Remember when soaps used to rule daytime and the minds of housewives, men sick from work or unemployed, and teens who had nothing else to watch on a sick day?
Well those times are about to meet their maker, because soaps are dropping like flies (and no they will not return two or three years later as an amnesiac).
CBS released a statement this morning that detailed the cancellation of As The World Turns, which will be ending its run in September 2010. “It’s extremely difficult to say good-bye to a long-running series that’s been close to our hearts for so long,” said Barbara Bloom, Senior Vice President, Daytime Programming. “[...] the true legacy of As The World Turns will be the fictional characters and stories of a small Midwest town that resonated every day with millions of viewers over multiple generations, becoming a treasured daytime institution in the process.” The cancellation comes off the heels of another CBS soap, Guiding Light, shutting it’s doors for good back in September of this year. The two cancellations has to make one wonder: Is the age of soap operas dead?
It depends on who you ask really. While some people feel as if soaps have ran their mark, others feel that the never-ending tales still have some fight left in them, that is if they find a different way of promotion. It is good to note that most of those in the former camp champion reality TV shows as the new soap operas and despite the Fear of God running down my spine at that suggestion, it is a plausible (and depressing) notion. But what do you guys think?
Should we let soaps go into the great ether or ally up with them to stop the onslaught of reality television?
Sneak Peeks – Parenthood 2.01 “I Hear You, I See You”
Sneak Peek – 90210 3.01 “Senior Year, Baby”
Sneak Peek – Gossip Girl 4.01 “Belles de Jour”
Sneak Peeks – The Apprentice Season 10
Photos – Gossip Girl 4.02 “Double Identity”
Photos – The Vampire Diaries 2.03 “Bad Moon Rising”
Photos – Desperate Housewives 7.01 “Remember Paul?”
Photos – No Ordinary Family 1.01 “Pilot”
