Predict what Soaps will be like in 5 years or sooner

[Darlotto99]

okay which soaps do you think will be still around in 5 years or sooner? what soap will be canceled or will they merge.

I think a shake up is coming by the end up 09

here's my pick

CBS

Y&R will absorbe B&B and will be come the first ever hour and half soap opera (I think the first lol). after the B&B vet's retire the soap is not good enough to survive.

GL will be gone at the end of the year with some cast member's going to ATWT.

Y&R/B&B and ATWT will be the last soaps of CBS current soap line up.

ABC

GH will be the sole survivor of ABC soaps in the current format.

OLTL and AMC will be merged to become All My Life's to Live with an all star cast of both soaps

NBC

Day's will be canceled by NBC and Ken Korday will move the soap to CBS.

Day's and Y&R are both half owned by Sony and they already have a relationship with CBS to me that is the place Day's will end up once GL is cancelled. it open's up a spot for Day's in the CBS line up once GL is gone.

CBS

Y&R/B&B

ATWT

DAY's

ABC

GH

All My Life's to Live

what do you think is going to happen to the land scape of daytime?

[Adam]

This topic has been beat to death almost as much as the word hack around here.... enough is enough.....

[DaytimeFan]

Although I'll use the word 'hack' till the end of time...I have to agree. This topic is bullsh*t and has been beaten to death. Kill this thread.

[All My Shadows]

They'll all be gone. Vast wasteland in daytime...no such thing as soap operas once 2014 comes.

ABC will have reruns of "Desperate Housewives," "Brothers & Sisters," and "Grey's Anatomy" in the daytime. "The View" will be sent to SOAPnet, upon which all of the co-hosts will leave, thus ending the show. NBC will no longer exist as a TV network in any form, so not only will there be no NBC Daytime, but there will also be no NBC Primetime. The only NBC show to still exist would be "30 Rock," which will air in 5-minute episodes on cellphones. It'll still win all comedy Emmys. CBS Daytime will consist of new daytime versions of "CSI" and "Survivor," both set in nursing homes.

[josephm68]

i would not bet guiding light out just yet...it's currently the best soap on tv....in many respects. i'm kinda tired of the negativity towards this show...and it's quite apparent that people are just knocking it (i'm not talking about the starter of this thread...they have a right to their opinion...i'm talking online in general), and are not watching the same show so many of us are right now.

[Max]

All of the soaps (aside from GL) will still be on the air five years from now. Despite the fact that ratings will continue to fizzle, the soaps will remain on the air because (1) the networks do not want to give back more time to their affiliates and (2) the networks fear that any replacement programming (they may have for soaps) will get even lower ratings than the soaps have.

Despite the fact that I am a pessimist myself, all of this doom and gloom is completely unfounded. Just look at recent history: each year the soap ratings get progressively worse, and yet each year all of the long running soaps continue to survive.

[Soapsuds]

I agree on both counts. I hate these kind of threads.

[jimmyk311]

Since it seems like a lot of posters here are in a bad mood, I put my 2 cents in this topic.

Where will soaps be in 5 years? I think it depends on what actions the networks and the soaps will take to keep them on the air. Will the soaps look the same? Do they want to keep the cast they have? Will there be another writer's or actor's strike? Can the soaps still relied on the international or local revenues they get? Do the owners want to keep their soaps when their contract with the network is up? Do the owners want to invest the money to keep their soaps? and so on...

All those questions and others need to be factor in right now since the budget and licensing fees from those soaps are reducing like almost every year or when their renewal is up. I don't see a lot of soaps maintaining the drawing power they have with the viewers or the production quality if the daytime dramas unless they think of other formats and revenues or demographics to boosts their market value. Kissing ass to the SOW, SID, and SOD mags of the world with spoilers and fake interviews isn't going to save them or this genre.

I know a lot of internet soap fans think the future of daytime dramas is on the internet but I have to disagree. I know fans love web soaps such as Life In General or Imaginary Bitches but I think those kind of shows only appeal to soap fans who are "in the know" and not the general public, and for me, I didn't enjoy neither web shows. Also, there's the issue with money and where the money would come from; would the advertisers be willing to invest hundreds of millions of dollars for a 250 episodes-52 weeks-38 minutes-5 days a week business model for the web? Will the production companies want to do that? Probably not and why should they? They been to busy watching The View and making PS3s to worry about saving their soaps.

