TV Guide: 7 Culprits That Helped Kill the Soaps

[JamesG]

7 Culprits That Killed the Soaps
May 4, 2011
by Denise Martin



1. Reality TV


From Lauren vs. Heidi to Teresa Giudice's angry table-flip to Jason Mesnick's "Bachelor" switcheroo, reality TV has made the melodramatic histrionics once dominated by daytime commonplace.

Turns out the truth is stranger than fiction — stronger too. Could any writer come up with a creation as bizarre and addictive as Phaedra Parks? Or Spencer Pratt?

Plus, the real-life crazies are all willing to work for a fraction of the cost it takes to keep soap operas' big ensembles employed.









2. Ratings-Grabbers vs. Lame Stunts


So James Franco asked to visit "General Hospital's" Port Charles on his own — that's no excuse for the other, now-canceled ABC soaps to aspire to lesser stunts. If anything, it should have lit a fire under their collective butts.

Instead, in recent years, "One Life to Live" paid tribute to the success of High School Musical (these were pre-"Glee" times) with "Prom Night: The Musical!" a four-day singing event that was, well, out of tune with its target audience.


"All My Children", meanwhile, committed such treasonous-to-fans stunts as killing off Pine Valley's beloved Dixie with poisoned pancakes, and turning Greenlee, a favorite who'd been gone for years, into a monster for all of 2010.

Not the way to hang on to a diminishing pool of loyal viewers.









3. Bratty Kids


Ratings-wise, rugrats have shown up soap fans.

For proof, look no further than the failure of Disney's SoapNet, a channel that pledged wall-to-wall soaps, from daytime reruns to prime-time classics like "Knott's Landing" and "Falcon Crest" and "Beverly Hills, 90210", "The O.C." and "One Tree Hill".



The channel tried original soaps, too. There was the "General Hospital" spin-off "Night Shift" and the popular Canadian import "Being Erica".

But not enough viewers turned up and last year Disney decided to shutter SoapNet and relaunch it as Disney Junior in 2012.









4. Day Jobs


Through the years, soap operas relied on housewives to be the bulk of their audience. As they've slowly disappeared into the workforce, ratings have dropped.

The long-term effect? Soap-watching, once a popular mother-daughter pastime, is less and less of a shared activity, and young women just aren't picking up the habit because of...









5. The Siren Song of Social Media


Soaps are no match for Mark Zuckerberg and those adorable Farmville folk.

Whether they're working, going to school or sitting around the house, women (and men) are keeping busy launching angry birds into pigs, watching the latest in mindless YouTube entertainment, updating their Facebook statuses, or managing virtual farms.

Simply put, there are more screens and more distractions, which make a soap's weekly five-hour commitment seem downright daunting.









6. Talk Shows


While viewers are fleeing from soap operas they've remained loyal to talk shows. ("All My Children" hit a low among women 18-to-34 in March; its total viewership is now about the same as CBS' freshman talk show "The Talk".)

And while a hit talk show is still a hard thing to produce, they're a less expensive gamble.









7. Time-Shifted Viewing


You'd think that time-shifted viewing would help the soaps, but according to a recent report, most people use their DVRs to tape comedies and procedurals.

Viewers seem to have decided that a five-day-a-week serial would eat up tons of DVR space. Sacrifices have been made.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Killed-S...s-1032682.aspx

[browneyes106]

I think mostly DVR's, reality shows, and talk shows are the biggest factors in the slow demise of soaps.

[Goldilocks]

Remember when TV was an escape? Even the "drama" of the soaps was entertaining because it was fiction and no one actually knew anyone in real life who acted like that, right? Therefore, it was safe and entertaining. Now, there's the drama on reality TV. And it's glorified and celebrated.

[catlover79]

^ I couldn't have said it better myself!!

[JT]

1
I agree that reality shows took away a lot of the appeal of soaps, but I can't blame reality shows for giving viewers what soaps used to and don't want to anymore. Soaps have drowned themselves in fantasy, that the everyday realities of things like teen pregnancy, murder, adultery, business dealings, and other soapy topics are overshadowed by sensational and desperate attempts to make the stories exciting, when the success of some reality shows prove that human emotion alone, and the related conflicts, can pull in a bigger audience.

2
And this is what I'm talking about. Starr Manning becomes a teen mom, and her best friend decides to stage a musical production based on her story. No one is interested in that. MTV gets high ratings for its show about teen moms because it shows, for better or for worse, the real struggles of teenage mothers.

3
Can't fight this one. Kids watch their shows in droves (at all hours, too), and when you have 8am airings of Spongebob getting higher ratings than all but one of the soaps, it says a lot. I do wonder why, though, those older than the 18-49 demographic are ignored by those younger than that are catered to. I guess it has to deal with kids' purchasing power with their parents, but either way, it's a fact and it sucks. I wish SOAPnet would try an On Demand-type thing, where they'd offer classic episodes of the daytime soaps and also episodes of the primetime shows they've aired.

4
This is my #1 reason for the death of soaps. Not just women working more, but people not spending a whole lot of time in front of network TV during the daytime at all anymore. Of course, no one has put forth a real effort to try to bring daytime soaps to nighttime through syndication, so it's not like this was something that couldn't have been fixed. If game shows hadn't found success in syndication in the 70s, would Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! be two of the most popular shows on the air right now? It sucks that soaps were never given that chance.

5
I call BS on this one. Social media isn't something that requires one's full and undivided attention. My Facebook feed fills up with posts about shows nearly every night, so people can and do watch TV and use social websites at the same time.

6
Talk shows are cheaper, and that's a fact, and it sucks. What I'm going to need, though, is for these networks to stop telling me that people want to watch these talk shows more than they want to watch the soaps. The Talk's ratings are usually lower than what ATWT's were, and if ABC thinks they've hit a goldmine with that food program that's going to be airing in AMC's slot come September, they're just as incompetent as can be. But these shows are cheaper. So two million viewers is a success for them. And that sucks.

7
People DVR soaps, but the millions of other reasons why soaps are dying has caused interest in them to wane, therefore less people are interested in them, and so less people DVR them. If soaps were aggressive about courting viewers while remaining true to themselves, then maybe things would be different. But who knows.

Soaps are dead because the networks either never cared or they've just stopped caring.

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by JT

Soaps are dead because the networks either never cared or they've just stopped caring.

That's the #1 reason in my book!!!

[mets82]

I agree with your last sentence. The networks stopped caring or just dont care which is a shame considering that when tv became popular, variety shows, game shows, westerns, comedies, SOAP OPERAS, etc. WAS TV.

[MickeyMac]

Soaps are dead because the networks either never cared or they've just stopped caring.





They're also idiots too!!!!!!!!!!!!

[old grouch]

I'm surprised that they didn't mention the O.J. Simpson trial. The soaps were preempted for that and the ratings never really recovered.

[catlover79]

^ It sure didn't help!!!