Prospect Park Abandons Plans for All My Children, Focuses on One Life to Live

Prospect Park has decided not to launch the internet version of All My Children in January 2012 as originally scheduled. Instead, the company plans to focus its efforts on One Life to Live.

Fans of All My Children are being jerked around yet again. After the daytime show was canceled in April and aired its final ABC broadcast on September 23, it was supposed to be revived on the internet. Unfortunately, the plan has changed.

According to ABC Soaps in Depth, Prospect Park has scrapped the plan for an online version of the much-loved soap despite having acquired the licensing rights. The company has decided to focus on just one soap instead of two, with One Life to Live being the winner.

Soap Central reports that the decision was due to finances, with Prospect Park thus far unable to raise the funds necessary to launch both shows on The Online Network in January. By dropping one show, the company will need half the original total of $85 million. This is a huge savings, but is it worth losing the fans' trust?

Contract negotiations with the cast of All My Children were going very slowly, which made it hard to plan for the January launch. In fact, only two cast members had signed contracts, while many others were already moving on to other ventures. Cameron Mathison (Ryan Lavery) and Lindsay Hartley (Cara Castillo) were prepared to join the online version and had even confirmed their intentions by signing contracts, and although some others were still negotiating, nothing had been settled. In fact, Susan Lucci (Erica Kane) had not yet agreed to a deal with Prospect Park. Could All My Children survive without the great Erica Kane?

It's possible that Prospect Park will eventually reconsider this decision, but it's certainly unlikely that the show would premiere in January as originally planned. Meanwhile, plans for One Life to Live are allegedly still on track.

By focusing their efforts on one show, it's still possible for Prospect Part to launch One Life to Live in January as scheduled. Although many actors have declined to continue with the online version of either show, the number of confirmed cast members on One Life to Live far exceeds that of All My Children.

All My Children's television broadcast ended with a huge cliffhanger, and One Life to Live is likely to do the same. However, if One Life to Live is eventually canceled before making it to the internet, the writers will probably have a chance to wrap up all the storylines. All My Children's writers didn't get that opportunity, and if the show doesn't eventually resurface, the fans will never know exactly what happened after JR Chandler pulled the trigger and the shot rang out.