February 20, 2006 The Most Important Discussion in the
Entertainment Industry?  A really interesting discussion has
been taking place on the official Procter & Gamble Productions
message board for Guiding Light, based on a comment made by a
PGP moderator on the board on what the fans mean to the show in
the overall business scheme, and where the online fan community
stands in contrast to the Nielsen ratings. In many ways, I think
it is a discussion that should be happening not on the boards of
fan communities but in the offices of the sponsors behind these
programs.  To give you a short recap. The moderator, Alina,
stated that "a headwriter's job is to make the sponsors happy.
They're the customers who pay the bills" and that "the only way
to gauge fan happiness is ratings (message boards, magazine
polls and Emmys are nice, but they mean nothing if the numbers
aren't there)." Fans were upset by Alina's comments, believing
that this process is backward and that making fans happy should
in turn lead to maximum