The State of Soaps Today

Television is an ever-changing medium. What's old today becomes new tomorrow. In the mid 1980's, critics declared the situation comedy dead and buried until something called The Cosby Show debuted on NBC and within weeks, every network had family-themed sitcoms in development. By the late 1980's, those same critics decided the prime time soap was extinct after Dallas, Dynasty, and Knots Landing fell from the top of the ratings. Of course, FOX revived the genre with Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. However, throughout the years, one thing has been constant: soap operas. A uniquely American form of entertainment, soaps were born on the radio in the 1930's and successfully jumped to television in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Unlike prime time shows that are considered successful if they air five or more seasons, many soap operas have lasted several decades. Guiding Light, the longest running daytime drama, premiered on radio in 1937 before moving to television in 1952. As the World Turns has been on the air for more than fifty years. All My Chidren, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, One Life to Live, and The Young and the Restless have all been on television for over 35 years. The youngest soap currently on network television, The Bold and the Beautiful, has been on for 21 years.

Alas, things are not all rosy in soapland. Ratings are down. Critics and fans alike are panning many of the shows. In 1981, General Hospital was averaging over 14 million viewers. By 1995, that number had dropped to 5 million. Last week, GH averaged 2.8 million viewers. Where have all the soap fans gone? Will they come back? We turned to three soap experts to get their thoughts on the subject. There are many soap-themed blogs and websites but three stand out for their thought provoking commentary. We talked to the great minds behind these sites and got some very interesting responses.


Timothy Rost has been running Celebrating the Soaps since 2002. The site features soap scoops, commentaries, and video clips. But Tim isn't just an outsider looking in. While he's been watching soaps since 1995, he actually worked as an intern on TV's highest rated soap, The Young and the Restless. We asked Tim how soaps have changed since he started working on Celebrating the Soaps. "I guess I'd have to say it seems like now we're just waiting to see how long this genre can last and what desperate attempts the powers-that-be in daytime will do in order to survive," says Tim. "Before, it really was "celebrating" what I loved about the soaps... now I'm waiting to see how long a terminally ill loved one can hold on."

Those sentiments are echoed by the blogger known simply as "Snark" from the popular website Snark Weighs In. "Lack of quality, which is often caused by network interference" is the main reason viewers are tuning out, according to Snark. Snark, who started off writing columns on other people's websites before spinning off onto his own blog, has been watching soaps since he was "in the womb." "Soaps, more than any other entertainment medium, are driven by fascinating characters in well-crafted stories. Soaps are on one hour a day, five days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, with a limited budget; they can’t rely on the explosions, special effects, or plot twists to carry them. Yet, that’s exactly what soaps are doing, because they think that will attract the younger demographic—and it has failed spectacularly," says Snark.

Even if you've never logged onto any of Roger Newcomb's many websites (We Love Soaps, Scripts & Scruples, Rockland County to name a few), you may have heard of him from his campaign surrounding the characters of Luke and Noah, As the World Turns gay couple. We asked Roger how he finds time to sleep after maintaining a full time job, writing, producing, and acting in two internet radio soaps, and running We Love Soaps, a soap news blog. "I sometimes wonder if I've taken on too much, but I have a lot of creative energy that doesn't necessarily get put to good use in my day job, so I am always looking for outlets to express myself," explains Roger. "It's just a matter of prioritizing what needs to be a done on a particular day."

We asked Roger about the daytime ratings decline. "These days many fans get their "soap" fix from prime time. I consider all my favorite prime time shows to be soaps such as Friday Night Lights, Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty. They are all continuing stories. Even a sitcom like Scrubs has continuing storylines," says Roger. "The sad truth is prime time is doing it better these days. But I love the daytime soap genre and believe it can be saved. What it needs are a few visionaries to come along and shake things up. Soaps used to be ahead of the game in so many ways but the number of stories being told has dwindled and the diversity in the casts is not what it should be. Whether it is having characters of different races, sexual orientations, religions or even different income classes, diversity adds so many new interesting possibilities."

Roger blames bad writing as the main reason people have stopped watching. "Soaps are popular on prime time these days and that's because they are better written," says Roger. Tim has another theory. "I'm going to go against what most viewers say and I am going to blame competition as the No. 1 factor," states Tim. "Ironically, my viewpoint changed because of a wise woman who works behind the scenes at Y&R who has been with the show since the 1980's. She saw the change happen in the mid-90's with the OJ Simpson trial and how that slowly affected soap viewership. Think of how cable networks have changed since the 80's. Did we have TLC, HGTV, and endless reruns of previously successful primetime hits? Not only do these shows provide original programming, but they provide viewers with a beginning-middle-end to a story in 30 or 60 minutes, as opposed to watching day after day, month after month. So many people just aren't interested in investing so much time into a TV show anymore, unless they're stuck at home on a consistent daily basis."

