What Killed the Soap Opera

With the Sept. 17 finale of As the World Turns looming—and View clone The Talk ready to replace it—only six soap operas are still on the air. The genre is weak and possibly headed for extinction, largely because ad spending is in freefall. Advertising Age tries to figure out why and comes up with three theories:

• Women have other things to do: The target audience for daytime drama is women, who are increasingly employed outside the home and often outearning their spouses.

• Reality TV and social networking: Other genres and modes of content delivery, fictional and non, are ensuring viewers' lives have plenty of drama without soaps.
• The cable universe: Between the 24-hour news channels, widespread DIY programming, and regular old reruns, viewers have more choices than ever before. Some options get squeezed out, and one appears to be soap operas.