#SOAP OPERA UPDATES TV#

Maloney says he doesn't believe the coronavirus crisis will be the death of soaps. 'It'll be cool to watch and see what they used to look like,' she said. She often talks to her mom in Georgia about the show's plot twists.ДЄnd while new shows are always better, a few golden oldies - perhaps the 1981 wedding of Luke and Laura, which drew 30 million viewers at the time - will be fun to see, Jones says. 'That would keep the anticipation going!' she said.Д«ut Jones says the fans - largely women, many of whom started watching with a mother or grandmother - are loyal. Walsh Costello said she fears that the audience could fade as the weeks of reruns drag on, and hopes new episodes will come back quickly - even if it's only one or two a week at the start. Now, with the coronavirus crisis presenting the soap industry with a new challenge, what happens next?

'Everyone has been stepping up to do what they need to do in order to keep things viable,' he said at the time. 'General Hospital' reduced its costs by 30 percent over a decade, ABC Daytime vice president for production Dominick Nuzzi told Variety in 2018 - mainly by cutting back on production time from 50 weeks a year to 35 for the same number of episodes. Since 2009, several major soaps have left the canvas - 'All My Children,' 'Guiding Light,' 'As the World Turns' among them - leaving just four to soldier on in a saturated content market where traditional broadcast networks are losing ground. Michael Maloney, who writes for the Soap Hub website, says soaps 'offer consistency in a world that doesn't always have consistency.' 'There's a sort of continuity to it that people find really comforting and really reassuring,' Price said. Show stalwarts include Kin Shriner and Genie Francis, who arrived in Port Charles - the fictitious New York city where the show takes place - in 1977 as Scott and Laura. But with more people stuck at home, its ratings soared - nearly to the top of the daytime charts.ДЄBC did not respond to requests for comment about when production could resume on 'General Hospital,' which boasts famous alumni like Demi Moore and Ricky Martin.Д¬alifornia Governor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday he would soon unveil plans for the entertainment industry, but noted there were likely to be delays in Los Angeles.ДЇor Mary Sue Price, who worked as a writer on 'General Hospital' from the late 1990s to 2012, the show's enduring popularity stems from its 'tradition of telling really strong stories' and the longevity of its characters. 'General Hospital' regularly draws slightly more than two million viewers a day. an hour of me time,' says 65-year-old Donna Walsh Costello, who had been watching the show more or less since the beginning. Storylines - which once focused largely on romantic hijinks and family drama - have expanded to include everything from the AIDS crisis to transgender acceptance to #MeToo harassment.

Soap operas began as radio shows before migrating to television. That leaves NBC's 'Days of Our Lives' - which shoots episodes months in advance - as the last soap standing through the summer and into the fall. 'The Bold and the Beautiful' and 'The Young and the Restless' - which air on CBS - ran out of shows last month.

The team behind the show re-edited episodes, adding lengthy flashbacks to make their new material last longer, and aired reruns of classic episodes on Fridays - but the well has run dry. Social distancing on a soap set? Impossible.

#SOAP OPERA UPDATES TV#

'So not having that key part of my everyday life is hard.'ДЇilming on 'General Hospital' came to a screeching halt in March, as it did for the vast majority of TV shows and films in progress, when businesses moved into lockdown mode. 'I've been watching this show since like I was maybe eight or nine years old,' says Tiana Jones, a 29-year-old who lives in New York's Queens neighborhood.

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