GLATWT88

Makes a lot of sense. Thank you for the thorough response. Must be why 90s soaps like Melrose and 90210 also had large episode orders. I also recall reading that Desperate Housewives would have significant drops in audience figures on repeat episodes compared to other programs.

Thanks everyone. This was insightful. I also noticed that primetime soaps had more episodes per season than other programming on primetime at the time. I thought it was due to popularity, but The Cosby Show or Murder, She Wrote never had a 28+ episode season. Meanwhile, Dallas, Dynasty, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest, Hotel did...was this for storytelling purposes on primetime soaps?

I noticed that the 1984/5 season was the peak for primetime soaps in the 80s. All the soaps seem to experience a significant drop the next season. Do we have any theories or solid reasons for why this happened?

Yes, the red carpet was cringe, but it was mostly due to the awkward interactions and bad dialogue. Even if these interviews were on a local access channel, as mentioned before, are any of these people noteworthy in town. I feel like they could do with the red carpet since it's a big event and to show off the fashions (even though half the town was wearing a different variation of the same dress). Then, interview the mayor and a few notable townspeople, but randomly interviewing nurses was just weird. Unless it served some greater purpose, like wanting to interview and highlight important people at the hospital, but they were being asked questions as if they were celebs on a red carpet. The performances are fine. I see it as hospital staff putting on a talent show in an effort to raise money. I feel like they come across a little too serious sometimes. And maybe they don't have to highlight the performances as much...just one or two and have storyline evolve during the event. I mean has the nurses ball ever been used to do a large scale surprise engagement or for example for this 60th honor a GH vet and include flashbacks etc. Sometime that is positive especially surrounding such an important event.

Thanks, I was curious how old the episode was.

I don't really follow GH much these days and have picked up due to the anniversary. The affiliate in SF yesterday aired an episode with Mac in the hospital and Laura Wright's husband's character with a baby in the car (seems like he was on the run, could be wrong).

It would have been cute if they just used the ambulance opening to commemorate the anniversary and segue into the current opening if they had to. It wouldn't need to be edited much since there are no faces.

There were so many awkward and cringey moments and I'm not sure why. I tuned in hoping for something fun and it was a let down.

I see a lot of viewers calling for a double shantay in the Marcia 3x and Anetra lip sync. I agree that it could have easily been a double shantay as their performances were incredible making it a really close call. However, many people called Ru out for her reluctance to eliminate last season, so if there are no double shantays this season then Marcia going home was the right choice IMO. While both were phenomenal, I think Anetra had a slight edge.

I always hoped that GL and ATWT had a proper crossover storyline. The Springfield PD and Oakdale PD working together on some murder mystery. Starr Manning crossover to AMC as an intern at Fusion Cosmetics. Although, I don't know if Fusion was a thing in 2010 (around which time Starr would be college aged) as I was no longer watching then. It would be a great opportunity for writers to take the character in many directions.

Firstly, sorry if this has been posted about already. I know that GL had a novel produced around the character of Jonathan. I was a bit surprised since around 2007 GL was on its last legs. Are there any other instances of this with other soaps or characters?

Thank you @Soapsuds and @Paul Raven. I figured that it might have been a mix of timeslot competition and general viewer fatigue. 8 seasons is a great run for a comedy show. I also wondered if the height of the AIDS epidemic may have made an impact that final year, as more awareness was being drawn to this "gay illness" and maybe viewers didn't want to be reminded or see that representation even if it was a straight character playing pretend.

Does anyone know what impacted Three's Company final season ratings? It was a top ten show every other season with the exception of its six episode first season, but even so that first season finished in 11th place. It was a big drop from 6th place in season 7 to 33rd in season 8. Was it just viewer fatigue or was there more to this?

GL: small town-y, wealthy and working class families, a big focus was family and family dynamic. I started watching around 2003, so my perception may be different. I feel like a lot issues from 2003-2007 when I mostly watched centered around family.

