Today marks ten years since OLTL aired its final episode on ABC on January 13, 2012.  It marked the culmination of a very substantial purge in the daytime soap genre over the course of the previous three years.

CBS announced the cancellation of Guiding Light on April 1, 2009, and five months later the final episode aired on September 18.  Less than three months later, on December 8, CBS announced the cancellation of As The World Turns and, nine months later, that show aired its final episode on September 17, 2010.  Seven months after that, ABC announced the cancellations of All My Children and One Life To Live on April 14, 2011.  Just over five months later, All My Children aired it's last episode on September 23 and, just under four months after that, on this day, One Life To Live aired its final episode.

When the dust cleared, only General Hospital, Days Of Our Lives, The Young And The Restless, and The Bold And The Beautiful were left standing.  If you'd asked people in January 2012 if these last four would survive another decade, I feel like most would have said no.  It really felt like the networks were done with soaps and that they would all be gone in short order.

So I start this topic to pose three questions to the community here:

1. How have the remaining four survived another decade after the purge?  Is it just that the networks have decided the afternoon hours on weekdays are a dead zone and no one is going to watch anything they put there anyway, so they might as well leave the soaps?  Did the failures of The Chew and The Revolution give other networks pause?  Has the audience for the remaining shows simply proven to be big enough to make the shows profitable?  Curious to know your views on this.

2. Will they survive another decade, in your opinion?  Or are they inching closer to demise?  Will there still be daytime soaps on network television a decade from now, or will it be completely over?

3. Put aside 'will they' for a moment; Should they survive another decade?  Does the recent quality of the shows warrant it?  Does the audience still care enough?  Or are these shows just zombies at this point that should put out of their misery?

I felt the occasion of this anniversary was an opportune time to bring up these questions and start a potentially interesting conversation.

Aside from live U.S. team sports, which seems to be rebounding, all of TV, broadcast and cable, is in a huge existential crisis that goes well beyond the soaps these days. ABC, CBS, and NBC seem to have bigger fires to put out than the relatively stable soaps. Aside from DAYS, which could transition to Peacock, barring unforeseen changes, I feel like the remaining soaps will stay put as long as network TV itself remains greatly viable, which is a big “if.”

However, creatively, these shows would be far better served on streaming. Right now, they are just placeholders being strip-mined for cash and serve a dying yet still relatively profitable audience in the short term. They’d be freed up to do more interesting things (which DAYS  is experimenting with) away from the purely ad-supported broadcast world. That’s my guess.

Interesting topic-

1- I think they survived because at the beginning of that purge, and the following two years, almost all of the four were seeing their best ratings in almost a decade.  Couple that with the replacement shows on ABC not being successful, and that bought them time.

2- It seems we have hit the bottom of the baseline ratings for all of them- the Nielsen diehards that tune in no matter what.  If you look at the ratings report @Errolposted recently, it had comparisons with last year and 2020, and a lot of those numbers were stagnant with today, or slightly down.  That does not bode well for any type of future, and speaks to the last folks watching (at least the ones that “count”) a dying genre. And even if there is a future with streaming, it will never match a 5 days a week, all year long network daytime soap.   Another question may be will we recognize network television in another decade?  Because they are hurting.

3- I no longer wish for them to be cancelled- if it’s not for me anymore that is fine.  I still check in to 3 of the 4 and see what’s up, more GH than the others.  But there is no denying the schedules they film under has hit every section of the product that matters- writing is generic, therefore easy to produce.  Production is stagnant, and even the most talented actors are not producing deep work like they used too.  Many of them are still doing serviceable work, just not breaking my heart or making me rewatch anything like I did before.

That's an interesting topic.

It was such a sad time in that period when all these soaps were just killed one after another. Passions ended just a year before GL, no?

1) Well I think soaps are still at least somewhat profitable to the networks. Talks shows would be much cheaper to produce, but indeed they tried and failed with several of them. 

2) I was one of the people who was sure that soaps could not survive another decade and these 4 are still here. And I am again one who thinks that they cannot survive until 2032. But lets see

3) Granted I stopped watching all the remaining soaps years ago, but I am still around to know what is going on and how it looks like, for the most part. So based on this, I would say no. I think the quality of everything has gone down almost irreparably. From anything related to production itself (sets, lighting, visuals..), to writing, to acting... it's not good. But hey, maybe those who watch on a daily basis would think differently.

I was literally just thinking about "The Daytime Purge" the other day, though I'd say Passions (which deserved cancellation) was the first nail in the coffin. 

The only way I could see soaps surviving is if they cut back from the five new episode per week all year long format. I'm amazed that we still have all four post apocalypse soaps 10 years on, but I question how long they can continue with ever shrinking budgets and 💩💩writing.

I think the only audiences that remain for soaps are the diehards that have been watching for decades. I only know about two people in the millennial/zoomer age group who keeps up with modern day soaps. 

On the positive side, we're in the age of nostalgia and reboots. This may not be the end of soaps, even if it means not in it's  traditional format. Hype around characters like Sheila returning to B&B, the "Locher Room" and the increasing availability of classic soap episodes online proves that there is at least niche interest remaining in the genre.

23 minutes ago, ironlion said:

The only way I could see soaps surviving is if they cut back from the five new episode per week all year long format.

I was thinking that cutting soaps to half hour could be a good thing. They would have to trim the fat and lose a lot of dead weight. But seeing how bad B&B is, I guess it does not mean it would work lol

16 minutes ago, Manny said:

I was thinking that cutting soaps to half hour could be a good thing. They would have to trim the fat and lose a lot of dead weight. But seeing how bad B&B is, I guess it does not mean it would work lol

Understandable. B&B's problem is that it's plots are strictly bent on romance, w compared to GH whose plots range from sci fi, mystery, crime, and romance. 

I think the cutting would reduce casts to illuminate redundant characters who have a little storyline, and make plots more focused. 

Hypothetical formats (CBS for example)

Mon-Wed y&r 1-1:30, b&b 1:30-2pm; Thu-Fri ATWT 1-1:30, GL 1:30-2pm

(or) mon-wed y&r 1-2pm, Thu-Fri B&B 1-2pm

Edited January 18, 20223 yr by ironlion