It’s a back-from-the-dead plot twist worthy of a soap opera.
While only a few years ago the daytime drama was an endangered species (R.I.P. “Guiding Light,” “As the World Turns,” “All My Children” and “One Life to Live”), now the remaining network soaps are not only surviving, but thriving.
As of last week, all four daytime dramas — “The Young and the Restless” (CBS), “The Bold and the Beautiful” (CBS), “General Hospital” (ABC) and “Days of Our Lives” (NBC) — had been renewed for next season, some with multiple-year commitments.
Even more miraculously for today’s fractured TV landscape, the soaps are posting their best ratings in years — the result of an effort to up their game in the face of probable cancellation, says TV Guide reporter Michael Logan.
“There are many factors, but the loss of the four landmark shows in quick succession … scared the crap out of a lot of people,” says Logan, who has been covering soaps for 25 years. “I think it made them realize that their shows and a lot of livelihoods were at stake and they got deadly serious.
“There becomes a delusional factor when you’re on the air as long as you are with these shows,” he says “[T]hey were so comfortable with the audience sticking with them that they actually got sloppy, they got lazy.
“They were delivering [a] not very good product, and in this day and age we’re all too busy to watch stuff that doesn’t compel us.”
The effort to breathe new life into the soaps has paid off. The genre leader, “Young and the Restless” is averaging 5.2 million viewers, up 9 percent from last season (CBS has renewed it through 2017). “General Hospital” has grown 8 percent to 3.3 million viewers, its largest audience in seven years.
“Days of Our Lives” is drawing its biggest ratings in four years (2.9 million), up 11 percent from last season. And “Bold and the Beautiful” has improved the most — 14 percent — averaging 3.9 million viewers.
“The shows are absolutely better than they were,” Logan says. “Everybody’s trying really hard, and for the most part, delivering better stories, bringing back great old favorites from the past and doing some really bold, ballsy storytelling that they weren’t doing in the past. And social media has been really instrumental in drumming up the excitement among the fans instantly and creating a more expansive and really fun way to enjoy the shows as part of a community.”
He points to “Days” and “General Hospital” doing gay storylines after shunning them for years; the casting of former “Knots Landing” star Donna Mills in “General Hospital”; “Y&R” dabbling in a Scientology-like story; and “B&B” recasting the character played by Ron Moss as making the genre fun again for all demographics.
Because it’s not just the senior set tuning in anymore. Three of the four soaps are up among women 25-54, the key advertising demo for daytime TV: “General Hospital” (by 18 percent), “Days” (by 13 percent) and “Bold and the Beautiful” by (7 percent). “Y&R” is even.
Also playing a role in saving the soaps is that their ostensible daytime replacements have mostly failed. ABC’s “The Chew” has now established itself, but health makeover show “The Revolution” and “Good Afternoon America” both proved short-lived, while new talk shows (Katie Couric, Jeff Probst) were largely rejected by viewers.
But all the new life around soap operas is not likely to save “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” which were briefly revived on the Web by TOLN (The OnLine Network) in 2013. The soaps ceased filming last fall and their production company, Prospect Park, is currently embroiled in a $95 million lawsuit with ABC over its licensing agreement.
A source with knowledge of the negotiations put the return of “AMC” and “OLTL” at “less than a 5 percent chance,” saying, “until the lawsuit is settled, there’s no imminent plan to resurrect the soaps again.”