What caused the failure of 80s and 90s Daytime Soaps

[Paul Raven]

@GLATWT88 pretty much covered it.

 

Affiliate support was a big issue with the new shows. Year after year at the Affiliate meetings NBC execs would be pleading for local stations to carry their soaps (and game shows) ,particulartly SB. I remember one exec saying they could gain at least one rating point with full coverage.

Now had SB started pulling bigger numbers, affiliates would have been more prepared to do so but although there were some gains, they couldn't be convinced. Especially as it was in the 3pm timeslot, which was the lead into local news on a lot of stations,

I think that's why SB was programmed there and not at 2pm. If NBC had slotted AW @3 there would have been even more defections as its demos were poor.

 

When Y&R debuted it had a lower clearance rate and was running third in its slot. But the 18-34 demo was #1 and affiliates took notice and added it to their local schedule. That didn't happen with the NBC shows.

 

Expense - again NBC boasted on the money being spent on SB. Daytime soaps were created to be low cost programming to make the networks huge profits. That 80's attitude of trying to be something they weren't meant the profit base was being eroded.

 

Agree about trying to get to commit to hour shows. SB was in a timeslot that was failing up against 2 established soaps. When AMC and Y&R debuted they were the only soaps in their timeslot.

 

As for Loving, I don't know why it was picked up in the first place. It was stuck in a morning timeslot that had ABC were lagging in, (and had never worked for soaps)and had a poor lead in. 

 

Yes and in the 90's there was way more competition for the networks in general, so harder to lure viewers.

Edited May 29, 2020 by Paul Raven

[Gray Bunny]

 

Exactly. The tried-and-true remark about there being 19 soaps in 1970 holds no weight.  Hell, GL was only 15 minutes until 1968!  From 1975 through 1980, starting with AW, then DAYS, then ATWT.... all the way up to Y&R's expansion in February 1980 at the expense of fellow half-hour sudser Love of Life, was when all the long-running shows expanded. 

 

For a time there (1989-1991), we had 10.5 hours, with each network providing three hour-long shows and one half-hour. 

[Fevuh]

I never got the magic of Santa Barbara.  I saw an article where someone named it as Best Soap of all time.  It lasted like 9 years.  Hardly.  That same list didn't have World Turns or Guiding Light on it if I remember correctly.  But SB being the best of all time was a joke.  I watched GL in the 3:00 slot but would flip over to SB once in a while and just couldn't catch on.  

[Faulkner]

For me, when I watch SB, it’s such a clever, witty, self-referential, almost at times experimental soap with smart writers and amazing actors. Of course, I wasn’t a consistent viewer and wasn’t constantly exposed to the fückery I’ve heard about.