Why don't soaps go back to 30 minutes?

[JONNYSBRO]

Honestly to stop the bleeding and reduce production costs, I think all networks should have every soap except Y&R go back to a half an hour. They have half the cast, quicker faster paced show and they could save alot of money by doing this. Soaps were better when they were 30 minutes not an hour. This way the network can develop cheaper shows along with it as well. IMO this would be a huge answer to alot of people's problems.

[Rakesh]

I've been saying the exact same thing for like a year now.

[Manny]

Sure. If it's not Y&R going to 30 minutes, then I'm all for it

[cct]

It's something about it's not really cost-effective.

I forget who on SON's raison d'etre this is, but I'm sure they'll jump in here in a moment and tell us.

[ReddFoxx]

The key is to improve ratings, because that makes ad revenue go up and production costs can be covered. If the quality of the shows doesn't improve to make ratings go up, the length won't change anything.

And at this point, cutting established soaps down to 30 minutes and cutting the cast could make ratings worse.

[Khan]

Here's a better question: Why don't soaps go back to telling stories that don't suck? Because, quite frankly, production models, episode lengths, number of episodes per week -- none of that stuff matters to people who just want good storytelling.

[Adam]

So true. You can tinker with cost-cutting measures forever and you will end up with the same result.... Writing is the key.

[Sylph]

Yeah... No, not anymore. I mean, do you believe that if it featured great writing, the viewership would double? I don't think so. Soaps are done.

[Adam]

No, no one said anything about doubling the viewership, but if these cost cutting measures were backed up by compelling storytelling, things I believe would be alot more stable.

Overall the daytime industry has not had consistent, compelling writing for 15 years.... if these past 15 years had featured more stable teams behind the scenes, we wouldn't be here in 2009 picking out burial plots for the remaining 7 soaps still on the air come September.

[Khan]

Example? GL. True, the show has been cancelled. However, notice that not too many had much to say about GL, new production model and all, that was positive until the start of the Otalia storyline and Phillip's return. If the show had put that much effort into their stories a year ago, at least, I believe CBS might have been a little more reluctant to (go over Babs Bloom's head and) cancel.

[Rakesh]

No way. I've seen many British soaps that are 20 minutes and they've all used the entire cast. All you need is a good writer who can speed up and tell interesting storylines. IMO, viewership can double if the stories are good. Look at B&B, the show is shitty and B&B is now down to a 2.4 in HH. Daytime is dead so these soaps should jump to networks that will take them and air them during primetime hours(6 and 7 PM). You think a cable network would want to air it for an hour 5 days a week? Cutting it to 30 minutes will benefit both parties.

[All My Shadows]

No one is at home to watch these shows live.

And people who are at home are probably watching cable.

[ReddFoxx]

British soaps are a different model completely. The current writers of the soaps here don't know how to utilize the current casts they have, I doubt it would be much better with the cast cut in half. It's about quality of writing, not running time or time slot.

[Marc]

Eeeek. Reducing a hour show to 30 minutes just seems like a 'demotion' to me. I wouldn't even know if I could take my favorite soap seriously anymore if it was cut down like that.

[Soapsuds]

How could you not take it seriously? That's such an absurd statement. A 30 minute show costs just as much an hour show. I think someone on SON mentioned it.