There's also the loss of family watching, a handoff from mother to daughter to granddaughter, that used to assure a continuity of viewers. 'The networks aren't trying hard enough to make relevant,' she says. The genre was slow to adjust to new technologies even now, with the SoapNet cable channel and Internet streaming, effective promotion is lacking, says Dos Santos, who observes that soaps fly under the radar compared to reality shows. With more women in the workplace, there are fewer at home to watch the soaps. Some even broke ground, airing taboo subjects - abortions, homosexuality, marital rape - before prime-time shows.Д«ut events have conspired to kill off daytime dramas.

Soaps developed a formula: slow-moving, multiple plotlines multigenerational casts, gathered in seaside towns or local hospitals. He has a book on the genre due out next year. 'The 1960s and '70s were an unmatched era for soaps, with women at home and just three or four choices,' says Sam Ford, an analyst with the communications firm Peppercom. In the three-network arrangement that dominated for decades, soaps ruled daytime - there were 19 in 1969-70 - and even spawned prime-time variations, such as 'Peyton Place' and 'Dallas.' Not so long ago, such a dismissal would have been unfathomable. Michael Sands, a Southern California-based media consultant, is blunter. With the multichannel universe, particularly the alternatives of talk shows, judge shows and reality shows, 'I feel that a lot people, if they have to make a choice, they'd rather see 'Ellen.' ' 'It's very difficult to see how it could have survived,' she says, noting that even she's ceased to follow 'GL' in the past few years. 'I think it's really, really sad.' Gallery: Stars who started on soaps В»Д«ut, as a (well) realist, she adds, 'not surprising.' She knows the trends, and the trend for soap operas is going in the wrong direction. 'I've been watching 'Guiding Light' for the past 20 years,' says Ashley Dos Santos, an account executive and pop culture expert with the Washington-based public relations firm Crosby-Volmer. Other characters also received their moments.ДЇans have lamented the passing of the show, which has followed the Springfield clans of the Bauers, Spauldings, Coopers and Lewises for decades. On the final episode, long-entwined characters Reva Shayne and Josh Lewis decided to 'go on an adventure' together, in Lewis' words. Watch how 'Guiding Light' became an institution В» The latest soap victim, CBS' 'Guiding Light' - a show that began on NBC Radio in 1937 - went out Friday after 72 years on the air. In the past decade, the audience for soap operas has dwindled, as has the number of what broadcasters call 'daytime dramas.' Younger viewers, in particular, have gravitated toward reality shows, which feature the melodrama and outsized characters of soaps it's perhaps no coincidence that the co-creator of MTV's 'The Real World' and several other reality shows, Mary-Ellis Bunim, started as a soap writer and producer. With plot points like this, who needs soap operas?Д¬ertainly not most of America. And Rachel was attacked - yet again - by one of the city tabloids. NeNe got into an argument with Kim during a photo shoot. Audrina got a restraining order against an alleged stalker. Jon left Kate and his eight children and took up with the party girl Hailey.

Final episode of soap tv show