One day after ABC announced that former OLTL executive producer Frank Valenti would replace Jill Faren Phelps as EP of General Hospital, now comes news that ABC daytime president Brian Frons is stepping down. Frons was widely criticized for ABC getting out of the soap business, but will his ouster really change anything? GH is on the chopping block and I believe it's only a matter of time (read months) before the axe falls. Word is that the decision goes higher than Frons. Stay tuned...

Ding, dong, the witch is dead!! Jill Faren Phelps' reign as General Hospital's executive producer has finally come to an end. In what may be a case of too little, too late, ABC has replaced her with Frank Valenti, most recently the EP of One Life to Live, which ended production a few weeks ago. Phelps' axing comes less than a year after the exit of GH's former head writer, Bob Guza, who ruled the roost for years. The JFP-Guza combo led GH to become the mob mess it is today.

I'm hopeful that Valenti and new head writer Ron Carvilati (Garin Wolf is out too) can turn things around, but the handwriting may already be on the wall. ABC has given GH's timeslot to Katie Couric's new daytime talker come September 2012. Is this GH's last gasp or is ABC just prepping for GH's end?Remember, it was only last year when ABC brought back Lorraine Broderick to headwrite AMC, then announced AMC's cancellation a few weeks later.

News reports today state that ABC is considering cancelling "General Hospital" if it picks up Katie Couric's talk show for Fall 2012. ABC would reportedly give the hour that GH airs back to its affiliates if it cancels GH. This comesjust threeweeks after the news that ABC has cancelled "All My Children" and "One Life to Live." An announcement is expected in the next few weeks. I suspected ABC would cancel GH too, I just didn't expect it so quickly.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/05/05/tmz-abc-considering-canceling-general-hospital-to-make-room-for-katie-couric-talk-show/91645

In stunning (but not entirely surprising) news, ABC today announced it was cancelling both "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" and replacing them with food-related talk shows. Although rumors have swirled for weeks (more so around AMC), I'm still in shock. I've been watching the ABC soaps since I was a kid in the '80s. Like an old friend, they were always there, even if I wasn't. I did take a break for about three years (2008-2011), due to life, work, etc. I only started watching again this February sweeps months only to have the axe fall two months later. Wow!

I was made editor for another series today. The show is called "Jeffery & Cole Casserole." It's a sketch comedy series airing on LOGO shot entirely with a web cam andd a cast of two main actors, Jeffery and Cole. It's currently airing its second season. I made a few contributions and realized no one was editing the show. There were no eps from the first season so I decided to pick up the reins.

I've been made editor for "Beautiful People," a quicky British sitcom that aired for two series and is currently airing the U.S.

Well, this was shocking. "Disney is killing off its frothy cable venture SoapNet to make way for another channel aimed at preschoolers. Disney Junior will launch in 2012, further proof that the Mayans were right. [NY Times] "

I guess this is further proof that daytime soaps are a dying breed. CBS cancelled the long-running "Guiding Light" and "As the World Turns" within a year of each other and now this...

The reason, apparently, is the channel wasn't getting enough ratings. When the channel premiered 10 years ago in 2000, it was billed as "the new way to watch soaps,"which at that time was all of ABC's then daytime line-up (Port Charles, All MyChildren, One Life to Live, General Hospital). Prior to SOAPnet, people who weren't home during the day either VCR'd their shows during the week or missed them altogether. SOAPnet allowed same-day viewing at night with recap marathons on weekends.

That was pretty cool, as I stopped VCRing at the time due to the amount of video tapes required and the lack of time I had to watch them all. I liked being able to watch what I wanted, when I wanted. But the things I liked the most about SOAPnet was the airing of past soaps "Ryan's Hope," "Dallas," "Dynasty," "The Colbys," "Knots Landing," "Falcon Crest," "Melrose Place," "One Tree Hill," "The O.C.", among others. When SOAPnet first started, most of these shows weren't on DVD yet and hadn't aired in years. I also enjoyed the special-themed marathons of ABC soaps (which aired usually during holidays when regular soaps preempted).

I did see a change in the last few years, however, as the channel tried to re-brand itself and go beyond the soapsby adding new reality shows, Canadian importsand a movie night on Sundays. Currently, the highest rated programs on the channel are reruns of OTH and The O.C. However, with the advent of DVR, Hulu, YouTube, abc.com, SOAPnet is no longer the "new way to watch soaps." It's actually dated and apparently not the way people watch their shows. I guess all good things must end.

Goodbye, SOAPnet, you had a good run. I'll miss ya.

I finally levelled up to Level 50. I'm now Airwolf.

Sad news: another young celebrity passed on. Corey Haim, a child actor from the '80s died today. He and Corey Feldman comprised the two Coreys, who made several films together as teens in the 80s. I didn't see all of Corey Haim's films, but I remember a few of them.

According to an article in Spinner.com, one of Rock's Greatest mysteries may have been solved: Who is the subject of Carly Simon's hit song, "You're So Vain." The song includes the lyrics, "you're so vain, you probably think this song is about you."

For years, speculation was that the song was about one of Carly's ex-romances (Warren Beatty, James Taylor, Mick Jagger, among others). But now, the article hints that the mystery man may actually be music exec, David Geffen, who was not one of Carly's romances (he's gay but actually her former boss. Reportedly, Carly may have written the song because he favored singer Joni Mitchell over her.

http://www.spinner.com/2010/02/26/carly-simon-reveals-the-subject-of-youre-so-vain/?icid=main|htmlws-main-w|dl2|link1|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spinner.com%2F2010%2F02%2F26%2Fcarly-simon-reveals-the-subject-of-youre-so-vain%2F