More regarding ABC soap cancellations--the fix was in and public kept in the dark.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/04/abc-daytime-chief-on-why-amc-oltl-were-axed-general-hospital-katie-couric/

And here's a key passage from the article:
 The demise of the two venerable soaps was actually a year in the making, Frons tells me. "A year ago, we started to look at our projections where the ratings for the soaps would go," he said. When those projections came in pretty discouraging, the network began to aggressively develop replacement shows, 15 of them. Four of the 15 were picked up to pilot: The Chew, The Revolution and two others, a talk show and a dating show. Originally, the idea was to cancel only one daytime drama, Frons said. But "the way the ratings developed and the pilots turned out, the ratings developed negatively and pilots developed positively, so we decided to make a bigger shift."