For years, the three major networks have shown they’d rather produce cheaper talk shows than soap operas, seeing that there are only four soaps left, and two networks have one each.
The genre has never gotten the respect it deserves from the television and entertainment industry, despite having some of the best on-air talent around–as well as tried and true characters audiences have known for years.
In addition, slashed soap budgets have made it harder to use beloved veteran actors because they deservedly cost more money. The soaps also re-purpose sets more than ever and rarely branch out for exotic location shoots anymore.
Except for The Bold and the Beautiful. Oh, and General Hospital ventures to a park bench outside the studio, and The Young and the Restless does something similar. Days of Our Lives once had Salem Place, but budgets killed it.
However, if they moved to primetime, networks would have a built-in audience, possibly command more advertising revenue at an hour when more people are home to watch and therefore give the soaps the money they deserve to produce what they want.
While we won’t have daytime soaps anymore, we’ll still have them at a different hour where they can find even more of an audience. Continuing soap-like dramas (especially medical and crime dramas) do very well at night, so why can’t daytime soaps, which feature a whole lot of medical and crime angst?
Would you watch your daytime soaps if they suddenly became primetime soaps? Do you think it’s better for the genre as a whole?
Answer our poll and let us know if there’s an audience for a whole new way of giving us our stories.
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