Guiding Light Goes Reality TV
 

Any GL fans out there? The soap officially changes it's look this Friday, by shooting it more like "The Hills" than "XYZ Typical Soap." In an effort to keep up with today's reality trend, Guiding Light will be using handheld cameras, natural lighting, on-location sites, etc. It looks really different than any soap I've seen, and really cool.

Here's a clip to show you what I'm talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brZkgF10t_4

What do you guys think of the change? Do you think this will catch on to other soaps and series?

Do you watch ATWT as well? They already did this last year with "In Turn," a reality show aired online. The winner of In Turn won a 13 week contract with ATWT.

ATWT (also a part of the P&G family) switched to handhelds also last year. I've been a lifelong ATWT fan, but I guess I've been indifferent to it. I don't know if I like it or not...it's just...DIFFERENT, I guess.

Anyway, cutting costs seems to be the reason they're doing it this way to avoid going off the air.

This has NOTHING to do with the "reality trend." It is purely a cost-cutting move. The old pedestal cameras are about $1 million each, the hand-held cameras will cost at the most $200,000 for all of them. The producers are trying to spin it so that it looks like they're doing this voluntarily, but in truth, costs need to be cut to keep GL on the air at all. They've already trimmed several high-paid vets from the cast and reduced the number of sets they use.

dzfan, have you ever introduced yourself here?

We don't even get Guiding Light here. The Sacramento CBS affiliate stops airing soaps after As The World Turns

Wow that's interesting?! I haven't watched GL in years. Outta be a change. They are gonna still air in the daytime though, right?

That's so weird. Over here it goes: B&B, Guiding Light, Y&R, and ATWT.

Wow! I used to watch GL every day YEARS ago. I haven't seen it in forever and I love that some of the characters are still there! The new format actually looks pretty cool and should bring a really different feel from the old, stale soap sets. I bet it's more fun for the casts to shoot that way, too.

It's different, and definitely not like the cheesy soap opera stereotypical camera zoom in (think Joey Tribbiani as Dr. Drake Ramore on DAYS).

Yes - it'll still be on same time, same place (though clearly it's on different times all over the country!) but it'll just be a new look. It debuts this Friday, 2/29.