Cutting Edge or Escape? Fans SHOCKING Take On Soap Operas!

Traditionally, soap operas have delved into timely topics to bring awareness to hot-button social issues. In addition, they’re also viewed as a brief time of escape each day.

But, can the genre continue to be both cutting edge and an escape without viewers abandoning them in droves or without new viewers taking interest in them?

Soap Hub asked which you’d rather soaps be — cutting edge or an escape. Nearly 17,000 of you weighed in, and the results are pretty shocking!

Cutting Edge
Nearly 68% of respondents prefer to watch storylines on daytime that are cutting edge. From addressing important social issues of the day to tackling the topics that often divide people, you like to watch your soap opera and see the things that you deal with in real life.

Plus, this is a staple of daytime. Throughout the years, soaps have addressed issues like interracial couples, abortion, same-sex couples, eating disorders, mental illness, addiction, and so much more!

Recently, on The Young and the Restless (YR), Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) dealt with a relapse of her MS symptoms while on The Bold and the Beautiful (BB), RJ (Anthony Turpel) and Coco (Courtney Grosbeck) had a car accident due to texting and driving.

On General Hospital (GH), Stone (Michael Sutton), who died of AIDS decades ago, recently returned in Sonny’s (Maurice Benard) mind to help him survive his near-death injuries.

This fall, on Days of Our Lives (DOOL), Will’s (Chandler Massey) return will surely somehow involve his former husband Sonny (Freddie Smith).

You like to see soaps staying true to their roots and combining these important, timely issues with compelling storylines to help bring awareness of things happening either to you, your family, or friends.

Pleasant Escape
However, others enjoy the daily escape that daytime drama brings. It leaves 32% of you with at least an hour (or half hour) to put the problems of the day aside and simply lose yourself in the characters you know so well.

While you realize that daytime traditionally took cutting edge issues straight on, you think that it’s time for the genre to change. These days, with 24/7 news stations and so much available on TV and the Internet, you just don’t see the need for daytime to be a vehicle for these types of storylines.

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