The Soap Opera Genre Revisited

This book examines the soap opera ratings in the U.S., UK, and Australia to identify the trends and analyze the discussions on soap opera blogs and interviews to gauge the audience reception of the soap opera storylines. Over the years, the soap opera genre developed and became very successful - especially between the 1960s and 1990s - in the US, the UK, and Australia. In the early 2000s, due to the US soap operas’ declining ratings, those that were once successful, including Guiding Light, As the World Turns, and All My Children, were cancelled. For example, during the 1996–1997 season, there were 12 soap operas on air. During the 2008–2009 season, this number dropped to eight, and currently (2014–2015 season), only four soap operas remain on US television networks. Nonetheless, the genre is still widely popular in Australia and the UK. Shows such as Neighbours and Coronation Street consistently draw high ratings, suggesting that different factors affect the soap operas’ success in different countries, such as production and budgetary issues, the nature of the stories, and changing viewership demographics. Understanding the reasons behind the genre’s popularity and decline through a comparative analysis is crucial to make sense of its current status.