There's been some experimenting with network-sponsored online soaps such as the NBC produced Coastal Dreams and CBS's tie-in LA Diaries. We asked our soap experts if these efforts help or hurt the soaps that are currently on the air. "Neither," says Snark. "They’re a non-entity. Tie-ins have not been sufficiently compelling; and if the networks can take beloved institutions that have stood the test of time and make them unwatchable, what the hell are they going to do with some dopey five minute websoap?"
Tim doesn't think they hurt the soaps. "I don't know if they necessarily help either," he says. "Just so long as we don't miss out on a plot point or story beat because we didn't watch a web clip or read a tie-in book, it's fine." "I think Coastal Dreams and LA Diaries were experiments by the networks to see if fans would watch soaps online," says Roger. "I believe they got mixed results but I am hoping they continue to try. I don't think these shows have had much impact on the current daytime soaps because the episodes have been very short and require only a small time commitment." None of the three think any network soap will make the transition to broadcasting solely on the internet alone. "Soap fans are creatures of habit, and it’s not a habit they particularly like having," explains Snark. "Such relatively simple things as network switches have killed soaps in the past; something as monumental as moving soaps off television completely will destroy them."

Guiding Light, television's oldest and lowest rated soap, recently started a new production model which consists of using digital cameras, taping on four-walled sets, and shooting most scenes on location in a nearby town in New Jersey. We asked our three soap experts what they thought of Guiding Light's new production model. "I applaud the show for doing this," says Roger. "Friday Night Lights is my favorite prime time show and it uses the same production model. I believe there are kinks to be worked out, like improving the sound quality, but I do like what they are trying to do. I was surprised that after a lot of hype, the show debuted the new technique and not a lot happened that day. The true success story for Guiding Light will come if they can combine this new production model with consistently good long-term storylines." "Oh, my poor poor, poor Guiding Light!" laments Tim. "I cannot tell you how much I have loved and supported this show and only hoped for the best for them. Once upon a time, they had the best ensemble cast in daytime. But then they dropped everyone to recurring and got lost in direction. If we could just go back to 1997, 2002, or even 2004 before they reduced the number of sets to three, I would be blissfully happy. This "new production model" is merely a glorified college film. Other than the fact that they have specially-made sets for the show, it is seriously like watching an amateur production. Poor lighting, poor audio, shaky camera moves... I seriously can't watch it. I stopped watching GL last summer because of the bad, pointless storytelling. Now, I can't watch it simply because it's a visual nightmare. The powers-that-be say it makes us feel "closer" to the characters? To me, I feel further alienated from them because I can't concentrate on what's going on. I'm either too distracted by the crazy zooming by the camera, or I'm counting the nose hairs I can see of Kim Zimmer, bless her 4-time Emmy-winning self." Snark agrees. "It looks cheap and tacky," he says. "It’s going for a cool, indy vibe, but the thing that makes independent movies cool are the interesting storylines and fascinating characters—GL has neither."

Television's second oldest show, As the World Turns, appears to be in much better shape than Guiding Light. While ratings are down across the board for all soaps, World Turns has actually gained viewers compared to last year. The show has recently created buzz for it's bold storyline involving Luke, the son of the show's iconic 1980's super-couple Holden and Lily, as he comes to terms with his homosexuality, and eventual romantic relationship with Noah. However, the characters wound up on the back burner, and viewers were angry. We asked Roger about his campaign to bring the characters back to prominence - and to allow them to kiss. "After months of feeling like As the World Turns was backpedaling with their promise to treat Luke and Noah like any other couple, fans were a bit frustrated and wanted to do "something." Tony G. at vanhansis.net got us organized and "Support Luke & Noah in the Media Week" was formed. We contacted several media outlets a day for eight straight days. Amazingly, just about every publication we contacted printed a story, either their own or the Associated Press article. In addition to being in every major newspaper across the US, several international newspapers and magazines ran the story as well. And I was thrilled to see our effort mentioned in TIME Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. The key was to bring attention to Luke and Noah and applaud the show's efforts with this groundbreaking story, but to question why it seemed like there was some type of kissing ban for the couple. I believe our efforts will have a positive impact. Just this week it was reported that the show signed Van Hansis to a new contract. I hope CBS and Proctor & Gamble realize the type of buzz that was created through our campaign is great for the show and they take advantage of it by featuring Luke and Noah more."

