Ten years ago, there were nine soap operas on the air. Today, there are only four. How many soap operas will still be on the air 10 years from now?
You have to take into consideration a few factors – ratings, cost, and competition.
Every week, Soap Hub publishes the latest ratings, and every week each soap opera seems to hit another new low. Even during the infamous May Sweeps Period, when soaps pull out all the stops, the ratings declined by significant numbers from the previous year.
With the ratings decline comes the decline in revenue. Soap operas are expensive. The salaries for your favorite veteran actors aren’t cheap and neither are all of the other salaries, renting the production space, etc. If networks can’t make that back with ad revenue, it’s a big deal.
Competition from cheaper forms of programming – shows like The Chew, The View, The Talk – these are all cheaper to produce and in some cases get better ratings. It’s hard to make an argument to keep a soap opera on the air if the network is losing money.
What do you think? Post a comment!
Soap Hub asked fans if you think your favorite soap operas will still be around in 10 years. The results were almost split down the middle.
The glass is half empty for 53% of you, believing that yes, your favorite soap will more than likely be gone by 2027. While you love the soaps, you can see the writing on the wall. It breaks your heart but you’re preparing yourself for the heartbreak.
Yet 47% of you believe that they’ll be able to turn things around – or that the networks won’t want to destroy the genre and instead will keep it around and perhaps even invest even more, returning them to their former glory. That would be the best sweeps story yet!
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