ATWT Canceled

[Vee]

*yawn*

Don't engage him. Let him tire himself out in the corner.

[Sylph]

Technology, work (hours), other things that should be watched... Lot of stuff.

[DRW50]

I guess I am too biased because I have sat there with some of my relatives, who don't have the Internet, didn't have cable until a few years ago, only have a VCR, which collects dust, and they have stopped watching all their soaps. They just stopped, after decades, like the shows never existed, because nothing on the shows spoke to them anymore.

I know it's just anecdotal, but I always wonder how many others out there have done the same.

[Vee]

I think it's more of a prevailing industry philosophy than one organic to the television audience, but it seeped down to the audience over time. Still, primetime soaps exist, soaps-that-aren't-called-soaps are everywhere in a variety of forms, scripted and non-scripted. The point is I'm confident those writers, were they vital today, could still deliver in the medium, even if the format was different or the delivery system altered.

[Sylph]

Nielsen says millions. It just proves what I've been saying for the past few hours. Bob & Kim bullsh!t - Bob & Kim can't bring anyone back.

[Vee]

I'm telling you, Carl, don't bother. This is all he lives for.

[DeeeDee]

Exactly.

[marceline]

LOL! You just want me to deflect some of the crazy off you.

Granted I used to be the first person to jump into a "why soaps are dying" discussion but honestly I no longer care why. There are a bunch of reasons both internal and external that we've a cited a million times over: mismanagement, competition, out of date storytelling, economic pressures of 5-day a week production and of course my battle cry: nostalgia. Whatever the reason, we're here now.

I'm not interested in why they're dying, now I'm only interested in how. Who will go with dignity? Who'll limp along until they get shot in the head? Who'll climb the clocktower and take innocent bystanders with them? For me the business of soap IS the soap.

But I love reading the discussion.

[JackPeyton]

why soaps are dying? here is the short list.

-the timeslot

-the recycled hacks

-the powers that be dont care

-network tv is dying

-commercial tv is dying

-the soaps stoped being ahead of the times

[Sylph]

Correct!

You have no idea how much. The perfect example being OLTL and what happens behind-the-scenes there. You have no idea.

I need to try and do that. Just read.

[All My Shadows]

On the other hand, though, I have relatives who do have other viewing options (like the Encore Westerns channel, which my great-aunts watch like teen girls watch The Hills) and they still talk, with excitement, about the crap that's going on on Y&R or B&B or whatever. It can always go either way, so then you can also have the people with the other choices who stop watching and also people with no other choices who keep watching. The question is, what are the exceptions and what is the rule?

I'm not denying this at all. But primetime soaps are just that - primetime soaps, which, even though they have those fundamental themes going on, are still worlds different from daytime soaps. Primetime soaps get syndication deals, cable deals, DVD releases, etc. Daytime soaps do not. They're still stuck in daytime depending on an audience of retirees, housewives, househusbands, college kids between classes, people who work the night shift, and the randoms who happen to be home on a particular day.

If Nielsen could find a way to count how many people watch traditional daytime soaps in a non-traditional way (VCRs, DVRs, online, etc), things might be a whole lot different, and then the one and only focus of keeping ratings up would be in the quality of the shows. Until then, you're juggling the quality issue as well as the access-to-audience issue, none of which are probably that easy to work with. Like I said upthread, I'd never want to be the one having to do it.

I lose sight of this so easily sometimes, yeah. I need to reminded every now and then to just shut up and do whatever. No matter what, us debating on SON won't save daytime.

[dragonflies]

There is still an audience for soaps, sure it's dwindled, but it's still there. Not everyone who watches has a Neilsen box either, might not have a DVR, and their ratings don't count.

That audience that is still around, people in charge of the soaps are driving them way in droves with bad decision making, bad writing and so on and so forth.

I agree JP.

[JaneAusten]

I will admit to not having the knowledge or insight many here do but maybe the question should be how have soaps managed to last as long as they have versus why they are allegedly becoming irrelevent.

As someone mentioned, TV shows go through cycles. For a long time westerns were popular on Television and they died out. medical dramas were then the thing and they died out. Detective shows were popular and they died out. Sitcoms were very popular for a long time and while still around, not nearly what they were.

But many of these shows got resurrected to an extent years later. Medical shows got resurrected with the popularity of ER. Why? What was so different about it. Westerns never did. Detective shows - well crime drama became popular again with the advent of shows like L&O and CSI and how they are kind of petering out. Why are sitcoms not what they once were?

Reality shows have gained popularity and are cheap but at some point I suspect interest in those shows will peter out also. It already is with the oversaturation of them IMO.

[TC]

Oy vey ismir

[Sylph]

They have endured probably because they didn't know what to replace them with. If they find a more lucrative but cheaper business model, they will cancel them all.