2014 - First Year Since 2006 Without A Soap Opera Cancellation Announcement or Finale!

[jo.frank88]

I've been waiting to post this until the last day of the year! I'm celebrating that 2014 is the first year since 2006 without a soap cancellation announcement or finale!! We as soap fans have sure been on a long and rough road this past decade but how amazing is it that this year marks the first year since 2006 that no soap was cancelled or a finale aired. Let's recap shall we...

2014

No soap opera cancellation announcements and no soap opera finales!

2013

On August 19, 2013 "Prospect Park's "One Life to Live" aired its final episode. On September 2, 2013 - Prospect Park's "All My Children" airs its final episode. THe next day, On September 3rd Prospect Park announces they will not continue with production on "One Life to Live" and on November 11th "All My Children" cast members announce their show will not be continuing either.

2012

On January 13, 2012 "One Life to Live" airs its final episode on ABC.

2011

In one of the darkest days in soap opera history, ABC announces the cancellations of both "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" on April 14, 2011. "All My Children" airs its final episode on ABC on September 23, 2011.

2010

"As the World Turns" airs its series finale on September 17, 2010 after 56 years!

2009

On April 1, 2009 CBS announces the cancellation of "Guiding Light," the longest running scripted program in television and radio history. "Guiding Light" airs its series finale on September 18, 2009 after 72 years in production. On December 8, 2009 CBS announces the cancellation of the last remaining Procter & Gamble soap "As the World Turns."

2008

On August 7, 2008 DirecTv airs the series finale of "Passions"

2007

In January 2007 NBC announces the cancellation of "Passions" and also announces that "Days of our Lives" is "unlikey to continue" beyond 2009, when its current contract ended. Passions wraps up it's NBC run on September 7, 2007 prior to picking back up on DirecTV later that month. However, just three months later, in December 2007 DirecTV announces "Passions" cancellation from their network and that production will cease the following March.

2006

No soap opera cancellation announcements and no soap opera finales.

Though we have been through ALOT (as evidenced above) this makes me so EXTREMELY PROUD of all of our soaps and so proud to still have "The Bold and the Beautiful," "Days of our Lives," "General Hospital," and "The Young and the Restless," still with us! So, my toast this NYE to you fellow soap lovers is a celebration of 2014 - the first year of its kind since 2006 and a special toast to 2015 - may our remaining soaps live long and prosper! I believe this will be a big year to see if the soap turnaround sticks and our remaining four shows can/will remain profitable and viable or if 2014 was just a fluke year in the "death of the soap opera" trend. I guess for that answer, we'll just have to tune in tomorrow....

[Cheap21]

Dallas was cancelled

[jo.frank88]

True :/ I think we would have to go back MUCH further in history to find a year with no prime soap or cable show cancellations. I am of course only referring to daytime here

[YRfan23]

It still seems so cruel that it was April Fools Day of all days that GL's Cancellation was announced....

[Bright Eyes]

2014 also gave us the announcement of a brand new soap opera, Ireland's RED ROCK, which will premiere in early January 2015.

[cassadine1991]

If only the remaining soaps had quality writing that deems them worthy of surviving that onslaught

[DramatistDreamer]

And Retro TV decided to air classic daytime drama, The Doctors in 2014.

...trying to be positive here...I'm hoping 2015 will see a few discarded P&G soaps picked up somewhere through terrestrial, digital and/or online. Please.

[cassadine1991]

Concerning P&G Productions never really was dissolved

[katie_9918]

That remains the darkest day of soap cancellations to me, especially the short time between cancellation and the final episode (just a shade over four months).

Then again, I look at the wretched state of the last ones standing and I'm glad GL was still recognizable as itself when it went out. Those last six months was more GL-like than it had been since 2002 and it was down to better writing and better stories, Peapack be damned.

[jo.frank88]

I agree that the darkest day (to me at least) was April 1, 2009. Simply because once the grand dame of all the soaps ( at least in terms of longevity) was canceled, there was no reason not to cancel the others starting the Domino effect (ATWT, AMC, OLTL....) I mean what's 40 years compared to 72 years. In the years leading up to 2009 it felt like we were just waiting for the ax to fall of GL, because then the domino effect would begin. I'm just glad we've seen a hault (or at least a stall) to that domino effect.

[dragonflies]

P&G doesn't give two craps about the soaps they own, if they did they've have them streaming online or something

[DramatistDreamer]

Yes, that's what I think too. I'm basically relying on the kindness of strangers on You Tube.

At first there was a glimmer of hope with the Soaps Classics and even when the PP soaps emerged but not now.

I really feel (again) as if P&G couldn't give 2 sh*ts.

[Gray Bunny]

Meh... For the most part, Guiding Light was not Guiding Light for its final 5 years.

Aesthetically alone, GL went off the air in the worst possible shape for a soap opera. Ever.

(Give DAYS a couple more years to beat it. They're not out in the Burbank parking lot wandering aimlessly just yet)

[katie_9918]

I know. That's why I said those last six months felt, not LOOKED, more like GL than GL had felt since about 2002 (and I'm being generous there).

Aesthetically, yes, it was at its worst, but the writing was better and had more of its heart and soul back in six months than the previous decade had combined.

GH may not be filming out in the middle of nowhere, but its heart and soul has been dead for quite a while.

And once someone actually had the stones to pull the trigger on GL, the domino effect was completely inevitable.