The Decline of Western Civilization Part III: The Daytime Soap Opera
Posted by ashley on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 in Author • Jim Romanovich - President Worldwide Media and Entertainment - Associated Television International • Media Research • TV Blogs • (14) Comments • Permalink •
The Daytime Emmy Awards has been a staple for soap opera fans in particular since they first aired on May 21, 1974. Nearly four decades later, many questions are being asked not just about this event but about the daytime soap opera itself. In its heyday back in the 1980s the revenue generated by the daytime soaps was in large part the driving force that financed a great deal of what we saw in primetime. That’s right. The Young and The Restless was indirectly financing Falcon Crest and Dallas! General Hospital was financing Dynasty! On General Hospital over 30 million people watched Luke and Laura’s wedding in November of 1981. Stars who began in the soaps, such as Meg Ryan, Demi Moore, and John Stamos were becoming superstars in other areas of entertainment. Being on a top rated daytime soap was the place to be!
Flash forward to January 2009 and the news was that the Daytime Emmys were dead. Not mostly dead. But DEAD dead. When our company, Associated Television International (ATI), entered the scene shortly thereafter, it was in true soap opera form. The viewers were at the Daytime Emmys wake when all of a sudden the body popped up out of the coffin just like a great Friday cliffhanger on The Bold and the Beautiful would do. Yes, the Daytime Emmys drew new breath and it not only seemed alive, but also vibrant. We saved the Daytime Emmys and made sure it was seen on network television at least one more time last August 29, 2009 on the CW . Did we kick-start something new? Or did we just prolong its decline? To answer that, we have to go back twenty years to see all that led up to January 2009.
Although the 80s were considered a mostly boom decade of excess, the daytime soaps especially enjoying this period, it was the wet blanket of the latter part of that decade and early 90s that proved how quickly things can turn. Remember all those interchangeable hair metal bands of the 80s? It took one Nirvana, who reflected a new generation of less idealistic kids, to kill them all. It was the same thing for the soap opera. On October 19, 1987, known as Black Monday, the stock market suffered the worst single day loss in its history of continuous trading. Although we recovered rather quickly at that time, it did sound out the bartender’s “last call” as the party was winding down. Everything was changing. A more serious, somber tone replaced the frivolity of the previous seven years. American families needed a two income household just to make ends meet so more women, mothers actually, went to work. The first wave of a noticeable decline in soap opera viewing came during the Gulf War when television viewers, via CNN especially, got an inside look at the drama of war in real time. We had front row seats as the quiet anticipation of Desert Shield evolved into the action fury that became Desert Storm. Even the name, Desert Storm, sounded like a Bruce Willis thriller. But it wasn’t. It was real life being captured on my television in my living room. The lure of this new way of presenting the news, which ultimately led to the modern reality show format, permeated the thought process of programmers who tried to capitalize on what was certainly engaging television. Even Dan Rather in his nightly news was forced to acknowledge CNN’s stunning coverage from the Al-Rashid hotel in Baghdad stating, “I guess they’re not the little cable network anymore!” He was right as he unintentionally foreshadowed the beginning of the end in the dominance of the nightly network news.
The decline in ratings for the daytime soaps was apparent for most with the exception of the Young and The Restless, which actually had a three year resurgence, claiming the top position from General Hospital in 1988 with an 8.1 rating and climbed to an 8.6 rating by 1993. In 2010, they have dropped to a 3.7 rating and are still number one despite losing more than half of their audience. This is a dismal statistic on the daytime soap itself if a 3.7 is considered the best rating. So what Black Monday began in 1987 and further escalated in 1991 with the Gulf War coverage, it wasn’t until the event of June 1994 that forever changed the landscape of not only daytime television, but television itself with a giant exclamation point –OJ!
From the shocking murder of his ex-wife Nicole and Ron Goldman, to the Bronco chase, to the endless gavel to gavel coverage, viewers were inundated with a real life soap opera that just got more fascinating with each passing day. When the Simpson case finally ended on October 5, 1995, we literally had a sixteen month soap opera story arc acted out by memorable characters, Friday cliffhangers, and the latest CSI technology that kept us glued to every word, every witness, and every angle. The characters of Johnnie Cochran and Kato Kaelin were created in this play in a way that only real life could write. As terrible as this tragedy was, it made for must-see television. How could anything created in a soap opera compete?
It couldn’t.
Once the trial was over and the soaps were able to resume their five day a week schedule, most viewers lost interest, flipped channels, or stayed at their jobs that they initially had to take to help support their families. For those still at home, it was difficult to get back into the daily rhythm of a soap opera when the Gulf War and OJ opened up the world of Jerry Springer, cable television and the Internet. Oprah was more interesting because her topics were real life soap operas and once you get the real thing handed to you every day, it’s kind of hard to watch “pretend” reality with that same vigor.
The soaps, however, did counter with more outrageous storylines and quicker pacing. Days of Our Lives introduced a devil possession storyline that ended up backfiring on the core of the show itself (ironically, the ratings went up for the next five years but this was most likely due to NBC promoting the show though its number one sitcom, Friends, when Matt LeBlanc’s character, Joey Tribbiani, landed a role on the soap). General Hospital went from fantasy/sci-fi stories to dark, violent characters by making the mob the focus of the show rather than its super heroes. Stories on many of the soaps were revolving around plot devices rather than characters in order to keep the trigger-happy TV audience tuned in. What were seen as attempts at revitalizing a genre did nothing more than attempting a complete design makeover for the Titanic moments after it hit the iceberg. While we have seen phenomenal uses of direction, technology, interesting stories, and great actors in today’s daytime soaps, the hemorrhaging over the last two decades has been too great to even sustain, let alone build, the genre in this current format.
