How Long Will Daytime Soap Operas Last?

November 13th, 2008, 8 Comments »

You have a lot of time to think when you’re sick. I didn’t actually watch much television, but it occurred to me that if I wanted to, I could watch soap operas all day. With the exception of one misguided summer when I was, like, 11, I’ve never actually watch daytime soaps.

In this frenetic, multifarious media landscape, and with more families where both parents work, I wondered about the longterm prospects for these shows. Who’s watching them? I guess there’s always the young and the old, and TiVo for keeners. Plus, TV has experienced an extraordinary leap in quality (in every respect–storyline, acting, budgets, HD video, and so forth), where-as I gather the soaps have remained the same.

I went looking for an article on the state of the daytime soaps. I found this New York magazine piece, which blames reality TV for the soaps’ decline:

The villain in this piece is the reality show. When veteran soap-opera producer Mary-Ellis Bunim created The Real World for MTV in 1992, soap opera’s exclusive grip on emotionally manipulative programming began to loosen. “They’re closer cousins than most people realize,” says TV historian Ron Simon. “If you look at the Internet chat boards for soaps and reality shows, the audiences are asking the same question, ‘Why is the character doing this?’ They’re both a way to measure your own life.”

How far have soap opera ratings fallen? This Wikipedia article has the answer. In 1998, the top show, “The Young And The Restless”, averaged 7 million viewers viewing households a day. Today, it receives just 3.6 million households. That’s a serious drop. And what’s particularly interesting is that the numbers have been in slow decline from the very beginning. In 1952, “Search For Tomorrow” averaged 16.1 million households, at a time when the US had roughly half the population it has today.

Apparently one way soaps have cut costs is by firing a lot of costly veteran actors. That seems to make sense. If this trend continues, I wonder how many daytime soaps will be around in 2018?

8 Comments »

You Heard It Here First: Cyber-Mendicants

December 1st, 2002, No Comments »

Some time ago I mentioned Karyn, some wanna-be-Kerry-Bradshaw New Yorker who was $20,000 in debt and wanted the public to save her impoverished butt. Well, the public stepped up and did it. After all, why not? It was an ingenious idea, and it’s success was in its simplicity: ‘I’m a nice person, give me money.’

Now, however, cyber-mendicants are popping up all over the place. In her new-found magnanimity, Karyn sponsors one every week! Isn’t this always the way? Someone comes up with a great idea. Then a bunch of people duplicate or imitate it and dilute and often sully the idea’s greatness. Reality TV, love it or hate it, was a great idea. I think we’ll all agree that it’s greatness has passed. Star Trek was a great idea. Need I say more, Scott Bakula? It beggars belief. Is that phrase from Shakespeare? I don’t think so. Anybody who knows the source, let me know.

In truth, one of the cyber-mendicants has ovarian cancer (or claims to, but I have enough faith in human nature to believe that she wouldn’t stoop to that level. It’d be the Internet equivalent of Eddie Murphy claiming to be a Vietnam War vet at the start of Trading Places).

Rejected terms: virtu-beggar, nethandler.

No Comments »