Hello Again at Seventy; Goodbye at Five

This past January, the daytime soap opera community marked two major milestones. Guiding Light celebrated its 70th anniversary on CBS, making it far and away the longest-running dramatic broadcast in U.S. history. Meanwhile, over at NBC, Passions, the most recent major network entry in the daytime soap sweepstakes, was canceled to make way for a fourth hour of the lucrative Today show. Passions’ five-year run will end this September. This juxtaposition of success and failure speaks to the ongoing “problem” of the ever-shrinking soap audience—a problem that has existed for more than fifteen years and extends beyond daytime programming. The major networks are not quite ready to give up on the genre, but are still struggling with what needs to be done. 

The lament is a familiar one. With the rise of cable and the vast expansion of viewing options, the major networks have lost their monopoly on the eyes and ears of America’s viewing public. I am not convinced this is a tragedy—I am not prone to believe that any monopoly is generally a positive creative or business force. (Indeed, we are in the midst of a “golden” age in U.S. television, driven in large part by a truly competitive programming marketplace.) But the increasingly crowded dial also means lower individual ad revenues and Nielsen numbers. Soaps were once a network cash cow; this is no longer the case. And their numbers will never again approach the magnitude of the 1970s and 1980s. Network executives must accept this new reality and adjust accordingly. The best solution with regard to the daytime soap opera is not cancellation. I happen to have some suggestions for the Powers That Be.

So. Accept the new bottom line. Adjust costs and anticipated profit margins accordingly. Be creative. And continue to innovate even if the innovation does not always work. Soaps are now niche programming. Maybe it’s time to shrink back from the sixty-minute format to a thirty-minute format. Learn from past mistakes: fans want multigenerational casts and storylines, yet adore their veteran cast members. More experienced, talented, and award-winning actors are more expensive, so some of them may have to go, but tread carefully; soap fans have long memories. And most importantly, identify, understand, and respect your devoted and often long-suffering audiences.