Love Is A Many Splendored Thing (TV Series) - Broadcast History

Broadcast History

Love is a Many Splendored Thing owed its existence to CBS daytime head Fred Silverman, who openly favored serials over game shows. Its predecessor at 2:00 PM Eastern/1 Central was the original run of Password, which had run aground against NBC's serial Days of our Lives and ABC's The Newlywed Game. Despite high hopes on the network's part, Love is a Many Splendored Thing struggled against that competition as well. On September 11, 1972, CBS moved the show down one hour as part of a sweeping schedule change prompted by Procter & Gamble's desire for all of its soaps to run back-to-back in one block. Shortly before the time change, the show had changed its emphasis from a love story to one of political intrigue and blackmail. Although the series had maintained fairly strong ratings throughout its run, averaging an 8.5 rating and 29% share, LIAMST struggled against NBC's Another World, one of daytime's most popular programs. On February 12, 1973, CBS announced that Love is a Many Splendored Thing would end its run on March 23.

As has usually happened to network soaps, the lead characters on Love is a Many Splendored Thing were recast multiple times. Within a few years, star players Charleson, Birney, and Mills all departed, and even those recasts were then recast several more times. Talented replacements such as Bibi Besch could not make up for a sense of fatigue that the constant casting changes wrought. The program shifted towards other characters, such as the strong-willed Betsy Chernak Taylor (Andrea Marcovicci), and complex storylines involving politics and blackmail, but the show was not recovering ratings quickly enough for CBS.

CBS replaced Love is a Many Splendored Thing (via a scheduling shuffle involving The Price is Right) with a new game show, The $10,000 Pyramid. In an unusual conincidence, both the show's predecessor and successor were word association games created by the same man, Bob Stewart.