Image Credit: ABC

In a crushing blow to the daytime-soap genre, ABC announced today that it will yank All My Children and One Life to Life and replace them with two lifestyle shows. AMC will end in September, followed by OLTL in January 2012, to make way for shows dubbed The Chew and The Revolution. In an announcement, ABC says, “These new shows expand ABC Daytime’s focus to include more programming that is informative and authentic and centers on transformation, food, and lifestyle — cornerstones of programming that resonates with daytime viewers as evidenced by the success of The View.”

“While we are excited about our new shows and the shift in our business, I can’t help but recognize how bittersweet the change is,” said ABC Daytime president Brian Frons in a statement. “We are taking this bold step to expand our business because viewers are looking for different types of programming these days. They are telling us there is room for informative, authentic, and fun shows that are relatable, offer a wide variety of opinions, and focus on ‘real life’ takeaways. A perfect example of this is The View, and that factored into our decision. The Chew and The Revolution are in the same vein and will be great additions to the lineup, with The View serving as an ideal foundation from which to launch these programs. They will also provide enormous opportunity for the creation of ancillary businesses and growth.”

The actors on both soaps were told less than 20 minutes before the announcement went wide to the press this morning. (Frons addressed the AMC folks in person on the West Coast, while the New York-based OLTL was videolinked.) General Hospital, the third most-watched sudser in daytime, will not be affected by the changes. READ FULL STORY »