner of the series and with DirecTV not renewing the broadcast rights to the series, DirecTV would not have had the right to stop NBC universal from distributing them anyway they wanted.
Passions was also shown on the SYFY channel when it was the Sci-Fi channel. That's where I first discovered it. Unfortunately they only show a few seasons and then dropped it. I was really disappointed.
Two of the Passions actors Galen Gerhig and Eric Marstel (not sure of the last name) are regulars on Days of Our Lives.
I remember hearing about the re-runs on Sci-Fi channel and that it only lasted unfortunately for a few months and then taken off immediately due to the low ratings.
I came across this sci-fi advertisement on youtube of Passions. Now that I see that it was being aired at 9am, no wonder why no ratings. All of the younger people are either at school or work at that time period.
Come on, the producers knew the series was mostly attracting the younger audiences. They should have been airing them at a later time like late afternoon, or better yet in the evening when more people are home including the younger audiences.
The ratings would have been much better if aired at at later time.
As I said in my last post, NBC should have been smarter to air Passions at a later time as well to attract more audiences especially the younger ones since they are the primary television audiences.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I sampled a few scenes near the beginning and later on in the run just to see if it was as "out-there" as the soap mags claimed. From what I saw, some cast members were playing it as parody while others played it straight--which made me uncomfortable because they did not seem to be on the same page.
