Crossover Crisis
home and more often than not, it shows. Which means only a very select few characters really would survive a move and is not something to be done willy-nilly. And that's only considering what those characters can bring to a new canvas, we haven't even discussed what their leaving does to the canvas they were originally a part of. But if a soap wants their own Sheila Carter, Jake McKinnon, or Skye Chandler, why the heck don't they just create a character of their own that embodies the qualities they admire (or envy) in that character? I don't expect those money-crunching executives upstairs to understand that a character with a similar personality with an equally talented actor would fit the bill just as well. But I do expect them to notice a string of crossover failures and take note. And after the obvious ratings motivation, writers can't seriously believe they need those specific characters to add to their canvas. Do any fans out there ever actively think if only one character was put on another show, that show would soar? Even if the best characters ever were to join the poorest soap, what on earth could they specifically bring? And written by a different writer, who is to say that character will keep his or her essence for very long? More often than not, they don't, they quickly become unrecognizable.
Now ABC has led the way in crossover evolution in that they merge the soaps instead of merely transplanting a character or two. The current crossover story on AMC and OLTL already has a strike against it in that people don't like the story. Who knows, perhaps if Bianca hadn't already gone through Job-like suffering and if Babe was a much more established character, AMC fans wouldn't be up in arms. Perhaps if Kevin, Paul, and Kelly were really established in their roles instead of brand spanking new actors in so-so characterizations, OLTL fans would care what happens. Instead the shows are just taking one controversial twist and sticking it onto a really tepid story idea on another. It's just outright a bad crossover.
But let's say for the sake of argument, that the story was fantastic and fans from both soaps were hooked. One thing I've learned about fans of a particular soap, if they watch only one soap, that's gonna be the only soap they are going to watch, period.
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