That's horrible! I'm no Caroline fan, but this is just wrong on so many levels and absolutely unjustifiable. I was here a really thinking Brandi did the Lords work and called out Caroline on writing the court letter for her sister's abusive ex-husband, but of course not. She just needs to stoop to the lowest point.

Didn't know where else to post this, but I keep seeing this idea that BB will outlast the other soaps because of its appeal and reach in international markets. While I know this is true and definitely held weight in the 90s and early 2000s - how fair of an assessment and statement is that really. I feel like it is a comment that is regurgitated but no real data is there to back it up. I do think that international markets might help BB to be the last remaining soap, I just don't believe those markets are really doing as much nowadays to keep BB alive as we think. Streaming and social media apps are prevalent all over the world and people are seeking entertainment through these outlets. Traditional TV viewing has changed everywhere and young audiences aren't watching daily soaps be that in the US or internationally. So I can't imagine BB not experiencing dwindling audiences in its international markets as it has in the US. Im also sure several markets have dropped it in recent years...so how fair is it to say that international money will help keep it afloat. Is there real data to support this?

When I first started watching soaps regularly 20 years ago, I would have told you that soaps could be saved. Cable, the internet, and a dwindling demographic of stay-at-home moms ate away at the ratings, but numbers weren't all bad. Besides the reality was that ratings were on a decline for most network TV anyway. Things could have been done then to save soaps, but in today's viewing landscape of streaming and "fast tv" soaps in a traditional sense seem to be a thing of the past. An amazing and treasured thing we have all loved at one point, but definitely on life support with an end in sight.

To be completely honest, I was surprised it took a whole decade before network TV lost another soap. I feel that the CBS soaps will last a while longer but conditions, budgets and quality will be limited.

I caught today's episode on W. I'm living abroad and seeing as I won't be able to watch on NBC anymore, I managed to get a stream of W channel. Why was everyone passing out today? Is it something stupid? Why can't Days do a serious storyline...

Just to add to this. I would love for GH to do a special series with fan favorites for its 60th anniversary.

General Hospital was the first (that I recall) to venture into the spin off series category with Night Shift. I remember it being quite successful on SoapNet. Now, Days seems to be doing well with its limited series, Beyond Salem, at least it seems so as it was picked up for a second installment. Is there potential for YR and BB to develop their own programming of this style? I do feel like Days and GH both have the best reach for these types of shows, as they seemed to do well in the key demo through the 90s and early 2000s. I think there's a market for those that may have stopped watching around then for whatever reason but might still have nostalgia about their soaps and are young enough to be on streaming platforms. I know that YR and BB also perform/ed well on these demos but the audience just seems older and more traditional to me - but I may be wrong.

The platform is gonna be dead before Days even makes it on there 😂

I remember being confused the first time I tried to watch live post-switch and Days wasn't on at it's usual time. I actually thought it got cancelled and I didn't know about it 🙃 However, the change from 1pm to 12pm doesn't seem like a huge shift to make for viewers. Especially, since it only directly competes with half hour of YR at its new time. Now GL definitely had to be impacted by moving from a mid-afternoon slot to the morning.

I agree. My initial and gut feeling is that this is a way to get rid of Days. I also didn't mean that they would turn Days into a telenovela in a traditional sense, but some telenovelas nowadays have multiple seasons or series. So instead of Days producing 200+ daily episodes. Stories can be condensed to a telenovela of 120+ episodes that are released all at once to viewers each year. Stories can have a set course and some can wrap by the end of the season - taking viewers through a story beginning to end, while other stories can be left to pick up on the next season. It would reduce the number of episodes produced, but also create content that is more accessible to the modern viewer

You're right...anything is possible. There's nothing in the announcement that says Days will continue with its original format of 5 hour long episodes per week. I can see Peacock doing more of these 5 episode specials like Beyond Salem or maybe producing something more similar to a telenovela with 80-150 episodes per year "book" style and release all the episodes at once on a yearly basis. Netflix has heavily invested in telenovelas lately and they've found great success.