More soap opera drama: Brian Frons out at ABC

The drama continues at ABC Daytime.

Brian Frons, the longtime president of ABC Daytime, is leaving the network amid its high-stakes transition from soap operas to lower-cost talk and lifestyle shows. 

In recent months, there have been rumblings about Frons' own future as ABC canceled two of its three long-running soap operas --"All My Children" and "One Life To Live." Frons joined the network in 2002 to oversee soap operas and other daytime programming. But the once lucrative soap opera genre has steadily lost viewers, and the shows are no longer profitable.

The Walt Disney Co.-owned network will plug its daytime programming block with lower-cost shows like "The Chew," about food, and upcoming "The Revolution," a makeover show. Frons -- who began his television career at CBS in 1978 -- had less experience with those formats. 

He will stay on until his contract ends in January. ABC said Vicki Dummer, who joined ABC in 1996 and oversees specials and established prime-time shows, would replace Frons. 

ABC also said Friday that it was creating Times Square Studios, which it described as an "integrated current entertainment programming and development division."  The new studio will oversee the production of such daytime shows as "The View," "The Chew" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

Dummer, whose new title is executive vice president of Times Square Studios, Current Series and Specials, will retain some of her responsibilities in prime-time. 

Dummer helped develop such ABC hits as "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Dharma & Greg." She will report to ABC Entertainment Group President Paul Lee. The move sets up a new, more streamlined, management structure.

Frons had reported to Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney/ABC Television Group. 

"Brian Frons has been the driving force in our successful daytime division since joining us in 2002, and while we understand his decision to leave at the end of his contract, we are sad to see him go," Sweeney said in a statement.

ABC declined to make its executives available for interviews.

The company also is scrapping its SoapNet cable channel, which had been dedicated to soaps, rebranding it as Disney Junior and stocking it with programming that appeals to the preschool crowd.

Frons, despite his credentials, was reviled among soap opera fans after announcing this year that the network would cancel "All My Children," which ended in September, and "One Life to Live," which goes off the air next month.  Fans launched online petitions and a Facebook page demanding that he be fired. On the Facebook page, the bespectacled executive was portrayed as "the Grim Reaper of Daytime," wearing a hooded black frock and wielding a scythe. 

Frons' departure was announced one day after he fired Jill Farren Phelps, the executive producer of "General Hospital."  Frank Valentini, executive producer of "One Life to Live," replaces Phelps.

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Photos of Brian Frons (top right) and Vicki Dummer (bottom left) / Credit:  Craig Sjodin / ABC 

Prospect Park pulls plug on Internet soap operas

Just five months after rolling out plans to adapt the ABC soap operas "All My Children" and "One Life to Live"  for the Internet, independent production firm Prospect Park said it was abandoning its effort.

The move, announced Wednesday, likely will be another punch in the gut for soap opera fans who were hopeful that Prospect Park could revive a fading genre.  Only four network soap operas will remain on the air after this season, including CBS' top-rated "Young and the Restless," NBC's "Days of Our Lives," and ABC's "General Hospital."

Prospect Park founders said their plans collapsed when they could not reach agreement with the guilds that represent the actors and workers.  The production firm had been looking for concessions that would have made their Web series profitable.

"We always knew it would be an uphill battle to create something historical, and unfortunately we couldn’t ultimately secure the backing and clear all the hurdles in time," Prospect Park's partners Rich Frank and Jeffrey Kwatinetz said in a statement. "We believe we exhausted all reasonable options apparent to us, but despite enormous personal, as well as financial cost to ourselves, we failed to find a solution.

"It is now becoming clear that mounting issues make our ability to meet our deadlines to get 'One Life to Live' on the air in a reasonable time period ... impossible," the statement continued.

"One Life to Live" ends its ABC run Jan. 13. The network pulled the curtain on "All My Children" in September after revising the finale so that Prospect Park could pick up the story lines.

"While we narrowed in on a financial infrastructure, the contractual demands of the guilds, which regulate our industry, coupled with the program’s inherent economic challenges ultimately led to this final decision," Prospect Park said. "In the end, the constraints of the current marketplace, including the evolution and impact of new media on our industry simply proved too great a match for even our passion."

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Photo:  Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa makes a guest appearance on ABC's "All My Children" with Susan Lucci in 2010. Credit:  Stefano Paltera / For The Times

Plan to move cancelled ABC soaps to Web looks for union label

Moving television shows from the TV screen to the computer screen is not easy, as the folks who want to give new life to soap operas "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" are learning.

Prospect Park, a company headed by former Walt Disney Co. executive Rich Frank and Jeff Kwatinetz, the former head of the talent management company the Firm, made big headlines earlier this month when it announced plans to take the two soaps, which are being cancelled by ABC, and put them on the Web. "All My Children" goes away at the end of summer and "One Life to Live" ends in January.

Details about plans to do this have been scant, and on Monday the company said it is "in the process of working out the essential terms of our proposed collective bargaining agreements with the appropriate guilds and unions," which needs to be done before other plans can go forward.

The company did not elaborate, but producing the two shows for the Internet will mean persuading the unions, including the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, to swallow a lot of cuts. Soaps have large casts and writing staffs and cost as much as $50 million a year to produce. Those are numbers that probably won't work on a show done for the Internet unless Prospect Park can come up with a subcription model or perhaps a secondary window on a cable network.

Besides trying to sign up the cast and crew -- likely for less money -- Prospect Park probably would also have to find new homes to shoot the soaps. ABC is planning on using the New York set of "One Life to Live" for its Katie Couric talk show launching next year.

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Moving soaps from TV to Web: Easier said than done

On the surface, the news that soap operas "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" may find new life on the Web after ABC pulls the plug on them sounds like great news to fans of the genre.

But the economics of such a move wouldn't be easy. Soap operas have large casts, writing staffs, producers and lots of sets. In other words, they're not cheap. A soap can cost as much as $50 million a year to produce.

The announcement from Prospect Park -- an entertainment company whose partners include former Disney executive Rich Frank that has aspirations of creating a Web entertainment giant -- was very sparse on the details of how it would pull off moving the two soaps from broadcast television to the Internet.

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It is also unclear who from the two soap operas is actually on board with the plan. ABC is licensing its soaps to Prospect Park, but that doesn't necessarily mean the entire cast and crew are involved. Neither ABC or Prospect Park are commenting beyond their news release. Prospect Park will have to cut deals with the talent of the two soaps, who would probably have to take pay cuts if they want to be involved in the new versions of the shows.

Both soaps average about 2.5 million viewers, a number that may be hard to reach online. Also advertising online is not as expensive as advertising on television.

The executives behind Prospect Park are not novices to the business. Frank is a former top executive at Disney and served as president of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Jeff Kwatinetz used to head the talent management company the Firm. Frank is also an executive producer of the USA show "Royal Pains" and the new FX comedy "Wilfred."

Eventually, the Internet probably will become the platform on which content is delivered, and there are some names that are probably big enough now to pull a move to broadband off. If Comedy Central's Jon Stewart decided to leave cable and take his show exclusively to the Web, he probably would get a decent following and perhaps even be able to generate subscription revenue, much the way Howard Stern did.

But both Stern and Stewart are talk show hosts whose programs have relatively low production costs and can be sustained on mediums with a smaller reach. Until the Internet as a distribution system and -- more important -- advertising on the Internet reach parity with television, the idea of network-like programming on the Web may be a plot better left to soap operas.

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Photo: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa films a scene with Susan Lucci on "All My Children" last year. Credit: Stefano Paltera / Los Angeles Times