I don’t watch much daytime anymore, does anyone watch the soaps,etc in the daytime anymore?
I work for an NBC affiliate. NBC airs only one soap opera, the long-running “Days of Our Lives.” If “Days” is ever pre-empted for any reason, the phones blow off the hook, so yes, there are people watching. Periodically there are rumbles about NBC cancelling “Days,” but I would be surprised to see that happen any time soon. It’s cheap to produce and is a money-maker. ABC and CBS run more soaps than NBC, all of them heritage shows that began in the 60s or 70s.
We also run Rachael Ray, who replaced Harry Connick Jr.'s show. Harry was a departure from the usual daytime gabfests, with a combination of music, comedy and light talk. Harry did very well for us but unfortunately did not do well in major markets, hence his cancellation after a couple of seasons. We also run Steve Harvey and Dr. Oz, both of which do very well. We air “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” following our noontime newscast, which does quite well and has a loyal following. We don’t air any of those tacky Judge Judy-type shows. They’re really not our style.
A lot of our daytime viewers are elderly folks, who turn on the TV when they get up in the morning and leave it on all day. They may or may not be actively watching, but we’re always there.
Mrs. FtG watches Days of Our Lives. When it’s on and I’m walking thru the room I will sometimes notice something and ask her about it. E.g., last week* a character mentioned E.J. so I had to ask about that.
She also watches cooking shows that have been DVRed. Some of these are first run in the evening but mainly the shows are run during the day and that’s when she watches them.
Thanks to DVRs, things can get really skewed. E.g., she watches the previous night’s baseball game the next day.
I don’t watch TV during the day nor daytime programs later on with a few exceptions. E.g., I’ll record some oldies once in a while and zip thru them later for fun.
- Which was an episode at least a couple weeks old at that time. DVRs: daytime, schmaytime.
I work at home a couple of days a week, and my wife is a TV junkie. Short answer: no, it’s not.
There are still a few soap operas on the major networks, and still a couple of game shows (Let’s Make a Deal and The Price is Right on CBS, and Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and Jeopardy! in syndication). But, overall, it’s talk (either fluff, like Live with Kelly and Ryan, or people arguing with each other, like The View), trashy reality-style stuff (like Maury Povich or the various court shows), or re-runs on the cable channels.
I usually put my headphones on, and listen to music, or move into the other room to get away from it.
soaps are dead… I think The networks has one each ….Nbc is days of our lives CBS is young and the restless and ABC is general hospital Infact when they tried to make an all soap-opera network if failed and became “pop” or something like that …. they still have a catch-up day for some of them occasionaly
the “independent” stations mix it up with gossip and judge shows paid programming maury the racier yalk sows like wendy willams ect and the usual reruns
CBS is also apparently still running The Bold and the Beautiful, which, of the remaining soaps, is a relative baby, having only started in 1987. But, otherwise, you’re correct.
there are only 4 soaps left on the air. I think around 1990 there were 19 on the air.
The trouble with programming for daytime TV anymore is that the general availability of DVR-type functionality allows people to watch whatever they want during the day, and the availability of tons of channels allows people to watch whatever type of show they want during the day. And because women are increasingly part of the daytime work population, the target population for soap operas is no longer as available.
My personal opinion is that TV in general is a wasteland any more, but then, I yell at the kids to get off my lawn, too. 
My wife likes to watch CNN over lunch.
These days maybe that qualifies as a soap.
You remind me of my grandmother, who would watch The Doctors and Another World.
Not sure if it’s “Daytime”, but I watch Let’s Make A Deal and The Price Is Right, and I assure you, neither are worth watching.
Of course, but why characterize this as “trouble”? Theoretically, this would mean that it doesn’t matter when you broadcast a show, but that doesn’t seem to be the case yet. Why?
It seems there really are two separate questions:[ol]
[li]Is the TV soap opera still a viable genre?[/li][li]Has daytime TV just become “filler” for other reasons?[/li][/ol]I suppose other questions are implicit: [ul]
[li]Is there still a distinct audience for daytime TV that requires distinctly different programming?[/li][]Or is it that there just has always been a custom of “using” TV differently in the daytime, and people are holding on to that custom?*[/ul]
Your opinion, of course, but mine is that where TPIR is concerned, while Bob Barker does have his place in the pantheon of television’s storied past, Drew Carey has made a name for himself in the decade+ he’s been there, and I have ever enjoyed seeing him there.