When all is said and done, the Oliver Fish-Kyle Lewis love story will go down as one of the best gay storylines ever not only on daytime television, but on television period.
And ABC’s final handling of the duo will go down as one of the poorest and worst-handled decisions in the history of the genre. Actor Scott Evans (Oliver) found out he was being written out by reading it on Twitter while Brett Claywell (Kyle) was told when he dropped by the studio with his Emmy submission tape.
The new issue of TV Guide Magazine has a quote from ABC Daytime PR chief Jori Petersen that makes me even more furious: The Kish story did not have the appeal we hoped it would. We are going to spend our time on stories that have a more favorable reaction from our audience.”
The show’s ratings are already in the cellar and I cannot tell you how alienating this is.
Perhaps if the show would simply had told the story instead of having a huge group wedding that included Dorian Lord pretending to be a lesbian to get elected mayor, Kish could have developed in a more natural way letting these guys have a real relationship.
But ABC has panicked and jettisoned the entire thing. It is so disrespectful to the fans. Also, it feels like Kish is a scapegoat since their story coincided with a lot of airtime for toxic villains Stacy (Crystal Hunt) and Mitch (Roscoe Born).
“From the beginning, Scott and I were uneasy about that big gay political wedding,” Claywell admits. “We were telling a slow, subtle love story about two guys who just happened to be gay. We didn’t want to make it in-your-face, which is what the wedding was. It pulled us away from what we were trying to do. We wanted to exist separately from that. It was too much and, in a way, Scott and I became the sacrificial lambs.”
Jamey Giddens, editorial director of the popular Daytime Confidential web site, hits the nail on the head in telling TV Guide why Kish fans are so upset: “We know that, at the end of the day, soaps are a business, but I wouldn’t want to cater to an audience that was upset about watching a young, gay couple who were committed to each other and leading good lives. To end things this way leaves a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouths. To make the gay characters the scapegoats and to not give them a proper send-off is Bad PR 101. It’s a recipe to anger and enrage a fan base that’s been loyal and supportive of the show. Those fans might not be the core demographic OLTL wants but you’d think in this day and age—when everyone is worried about their ratings—that every eyeball ought to matter.”
And ABC’s final handling of the duo will go down as one of the poorest and worst-handled decisions in the history of the genre. Actor Scott Evans (Oliver) found out he was being written out by reading it on Twitter while Brett Claywell (Kyle) was told when he dropped by the studio with his Emmy submission tape.
The new issue of TV Guide Magazine has a quote from ABC Daytime PR chief Jori Petersen that makes me even more furious: The Kish story did not have the appeal we hoped it would. We are going to spend our time on stories that have a more favorable reaction from our audience.”
The show’s ratings are already in the cellar and I cannot tell you how alienating this is.
Perhaps if the show would simply had told the story instead of having a huge group wedding that included Dorian Lord pretending to be a lesbian to get elected mayor, Kish could have developed in a more natural way letting these guys have a real relationship.
But ABC has panicked and jettisoned the entire thing. It is so disrespectful to the fans. Also, it feels like Kish is a scapegoat since their story coincided with a lot of airtime for toxic villains Stacy (Crystal Hunt) and Mitch (Roscoe Born).
“From the beginning, Scott and I were uneasy about that big gay political wedding,” Claywell admits. “We were telling a slow, subtle love story about two guys who just happened to be gay. We didn’t want to make it in-your-face, which is what the wedding was. It pulled us away from what we were trying to do. We wanted to exist separately from that. It was too much and, in a way, Scott and I became the sacrificial lambs.”
Jamey Giddens, editorial director of the popular Daytime Confidential web site, hits the nail on the head in telling TV Guide why Kish fans are so upset: “We know that, at the end of the day, soaps are a business, but I wouldn’t want to cater to an audience that was upset about watching a young, gay couple who were committed to each other and leading good lives. To end things this way leaves a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouths. To make the gay characters the scapegoats and to not give them a proper send-off is Bad PR 101. It’s a recipe to anger and enrage a fan base that’s been loyal and supportive of the show. Those fans might not be the core demographic OLTL wants but you’d think in this day and age—when everyone is worried about their ratings—that every eyeball ought to matter.”
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