In January 2009, the biggest celebration of daytime came to a screeching halt when the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) had no outlet for their once-prestigious event. Like the soaps, producers tried all sorts of new angles from utilizing the Internet, to having flip cameras on dinner tables, to actually having the audience on stage. It didn’t work and the Daytime Emmys became the first casualty of many to come related to the soaps. Enter Associated Television International (ATI). Helmed by Emmy Award-winning producer David McKenzie, I was given the task of all tasks, under his direction, of getting the rights to the event and then a broadcaster. Along with David, we did.
I told NATAS that if they gave us the rights, we would guarantee the Daytime Emmys would get a network deal in three weeks. Through our association on other projects with MGM, which controlled a Sunday night two-hour block on the CW, we were able to put together a great deal for everyone. The CW, although not the strongest on all networks, catered to a much different audience- young females. Young women are the most sought after demographic to replenish the genre’s viewership if it has any chance at all of surviving. Our goal was not to win any ratings points. It was just to prime the well by bringing back the image of the Daytime Emmys we all remember, first and foremost, give the soaps a platform to reach a new demographic, and then to entertain the audience for two hours. Vanessa Williams as host sang, danced and had a lot of fun. It was a classy, elegant event that reminded us that this is what the Daytime Emmys was always about.
It was also the lowest rated Daytime Emmys in history with a rating of 0.6/2 in 18-49, 2.72 million viewers. Critics relished this result, but I remained unfazed. I predicted it would be the lowest rated event weeks before the broadcast. It was never about the ratings. It was a sold-out event. It was about creating a renaissance with something that was pronounced DEAD dead just eight months before. In that, we succeeded mightily. For the record, critics failed to acknowledge what I call the “apples to apples” comparisons which were the ratings of the show versus the CW's prior 4-week time period average. The Daytime Emmy Awards telecast, in fact, was +81% in total viewers, +122% in HH, +50% in W18-49, +57% in W25-54, +20% in W18-34, +20% in A18-49, +17% in A25-54 and +25% in A18-34. And do you know what else this lowest rated event got us? The Las Vegas Hilton and CBS for 2010. If the show was such a bomb, then no amount of charm and smiles from me would get this result if the Daytime Emmys didn’t strike a positive chord with both the Las Vegas Hilton and CBS. Because 2009 was a very good show and now with the Las Vegas element, we have returned it to its full glory that it hasn’t seen in years. With a tribute to Dick Clark and American Bandstand, Regis Philbin, Cheech and Chong, Barry Manilow, The Blue Man Group, Cher, Simon Cowell, and Ryan Seacrest to name a few, this year’s Daytime Emmys has all the elements to rank among the best.
But is it enough? Will the Daytime Emmys be saved? Will the daytime soaps be saved? I really don’t think so. Not that it matters, but I don’t think the ratings will do better than what they did the last time they aired on CBS, although they will have a more entertaining program than in years past. Most importantly, we have no plans to produce next year’s show and, without us, I’m fearful that the show will go back into oblivion. It could very well be a dinner with a webcast or it could be incorporated into the Primetime Emmys. I hope it can continue even if we aren’t involved. But no other production company, with the exception of Dick Clark Productions, has shown such care for the genre than us. If we do come back, it’s because we have a good reason to do so. But we don’t know how we can top this year and I’d rather we go out on a creative high note.
And what about the soaps? Well, we lost Guiding Light last year and As The World Turns this year. Ironically, the last tape date for ATWT was Thursday, June 24th, with its final airdate September 17th. This leaves six soaps- One Life To Live, All My Children, General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless, and The Bold and the Beautiful. I predict two more will be gone in five years with all leaving daytime by 2020.
But where one door closes, another opens. Just as radio before it, television is morphing into the Internet and I believe this is where your favorite soaps can not only survive, but thrive. The Internet and television will soon be one and the same and I am confident that these soaps can continue in shortened versions of their current formats very successfully, creatively, and financially if someone smart enough can find a way to monetize it. Perhaps the Internet can give us a truer impact of these viewers that archaic measuring systems for television have not.
The soap opera has been around since man starting telling stories. The way we tell them is constantly changing and we shouldn’t be afraid of that. But as for the daytime soaps continuing on network television, I believe no amount of great storytelling, stunt casting or magic tricks is going to change the momentum that began twenty years ago. I know fans blame the soaps for killing themselves. I say it was going to happen anyway. The fans are too emotionally involved and take news of their shows very personally. Especially bad news. But I think the strongest shows have done an admirable job maintaining their viability on network television in spite of these obstacles.
The end is coming. The toothpaste is out of the tube. Once producers fully grasp that the end will come and that they have a huge and loyal fan base to support them is when they can focus on that next step with these remaining six series rather than watching their slow deaths. Now if only they would…
The 37th Annual Daytime Emmys hosted by Regis Philbin airs live on Sunday, June 27th from 9-11pm Eastern/Pacific (taped delayed) on CBS.
Jim Romanovich, President Worldwide Media and Entertainment - Associated Television International, is entering his 25th year in show business as an actor, producer, and distributor. He began his professional career as a morning disk jockey on Chicago radio, appeared in various television projects, and produced several top rated series and specials for SyFy, PAX (now ION) Spike, TNT, Discovery, MyNetwork, and the CW. Having been employed by ATI for the last 20 years, he was instrumental in bringing The Daytime Emmy Awards as well as The Hollywood Christmas Parade successfully back to television in 2009 and again in 2010. He has been interviewed and written extensively on the daytime television market, past and present media, as well as his passion for classic movies and television. He has consulted companies establishing media divisions and mentors graduates in the entertainment field. He is one of Eastern Illinois University’s most successful graduates and was just ranked #18 in TV Guide Canada’s 25 Most Powerful Persons in Daytime for 2009.
