Once Source's Take on Soaps:

Once a mainstay of TV and one of the industry's most reliable and profitable genres, daytime dramas have slowly been getting scrubbed out of the network picture. Gone are a playbill of soaps with evocative names such as "Another World," "Santa Barbara," "Sunset Beach," Port Charles" and "Passions" -- all victims of a redrawing of the American workforce and the makeup of the daytime audience.

The target audience of soaps -- stay-at-home moms busy with the ironing and other chores -- has eroded as more women have joined the workforce. About 60% of women age 20 and older -- nearly 68 million women -- have jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fifty years.

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Comment:

One of the most popular soaps in the 1960's and early '70's was Dark Shadows that appealed to kids rushing home from school to catch it at the 4:00 hour.

When Soaps became extra popular in the 1980's it was because of plotlines that appealed to college kids but did not alienate the older audience.

Soaps also had a boost in popularity with the advent of VCR's and people used VCR's to record shows.

With the Soap Channel, Soaps are no longer limited to one time runs are limited to day time audiences.

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The real problem:

Soaps were once low budget. The demands of soap producers has grown more and more.

Networks see talk shows and reality crap as an alternative to the once low budget soaps but now costly Soaps.

Advertisment revenue for all television has become more difficult.

Soaps require an investment of "keeping up" which is one of the problems I have with the serials I am writing here. I can not post a quality segment every day and if I go too long without a quality segment then of course I've lost readers because they've lost interest. Building a lasting audience with content is difficult.

Televison is currently more going for the channel flippers than the loyal viewers. Loyal viewers are more easy to piss off because they expect more from you. Channel flippers are more interested in the 3 minutes of entertainment wherever they find it.