Last fall, every show was effected by the writers strike. We asked Snark, Roger, and Tim how the soaps fared during the strike. "The same, just more of it," says Snark. "GH is a violent, plot-driven mess. So what did we get during the strike? Serial killings, bombs, and kids with guns! B&B is all about whores and psychos, so we got three times the whoring and three times the crazy. AMC is all about random plot points, so we got amnesia, miraculous resurrections, and stripper poles. The only soaps that changed noticeably were DAYS, which built up their vendetta storyline, only to rush through the climax, so we could get to such fare as Will John ever get his personality back (who can tell the difference?) and Will Bo die? (It’s DAYS—if they killed off the mailman, I wouldn’t believe they’d stay dead.) On the flip side, Y&R is nicely rebounding from the absolute nightmare that was much of 2007. Y&R has always been about family, romance, and business—and the messy ways those things intertwine—and now that’s back. By default, Y&R has quickly become the best daytime soap on the air again." "It was a mixed bag," states Roger. "As The World Turns seemed to instantly improve the day the writer's names were removed from the credits. The first three weeks minus the regular writers were sensational. Since then, the show has been mediocre. The Young and the Restless also seemed to instantly improve without the influence of (former executive producer and head writer) Lynn Marie Latham. Days of our Lives featured some wonderful episodes as did All My Children with the return of Angie and Jesse. There is good to be found on each soap, just not enough." Tim doesn't think the strke was all bad. "Can some of the scab writers come back?" he laughs. "From what I watched, things ran pretty smooth. In fact, I enjoyed the vintage flashbacks some soaps offered. Instead of redundant flashbacks of the previous day's show, we got treated to vintage Jill & Katherine on Y&R and classic Bo & Hope on DAYS. I am loving this new storyline of Katherine and Amber (yes, I actually like Amber) simply because of the flashbacks and focus on Kay's life. And whoever was writing DAYS during the strike knew how to pull on our Brady-lovin' heartstrings. Now if only someone over there could remember that the Horton family came first."

All three agreed on one thing: The best soap on the air right now is The Young and the Restless. "Despite its recent behind-the-scenes shake-up, The Young & the Restless is still the most consistently entertaining show," says Tim. "It has managed to keep its ratings mainly steady in the past 5 years, and its production values are top-notch. The actors are also the best in daytime." Roger adds One Life to Live in the mix. "One Life to Live and The Young and the Restless are both in good shape right now in terms of potential," he says. "There are issues with both, but not as drastic as some of the other soaps. Days of our Lives is up and down but is having more peaks than valleys these days."

In the last ten years four soaps have been canceled but only one has premiered (and that is one of the four that were canceled). We asked Snark, Roger, and Tim if they think the axe will continue to fall and which show they think is most vulnerable to cancellation. "Because those currently in charge of soaps seem incapable or unwilling to address the basic problems that every fan knows exist, yes, the axe will continue to fall," says Snark. "DAYS is the most vulnerable to cancellation because it is a spectacularly inept show run by a man who is daytime’s equivalent of Charlie Brown (a complete failure face). The show has been given 59, 000 chances to re invent itself and achieve success; yet, the only thing it has been successful at is rescuing defeat from the jaws of victory. It also suffers from being on NBC, which still seems to be in shock from finding out that James E. Reilly isn’t daytime’s answer to Jesus, and can’t keep their daytime division afloat, much less save soap operas in general." Roger would hate to see any soap cancelled, but agrees it is a possibility. "I fear for Guiding Light because it is generally near the bottom of the ratings and they continue to try a variety of different things to garner attention and it hasn't helped," he says. "Again, I see it coming down to having a true vision for the show and writing relatable characters that the audience can invest in. The ABC soaps have their ratings woes too but since they are owned by ABC and get replayed on Soapnet several times a week, I don't see them being in any immediate danger." "Yes, it will continue," says Tim. "No new soap will come to network television anytime soon, unless it's some reality-based idea. As for the next soap to be canceled, you'd think Guiding Light would be the first candidate, but they sure are fighting for dear life. Sadly, Days of Our Lives may be the next soap to die, simply because it's the last soap on NBC and they're not too supportive of their daytime line-up."

For soap news and commentary, check out Celebrating the Soaps, Snark Weighs In, and We Love Soaps. If you enjoy continuing stories, and wonder what it was like to listen to soaps on the radio, check out Scripts & Scruples and Rockland County. And, soon you can see Roger Newcomb's feature film version of Scripts & Scruples, Manhattanites. "My friend Gregori J. Martin and I had been talking about writing a script for a few years," explains Roger. "It was never intended to be based on my radio soap, Scripts & Scruples, but that's how it ended up. The film follows the lives of several characters over a period of time and how the various decisions they make and the priorities they set have a long-term consequences. The film stars the fabulous Ilene Kristen, Forbes March, Aiden Turner, David Fumero and Jill Larson, among others. We are really close to having it wrapped up, then look out for us on the film festival circuit."

Tune in tomorrow!