The longest running soap opera in televison and radio history was put on the chopping black last week by CBS. The Guiding Light started out as a 15 minute program on the radio 72 years ago. In the 60's it made the leap to television as a 30 minute live serial eventually going to an hour broadcast.Rumors have been swarming for years that another popular soap would get the ax, many speculated that NBC’s Days Of Our Lives would be the next soap to fall. In the last 15 years NBC has nearly eliminated all of its daytime soap operas. In the 90's it did away with "Generations ", "Santa Barbara", "Another World" and the Aaron Spelling production "Sunset Beach". Days Of Our Lives is the only NBC soap still on the air. Daytime televison is currently feeling the economic pinch, it has been for years now. Shows are tightening it budgets just to remain on the air. Just last month Jess Walton walked off the "Young And The Restless" set over a proposed pay cut. "Y&R" is the number one soap on the air for 16 years running, If they are cutting salaries imagine what the other shows are doing to stay afloat.
At the end of the day, the soaps that are loved by many and have been a staple on televison as long as televison has been around, is just a business. And like any business it has to make money for it’s owners. Declining ratings over the years as viewers mostly housewives either lost interest after two writers strikes or moving into the workforce, has forced significant cuts in daytime programming. My fear is that the soaps will go the way of the radio serials, a thing of the past.
Soaps have always been apart of our pop culture. The theme song from the "Young And The Restless", is famous the world over. Susan Lucci is a celebrity because she’s a soap star. Many of today’s biggest celebs got their start in Daytime TV, "CSI: NY’s" Melina Kanakaredes, "Heros" Hayden Panettiere, movie stars Rachel Miner, Brittany Snow and Kevin Bacon all got their start on "The Guiding Light". It’s a shame that a show with such a rich history is coming to an end. Even though I understand the reasons CBS is pulling the plug, still I feel like the networks are not in touch with what the viewers want. They pull shows off the air, leaving the audience hanging. It took a massive letter writing campaign to convince CBS to bring "Jericho" back on air only to see it cancelled again. When NBC canceled "Passions" they tried to move it to Dish Network but it was just prolonging the inevitable. In the end the nets only care about dollar signs and not what the viewers really want. They wouldn’t hesitate pulling a show or changing its time slot in favor of something they think will attract the preferred demographic. If only we the viewer could launch an effective protest to get our point across, a couple of million dollars in lost revenue would get their attention.... wouldn’t that be something?
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