All My Children and One Life to Live are headed back to television -- at least for a limited time. OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network has acquired the first 40 episodes of both series and these episodes will air during a special ten-week limited engagement.
"These shows have proven to be very popular with a significant, loyal fan base, not to mention Oprah herself is a big fan," said Erik Logan, president, OWN. "Many of our viewers across numerous platforms have expressed their passion for the soaps so we are especially excited to air this limited engagement on OWN."
Indeed, fans inundated the former talk show host with requests to save All My Children and One Life to Live after their 2011 cancellations by ABC. In a now infamous video, Oprah told fans that she would "not be taking on the responsibility to revive an institution that for all intent and all purpose indicates that that time has come for it to be over."
That responsibility fell squarely in the hands of media and production company Prospect Park, which, after some initial struggle, relaunched both All My Children and One Life to Live online on April 29. Episodes of both AMC and OLTL are currently and will remain available for free online viewing on Hulu, as well as through optional paid subscription services Hulu Plus and iTunes.
"We are really excited to bring OWN viewers and our audience at large an opportunity to catch up on All My Children and One Life to Live on traditional television," said Jeff Kwatinetz, CEO Prospect Park Networks. "We look forward to our millions of fans enjoying the first 40 episodes of the shows."
"For 2 years u posted, tweeted, Facebooked me... I heard you," Oprah shared on Twitter.
All My Children and One Life to Live have made available 26 episodes as of July 1. The shows' current "broadcast" schedules offer two new 30-minute episodes of each soap per week.
Half-hour episodes of the first 40 episodes of both All My Children and One Life to Live will air Monday through Thursday beginning Monday, July 15. All My Children will air at 1pm ET/PT and One Life to Live will air at 3 pm ET/PT. Half-hour encore episodes of the first 40 episodes of the online versions of both All My Children and One Life to Live will air Monday through Thursday starting Monday, July 15. A new episode of All My Children will air at 1pm ET/PT and the new installment of One Life to Live will air at 3pm ET/PT.
OWN has set up a two-hour block of each soap that will air Monday through Thursday. The schedule follows:
One Life to Live
2:00pm ET/PT: A previous OLTL episode
2:30pm ET/PT: The previous day's episode of OLTL
3:00pm ET/PT: The day's new episode of OLTL
3:30pm ET/PT: A repeat of the new episode of OLTL
All-new episodes will continue to air online on Hulu, Hulu Plus, and iTunes.
OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network is the first and only network named for, and inspired by, a single iconic leader. It is a joint venture between Harpo, Inc. and Discovery Communications. The network debuted on January 1, 2011, and is available in 85 million homes.
For information about how to view All My Children and One Life to Live online, click here.
