The Death of Soap Operas

[ljacks13]

The Death of Soap Operas

By Cynthia C. Scott

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/4...oap_operas.html

It goes without saying that daytime soap operas are a dying breed. Like Westerns before it, soaps are a peculiarly American invention, and yet they are fast losing the power they once had to entertain audiences. This has little to do with the fact that Americans no longer find continual storytelling interesting forms of entertainment. Indeed, most of primetime television has adopted continual storytelling as part of their narrative arcs. Ever since the CBS primetime soap Dallas became a ratings smash during the eighties, televisions series as disparate as Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere have used narrative arcs as forms of storytelling, borrowing directly from a genre that has used continual storytelling with far greater efficiency. Now, shows like Grey's Anatomy, Lost, and others are using this storytelling form with greater depth, while daytime soaps are fast abandoning it for shorter arcs, often lasting no more than a few weeks. In the past, fairy tale romances and family secrets would take years to resolve, but now soap writers and producers, fearing an ever greater fickle daytime audience, resolve their stories far too quickly. Other soaps treat each story as though they were telenovelas, with none of the stories of the past having any affect on the stories of the present, and the stories of the present having absolutely no affect on future tales. In other words, character development, which was painstakingly told on daytime soaps, are thrown out of the window as motivations and personalities are fitted for whatever plot is currently on canvas.

The sad state of soap storytelling has now affected ratings as fans leave their favorite soaps in drove. How did daytime soaps come to this? Many people have their speculations. The industry has famously blamed the O.J. Simpson trial of the mid-nineties for the ratings bleed. But even that explanation fails to hold water. Soaps have been notoriously pre-empted for other programming in the past, such as the Watergate hearings of the 1970s and the Iran-Contra Hearings and 1988 writer's strike of the '80s. And while these pre-emptions have had varying effects on the industry, fans still returned to their favorite soaps. Indeed, during the 1990s after the O.J. trial, the ratings for soaps were still fairly strong:

1996-1997 Season

1. The Young And The Restless 7.1

2. Days Of Our Lives 5.8

3. The Bold And The Beautiful 5.0

4. General Hospital 4.8

5. All My Children 4.7

7. As The World Turns 4.4

8. One Life To Live 4.0

9. Guiding Light 4.0

10. Another World 3.1

11. Port Charles 2.6

12. The City 2.0

12. Sunset Beach 1.8

1995-1996

1. The Young And The Restless 7.7

2. Days Of Our Lives 5.8

3. The Bold And The Beautiful 5.4

4. All My Children 5.3

5. General Hospital 4.7

6. One Life To Live 4.6

7. As The World Turns 4.4

8. Guiding Light 4.0

9. Another World 3.1

10. The City 2.3 [source: Soapoperanetwork.com]

The highest rated soap The Young And the Restless only saw a .7 percentage drop between the 1995-1996 and 1996-1997 seasons, while the other soaps maintained steady ratings and, in some cases, saw a rebound in ratings following the trial. Nonetheless, the perception that O.J. was affecting ratings in daytime had set off a wave of panic within the industry and network executives began tinkering with their programs to lure fans back. It was during this time that soaps began using gimmicks to attract fans. On Days of Our Lives, for instance, then headwriter James E. Reilly scored a ratings hit with the story of the show's heroine Marlena Black being possessed by the devil. Other networks, recognizing that they could appeal to younger demographics through these types of storylines began following suit. Yet many fans debate today whether these gimmicks eventually hurt the medium as the networks pursued more inane storylines that turned off long-term fans, many of whom were often the gateway to creating newer and younger fans through family interactions. Ask any soap fan how she started watching her favorite show and many will say that they began watching at the foot of their mother's, aunt's, or grandmother's feet. As older fans began ditching the shows, younger fans who would be interested in these shows saw few opportunities, outside of college, to watch.

A bigger reason why soaps are now a dying breed is that in the past soaps, like most television, were largely a writer's medium. Writers such as Irna Phillips, the dean of all soaps, Agnes Nixon, Harding LeMay, Douglas Marland, Henry Slesar and others had enormous control over storyline directions. And while many of these writers were still beholden to network executive dictations, they were still given freedom to determine storyline and casting decisions. That changed during the late 1970s when executive producer Gloria Monty singlehandedly saved the ABC serial General Hospital from cancellation by modernizing story pacing and by bringing cinematic conventions to daytime. Afterwards, the executive producer became the real visionary of daytime. Though writers continued to exercise some control over storylines during the 1980s, by the '90s and '00s that medium became largely the visions of executive producers as writers were shuffled from one soap to the next, creating a schizophrenic identity for each soap from which none has ever quite recovered. In the case of ABC soaps, each show is now under the micromanagement control of head of daytime Brian Frons, whose vision for the shows blurs out any distinction in favor of bland homogeneity.

