All My Children
Seven Culprits Who Killed the Soaps! Who or what else should join this list?

All My Children
NBC Celebrates Carol Burnett’s 90th Birthday with Retrospective Special Featuring Susan Lucci and More Celebrity Guests
All My Children
TONIGHT: AMC Alum Jonathan Bennett in Hallmark’s First LGBTQ+ Led Rom-Com ‘The Holiday Sitter’
All My Children
Rebecca Budig in Cast of CBS Holiday Movie ‘Fit For Christmas’
-
General HospitalJanuary 20, 2023
Denise Crosby Makes a Return to General Hospital
-
General HospitalJanuary 22, 2023
Kelly Thiebaud Opens Up on Her Exit from General Hospital, Taping Britt’s Tragic Death Scenes, and Parting Thoughts on Co-Stars
-
NewsJanuary 19, 2023
Vail Bloom Returns to Y&R as Heather Stevens; Lily Brooks O’Briant Cast as Lucy Romalotti
-
NewsJanuary 24, 2023
TODAY: Tracey Bregman Visits ‘The Talk’ to Discuss Her 40th Anniversary With Y&R; Standalone Episode Airs Tomorrow
-
Breaking NewsJanuary 17, 2023
‘The Drew Barrymore Show’ Renewed for its Fourth Season
-
Breaking NewsJanuary 19, 2023
Alec Baldwin to Face Involuntary Manslaughter Charges in ‘Rust’ Shooting of Halyna Hutchins
-
NewsJanuary 25, 2023
Y&R’s Tracey Bregman Receives Replacement Daytime Emmy from Christian LeBlanc on ‘The Talk’
-
Breaking NewsJanuary 25, 2023
Shemar Moore Becomes a Dad for the First Time with Girlfriend Jesiree Dizon as They Welcome Their Baby Girl
how about people who claim want to help daytime, but are really ruining it?
I’ve thought for a few years that one network was intentionally writing their soaps to drive down the numbers of viewers. A major leading character spends years in an upright comatose state. She would sit motionless while her ‘daughter’ would comb her long hair. The character was portrayed as a weak helpless woman for years. The characters daughter grew up off camera supposedly raised by her grandmother. The soap couple had been loving and great parents a decade earlier…dream parents. The network ended it with just a toss away story. No real storyline. Just a few basic lines to write… Read more »
I think it hasnt helped OUR soaps writing things PEOPLE just couldnt buy.
Twins, characters coming back from the dead and or just storylines shoved down our throats. Bring in characters that DONT belong.
Characters leaving, that meant the end of True Love , for example; Brandon Buddy
leaving his role of Cole. Pairing Starr with another leaving Sole to just die.
Actors come and go but THAT was crushing.
I stopped watching even before Buddy left.
The Natalie & John story ruined by a stupid one night stand with Brody.
think you are on the right track with this comment Jan…. prime time soaps don’t write this way anymore…… we are not stuck in the 80’s are we ……and I think TPTB have forgotten that today’s viewer is NOT the same kind of viewer that our mother’s were….our attention span is much shorter I think…..even as we may want to escape for an hour in our favorite show…dreaming of love in the afternoon….we are an intelligent viewer…not mindless…and I think some of this is not throughly planned….thought through…storylines arcing to make sense…or too many dropped storylines….why is that …is that… Read more »
Soaps in the era of reality TV… it’s all about shock and sensationalism. The stories on daytime television were once apparently really thought out and fine tuned, where a few months in advance you would see foreshadowing of what was to come (i.e. The Left Handed Boy). Now there is no intricate, fine tuned, build up of story. Pretty much they are writing 2 hour movies of the week (if that), where the whole cast of characters change to support the plot de jour. There is no character consistency. Their whole personality, moral code, cognitive functioning can change on a… Read more »
daytime executives who neither like nor understand the genre…..and dont listen to the viewers who do
The OJ Simpson Trial (which could be combined with the “reality TV” group). There is probably a direct correlation between the trial and the dwindling number of viewers. Watching that trial for weeks and weeks gave people a taste of “reality” TV and that was it. I don’t think the numbers ever recovered.
I agree 100% with SUS, it’s the writing that killed the soaps. Watch the old Ryan’s Hope on SoapNet if you want to see what was so great about the soaps in the old days. The “story arc” is a thing of the past – slow build-up to a satisfying pay-off. Doug Marland was a master of it (ATWT). Nowadays, there simply is no pay-off. If the villian in a story is “popular”, doesn’t matter how atrocious or vicious their crimes are (I’m specifically thinking of Adam on Y&R, but there are many others), the original story goes out the… Read more »
Clunky plots and stunts instead of character driven storylines. The reason The Bold and the Beautiful is seeing a ratings decline is this very reason. I find the Brooke/Thomas storyline completely unbelievable and ludicrous. One Life to Live is an excellent example of character driven storylines, utilizing the old timers and newcomers equally. Unfortunately just as I got attached to it, they cancel it. How many soaps, hell any television series, can claim the surge in ratings and quality that this show has shown recently? Not a one.
1. How ratings are compiled (don’t understand why it doesn’t count if you watch more than 3 days later)
2. Having daytime executives who lack the ability, or desire, to think outside the box
3. The writing. The writing. The writing. Watching any vintage episode shows that in spades.
I think what really killed the soaps was the poorly written shows. If the shows had been written better fans would still watch but since they’re not people who were once faithful watcher’s have moved on to other things. There are way too many other things for people to do with their time, You’ve got tons of cable stations along with On Demand that allow you to watch what you want on your schedule and then there’s the internet that allows us to interact socially with others on FB, Twitter etc . and play online games through game systems. I… Read more »
I’m sorry but I get annoyed when I see people blame reality tv. I don’t know many people who actually watch reality tv in the day. It would be easier to just say cable television because it encompasses everything. I am more likely to watch reruns than reality tv. But I am also more likely to surf the web than watch tv like most people my age (20s).