AMC & OLTL Schedules Cut!

The OnLine Network has made a huge announcement regarding ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE: Starting Monday, May 20, they are scaling back on the scheduling model and two new episodes of each show will be made available each week. New AMC shows will post on Mondays and Wednesdays, and OLTL will now run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The behind-the-scenes series, MORE, will stream as a single show on Fridays.

In a statement released to subscribers of TOLN’s newsletters, Rich Frank and Jeff Kwatinetz explain, “This allows us to introduce a new episode of quality television every Monday through Friday and gives the audience a chance to catch up as we continue to build awareness and excitement around these new shows. Because Hulu agrees with our findings, for the meantime they will keep all of our episodes on Hulu.com for free to give viewers the opportunity to find us and catch up.”

The decision was made after collecting viewing data which showed that the shows were primarily being watched by “binge viewing” on-demand and that while the soaps once had a shared ABC audience, the majority of viewers are only watching one of the rebooted shows, not both. The execs also state that “our viewers seem to primarily start with the first episode then continue forward… yet starting from the beginning with the amount of episodes we are releasing is asking too much for viewers who need to catch up.”

Frank and Kwatinetz promise that this new schedule will not impact the production of AMC and OLTL. “We will be filming new episodes through mid-June, continue editing throughout July and until we go back into production in August. It’s a frenetic schedule but all of us are up for the challenge and excited to continue to deliver great shows.

“As a new venture we felt obligated to address the needs of our viewers head on and to make adjustments that we think will work for our viewers. And as always, we thank you for your continued support and encouragement.”

The full statement can be read here.