Bold and the Beautiful Spoilers: Will Coronavirus Kill Off Daytime Soap Operas? Your Shows Could Already Be In Danger

The O.J. Simpson trial was said to have killed daytime soaps. It occurred during a time before there were social media, memes, live-streaming, and reality stars. Those were also the days when the big three networks reigned supreme and daytime television made money from soap operas.

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Soap operas lasted as long as the golden age from the radio. They got their names from the soap and detergent commercials that often aired during the programs. Soap operas were often aired during the daytime and written for housewives who kept themselves occupied while their kids were in school and their husbands were at work.

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But that all changed in the mid-’90s. Soap opera ratings began to decline. This continued into the millennium, especially in 2011 when ABC announced the cancellations of All My Children and One Life to Live. The soap opera as we knew it was dead. Some people believed the O.J. Simpson trial killed some of the best-loved soaps. The trial preempted soaps, pushing them to 2 a.m. airings, which led to a decrease in ratings.

Nowadays, soaps have something else to worry about. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic. CBS’s The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful started airing reruns last week after running out of new episodes because of the production shutdown. ABC’s General Hospital started airing “classic” episodes on Fridays earlier this month. NBC’s Days of Our Lives has more to work with since it shoots eight months in advance.

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Soap operas have seen an increase in viewership since most of the nation went into quarantine last month. According to TVLine.com, during the week of March 23, The Bold and the Beautiful and General Hospital had their best ratings in years. Days of Our Lives had its biggest audience in over a year. The Young and the Restless hit an 11-month high.

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— SOS/CTS/HH (@SoapOperaSpy) May 3, 2020

According to Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, he feels that soaps are having a hard time keeping up with the times. He doesn’t feel too good about the shows’ future. These shows have nothing else to blame but themselves. Thompson doesn’t feel that soaps will fail to captivate a younger audience.

“The writing has been on the wall for the daytime soap opera for a long time,” Thompson said, as per Forbes. “A lot of people weren’t alive when it was at its peak.”