Decisions regarding storylines, casting, production, etc. are now determined by whether they'll appeal to younger demographics under the misguided notion that younger viewers are only interested in watching stories and characters that vainly reflect their own realities. This means that older, veteran characters much beloved by longtime fans are now being shoved to the backburner or written off entirely to make way for younger actors, many of whom were cast for their various good looks and not for their acting skills. These various decisions have dumbed down the medium and earned it the stereotypical reputation that non-soap viewers have regarded it over the years. Bad acting and wildly implausible storylines now rule the day as executive producers attempt their desperate bids to goose up anemic ratings. Their efforts end up resulting in what online fans are now speculating is the self-fulfilling prophesies of the networks to do away with soap operas entirely. For years, fans of the P&G soaps have long speculated that the company wants to get out of the soap industry entirely by purposely undermining the shows under their production (Another World, Guiding Light, As the World Turns), despite the company's many pleas to the contrary.

Another reason why soap ratings are plunging is also due to the Internet. While fans have long bemoaned the readily available spoilers found on the Internet for ruining daytime since fans know ahead of time what will happen on their favorite shows and choose to watch or not watch, I contend that the Internet has hurt daytime in other ways. Largely, the Internet has offered like-minded fans to congregate and talk about their favorite characters or couples. This has created the illusion among fans about their power as viewers, using the internet as a means to control and dictate stories on their favorite shows, often to the detriment of the show's overall health. Fans have long rumored that these fanbases will game soap magazine fan polls to make their favorite couple or characters more popular than they are, often encouraging members of these fanbases to vote more than once in these polls. Other fanbases have even been known to send gifts to headwriters or send in letter-writing campaigns to win the favor of these PTB. Executive producers, believing that these fanbases represent a healthy number of their show's fans, were eager to please them by keeping characters or supercouples on the frontburner at the expense of other characters and storylines. One well-known example of this was on Guiding Light, when fans of the supercouple Matt and Vanessa were vehemently vocal about the show's direction of the couple. Actor Robert Newman (Josh Lewis) even warned fans at the time to be careful what they ask for, and indeed, eventually the show wrote Matt and Vanessa off the show when their hands were tied over the characters' direction. Yet despite how vocal fanbases were for their favorite characters and couples, it became apparent that their numbers, no matter how inflated, didn't actually compute into higher ratings. Likewise, whenever producers and writers did respond to fan input, these fans never seemed satisfied with story directions either, creating an impression that they were never happy no matter what the show did. I suspect, in the long run, producers and writers soon began tuning out viewer dissatisfaction because of this, now to the point where TPTB refuse to listen even when fans have valid reasons for their displeasure.

But the PTB's overreliance on focus polls and the misguided conventional wisdom of what fans want, in the long run, is what's destroying the creativity of the medium. Now soaps are merely written in a paint-by-numbers fashion, with the same stories being repeated over and over again to increasing fan dissatisfaction. In the end, it is the vision and control of the producers who are to blame for the genre's sad state of affairs.

[YRBB]

That is a very interesting read and I have to say that I agree....

[stenbeck212]

It's a convenient scapegoat, but when TPTB solicit focus groups it's just fine. Nobody but them can be blamed for their refusal to empower the ARTISTS who make the shows happen. The "illusion" of power is truly just that. I certainly never felt like I was being listened to as a fan. And even so, what group of people on a message board put out the collective message that they want to see writing which ignores continuity, history, production values and common sense so the ratings will plummet?

[Wales2004]

I don't think it's that they collectively say they want to ignore history et al, I think it's more like they want to see their favorite couple on five days a week. Accomodating that sort of thing leads to the other problems. At the end of the day, even though these groups of fans or focus groups may influence the direction somwhat, it's still on the people in charge to put together a good show. They definitely make these groups scapegoats by saying that we gave you what you wanted. I think the focus groups are mainly used to justify the things that the execs want to do so that when it fails they can claim they were only responding to the focus groups. Since the viewers aren't privy to the focus group data, they can pretty much claim it says whatever they want.

[whyamcwhy]

This article is BRILLIANT!!!! I really believe that the decisions that TIIC have made over the years to go after the younger demographic at all costs is what hurt the soap genre the most. The went so far off course thinking that plot driven storylines would make a difference but I think it has destroyed the shows. The lack of diversity and the fact that vets are being fired or backburnered, especially women over the age of 40, take away the sense of realism and family out of soaps. There is no respect for the viewing audience or the history of the shows anymore.

I really agree about the part where shows are paying to much attention to certain fanbases and letting them drive the storylines. It limits characters and storylines to the point where non-fans grow incredibly bored with the show. And I imagine the actors do to. I wish TIIC in charge would stop letting certain fans pressure them and do what is really best for storylines and letting the show and characters progress. I can think of a certain soap who has catered to a certain fanbase of a pairing and the ratings have steadily declined since the pairing.

I think this a great article and I would love for Frons and the other suits to read it. I doubt they would listen but maybe they are at the point where they would. What they are doing now truly isn't working.

[NYC123]

Great Read

Everything was on the DOT!

