Daytime Soap Operas Migrate To The Web1

By Brittany Frederick, Sep 20, 2011 in Devanity, Show News

Soap operas have been a part of daytime television since the 1950’s. By now, television aficionados are familiar with, if not fans of, the enduring midday programs that tell sprawling stories with huge casts (and many cast changes), stormy romances, surprise reveals, and even an instance of saving the world from being frozen (thanks, Luke and Laura). Historically, soap operas have been known to preserve a loyal fan base, often including people who had grown up on a particular serial. The genre even has a cable channel, SoapNET (which is shutting down sometime in 2012).

However, the genre has fallen on hard times in the last decade. In the 1990’s, soaps attracted an average of over six million viewers. The 2009-2010 year, however, averaged just over 1 million soap viewers. For the sake of comparison, MTV’s reality hit Jersey Shore snagged over 8 million viewers in 2011.

With the broadcast audience eroding and an awful lot of history in the balance, it makes sense for soaps to start to look elsewhere for an audience. Just as CBS’s Guiding Light made the jump from radio to television in 1952, today’s soaps must again go where the audience is going: the Internet. A growing number of people are already watching their programming online – be it through network websites and services like Hulu and iTunes or new independent channels like KoldCast.TV – so it makes sense to take advantage of this trend and connect with old and new soap viewers there.

Watch a complete lineup of original soaps on KoldCast TV

While Internet television has been taking flight for some time, online sudsers are a fairly recent addition to its programming lineup. According to Wikipedia, the “mobile soap opera” (short-form soaps created for mobile phones) originated in the Netherlands in 2003 with Jong Zuid and then sprung up in Australia in 2005 with fanTESStic. The US experienced the explosion of short-form soaps on the Internet in 2009 with High Rise, Gotham, and Crystal Chappell’s Venice. Since then, there has been no shortage of original soaps. Fans of the genre can feel confident that although their shows might be distributed differently, they can still expect the classic, beloved, model of wealthy families involved in scandal and mystery, like new online soap DeVanity which tells the story of a family trying to keep a crumbling jewelry empire alive.

DeVanity – Episode 1

In addition to this rebirth online, the genre received a huge shot in the arm recently with the impending revival of two major long-running franchises. In 2011, popular ABC soaps One Life to Live and All My Children reported they would be leaving TV airwaves due to declining ratings. This sparked outrage amongst die-hard fans of both programs until they received a sort of reprieve: the network struck a licensing deal with media company Prospect Park to continue both series online, presumably in 2012 (AMC ends its broadcast run this month, OLTL won’t shutter until January 2012). Additional details have yet to be made public, but Prospect Park has already begun making offers to talent.

Many current and former soap stars expressed positive feelings toward the shift, happy to see their series continue in any format. Soap fans, however, don’t seem to be taking kindly to the change. The same month that the licensing deal was announced, a poll at the SoapCentral website saw a whopping 97% of respondents say that they like their soaps on television and won’t watch them elsewhere. Whether or not they’re serious, or perhaps just voting that way based on their feelings toward the impending loss, remains to be seen. One thing’s for certain – if soap fans don’t follow shows like OLTL and AMC to their new web homes, the shows will certainly find permanent endings.

DeVanity – Episode 2

DeVanity – Episode 3

Watch more episodes of soap opera DEVANITY

Brittany Frederick, is an award-winning freelance entertainment journalist who reaches millions of people around the world every day with her unique blend of sophisticated analysis, sarcastic humor, and varied life experience. She maintains her own blog (DigitalAirwaves.net) and you can follow her on Twitter (@tvbrittanyf).