I doubt cable TV would want to jump into the daytime dramas business. Currently, cable networks love to live on the cheap as much as they can and reduced as much losses they invest into a cable show as they can, and since soaps require a lot money losses and the reruns of old soaps haven't done so well on other cable network, it would probably be a long time before we see a new 5 days-a-week soap or soap lineup in daytime on cable. SoapNet had a good thing with GH Night Shift but I don't believe the execs have the best interest for that show or invest the money or time get that show more exposure. Even SoapNet back off from being a soap network.

Today, the daytime dramas climate has become too agenda driven and over critical that it scared new viewers from being soap fans and that where the heart of the problem is.

As for whether the 8 soaps will be on the air in the five years? I can see GL being canned this time around or later, I'm tired of soap fans want to give these soaps a free pass for their bad business decisions over the years and not being punished for it. I can understand keeping a low-rated show when it's a cash cow, but I don't see GL being a cash cow. And, P&G has a better excuse to cancel one of the longest running soap on TV ever before "because of the economy." ATWT falls into the same faith as GL, but I can see P&G keeping them a while longer for product placement and ATWT have a much more stable time slot than GL.

With ABC soaps, they could be in more danger then any of the soaps on the air now in the next five years. Unless a major overhaul happened from the top to each one of their shows, I don't see any of their shows staying on the air. Frons have too much going on for himself to stabilize the ratings for his soaps and make money from them.

Days is a goner unless SONY and Corday can get their act together with what they want out of this show. Sure, the ratings are stable and not going down but only time will tell a different story and SONY has a history of cutting their losses if there isn't no sustainable profits are shown, so DAYS could be gone when their 18 month renewal is up.

And lastly, the Bell soaps, Y&R and B&B, some fans out there said those two will be the last remaining US soaps on TV, but I don't know, TV executives are funny about those kind of things; what we think will be the last US soap on the air, may not be to them. I wouldn't be surprised if CBS don't renew their contract to air the Bell soaps on CBS or see SONY dropping Y&R and DAYS as a owner. Look at what's happening to the company that runs SOD and SOW.

In the next five years, it will be interested to look where the daytime landscape will look like. Will all 8 soap operas stay on the air? Maybe... but, I don't want the soaps to get anymore watered down as it is now. I would prefer all the soaps died out and create new ones when the network are serious about making money with them.

I don't believe in merger two soap operas; too much BTS politics will come out of that. But, I can a merger with the production and writing teams too save cost.

[Soapsuds]

Not in a bad mood but in a great mood! It's just this topic has been discussed until we are blue in the face.

[juniorz1]

UGH!

Totally agree with that statement. Somebody, quick! Turn this into a fanbase war so we can shut this sh!t down!

I'll give you a topic. Michelle Stafford threatened to leave Y&R if they made Phyllis go crazy and put Nick back with Sharon. Discuss.

[BadBoy93]

GH in 5 years....Port Charles will be destroyed by loads and loads of Bullets.It will be renamed Mob City and The Gangsters will shoot it out for thr Mayor position.

[DRW50]

Supposedly, GL does make money now. This after being run into the red by previous producers.

It's not the people who own GL who will be punished, it's the crew, the cast, and the fans, and daytime as a whole.

If we were going to cancel soaps based on punishment, then, even as bad as GL has been in some parts of this decade, I can name at least 3 soaps who would go long before GL does. And considering the anemic ratings for most of the soaps, GL isn't that far below ATWT or the ABC soaps, and it probably costs far less to produce than some of the ABC soaps.

[marceline]

I like these threads. It's good to see where people think the future of the genre lies.

[alwaysAMC]

Shouldn't it be 'All My Lives to Live'? Which still to me doesn't make since unless you're a....cat? "Life's" just doesn't seem....appropriate.

[Scotty]

But doesn't 'One Life for All My Children' sound better? Or how about 'All My Life to Live'?

But seriously though, these types of threads have been beaten to death. Literally.