[StephanieLover17]

soaps will never die, they are in a big slump but will rebound soon. The 2 soaps that will never die is General Hospital and Days of our lives. GH is at its best IMO with the mob wars, well it has more gunfights and more action.

IMO days of our lives is at its best in a long while. Days is actually a soap and not a cartoon like it was under Reilly. The only soap that is dead is passions.

SOAPS WILL NEVER DIE, NEVER I SAY especially days and GH.

I don't think its because the soaps whats to go after the teens Demos, i think that is an excuse. If One Tree Hill can go after the teens and be successful, why can't days of our lives, one life to live or General Hospital.

The teens are the only reason i watch Days and GH, well more Jason Morgan on GH. On days, i love all the teens Max/Morgan/Stephanie/Chelsea/Ford especially Chelsea. But saying days is nothing but teens is kinda stretching it, since the beginning of November or october, they have only been on 1-2 times per week which sucks, the show is all about Sami Brady but hey i love it because Allison Sweeney is a great actress and is a 14 year vet. If Days was nothing but EJAMI for years to come, i will be fine with that.

Chelsea/Stephanie/Morgan/Max etc is the best teen scene days had since Mimi/Belle/Shawn/Philip/Chloe in 1999-2003. The sorority story is not just steriotypic sorority girls, it is becoming about friendship and how to deal with Ford Decker. When this story is over, Morgan/Stephanie and Chelsea will become better or great of friends.

[whyamcwhy]

Stefanie, I don't know if you have heard or read what has been posted about Days in the past but more than likely it will not be renewed and will be gone before or around 2009. NBC has made it clear that they are not interested in soaps anymore. And considering how lackluster the ratings have been for the show I wouldn't be surprised if it is canceled. Anything could happen but the outlook for Days isn't good. Sorry.

[StephanieLover17]

there is always ABC/CBS or Soapnet or Fox is getting in the soap business what i heard

[Max]

I firmly believe that daytime is dying. And, as much as I hate to say this, I will really not be all that terribly sad when all of the remaining soaps go off the air, since daytime today is nothing but garbage.

Despite being convinced that daytime is going to die soon, I must say that--given the horrible ratings of recent years--I am extremely surprised that eight years has passed since a long-running soap has been cancelled. Honestly, I was convinced that GL would have been cancelled back in 2004. Of course, I was wrong, and I was wrong again when GL was not cancelled last year.

[Gray Bunny]

Why would the article list a comparison between seasons 95/96 to 96/97 when the OJ saga began in the summer of 1994? The trial ended in October 2005, mean the previous season would've been affected by the trial much moreso than 1995-1996. The OJ Simpson trial DID affect nearly ALL soaps in viewership. Is that the reason why daytime's dying today? No, but they shouldn't pooh-pooh the fact that the trial took a major hit on the soaps.

(From The Soap Opera Encyclopedia)

1993-1994 (pre-OJ)

Young & Restless 8.6

All My Children 6.6

General Hospital 6.2

Bold & Beautiful 6.1

As the World Turns 5.8

One Life to Live 5.6

Days of Our Lives 5.6

Guiding Light 5.4

Another World 3.5

Loving 2.7

1994-1995 (OJ trial began in early January '95)

Young & Restless 7.5

All My Children 6.1

General Hospital 5.6

Bold & Beautiful 5.5

One Life to Live 5.4

Days of Our Lives 5.3

As the World Turns 5.1

Guiding Light 4.4

Another World 3.1

Loving 2.3

[bellcurve]

ABC/CBS can barely keep their own lineups afloat! SOAPnet has clearly shown they are not interested in daytime soaps because they piss poorly manage the ones they own and acquire. And if FOX were so interested in a daytime lineup, they would have eagerly picked up the telenovela concept or made a series out of FASHION HOUSE(which was, arguably, the most recognizable of the six that aired).

And the only way I can even remotely see NBC adding another soap to its lineup is via its syndication arm. And even THEN, the costs would be too high!

[NeoAngelicLiz]

Is Fashion House still on air?

I only ask cuz I think I saw a clip of it in Best Buy when I was shopping for an HDTV...it was kinda interesting.

[bellcurve]

Answer 1: No. It was a telenovela that ended its run around the beginning of December last year. Lasted for three months.

Answer 2: Are you for real?! REALLY?! What were they advertising for it?! It wouldn't be a DVD release, otherwise everyone and their mom would have heard about it by now.

[NeoAngelicLiz]

Thanks for the quick answer!

And as for your 2nd answer I'm like 90% sure it was Fashion House they were showing on screen. It wasn't like an ad for a product related to the show. They were just showing how crisp and fully detailed everything looks in High Definition.

The scene revolved around some Latino/Hispanic guy and a girl I guess he was interested in? Apparently he was the teacher (or maybe student) in an art class. He brought the girl to the class and I think she was sat in.

Sorry if its vague but I was really just browsing and looking at the specs of the tvs...comparing the prices you know. So I don't remember everything fully.