Cbs Cancels as The World Turns

CBS recently announced it is canceling the daytime soap opera As The World Turns, and I can’t say I’m surprised. When the network decided to cancel CBS soap Guiding Light last year, after it had logged over 70 years on the air, As The World Turns fans knew its future was also in jeopardy. Still, fans thought As The World Turns was given a reprieve from cancellation and hoped that something could be done to boost ratings and keep the show alive.

For loyal fans of As The World Turns, the sad news was hard to take, as some viewers have been tuning into the soap for decades! In the days following the announcement, many expressed sadness and frustration at the end of the soap and the timing of the sad news, that CBS delivered in December 2009 (Happy Holidays, As The World Turns actors…here’s your pink slip!)

For CBS, this was a cost cutting measure in a tough economy, but for millions of As The World Turns fans who have followed the stories and characters for years and years, it’s a real disappointment and the show will definitely be missed.

I have mixed feelings about the cancellation of As The World Turns. Some of my earliest memories revolve around being home in the afternoons with my mother and grandmother, watching a variety of daytime dramas, not just As The World Turns. Over the years, I tuned into lots of soaps at various points in my life. I recall watching soaps that are no longer on the air, like Another World and Ryan’s Hope, as well as long running soaps like Guiding Light and As The World Turns.

Definitely, times are changing and so is technology, and there seems to be no place in the world anymore for the genre known as the “soap opera.” Soaps belonged to a time when young women were home with their families and took a break with a cup of coffee to tune into daytime dramas in the afternoons. Soap operas like As The World Turns were real sagas, often revolving around a powerful matriarch or other strong female characters who kept the action moving forward.

These days, more women are working outside the home, and if they are home, they are probably going online or finding other amusements to pass the time. What once seemed a beloved pastime, watching daytime dramas like As The World Turns, doesn’t seem so cool or interesting anymore in modern times.

As The World Turns hasn’t done anything lately to wipe away the notion that soap operas are an outmoded relic of the past. The soap has offered us nothing but misguided storylines these past few years that have viewers speaking out in frustration. After tearing apart the established soap couples like Carly and Jack and all but destroying the plausibility of their relationship, this season the show is attempting to throw them back together as a last ditch bid for ratings, but it just isn’t working.

Not much about this soap is working anymore; CBS knows this and it’s pulling the plug. As The World Turns has suffered from some terrible casting and writing decisions over the last few years, and this has probably helped sink the soap, causing even more viewer apathy this year.

As The World Turns No Longer

I’ve tuned in to As The World Turns on and off over the years. The soap opera world used to try and hook in college students on summer break with some sizzling summer storylines, and I recall watching soaps between classes or on summer vacation. A few years ago, some performers from an acting workshop I was in appeared as day players on As The World Turns, so I tuned in to see them.

As I developed my freelance writing career at home, here and there I’d watch As The World Turns on my lunch hour, but it always felt a pale shadow of what it was when I was growing up, or in college. Overall, the sets, the storylines, the acting, and the writing, all felt inferior in my opinion. The glory days of Barbara and James Stenbeck were gone, and who could forget years ago when Julianne Moore played Frannie and Sabrina Hughes?

Modern day As The World Turns just couldn’t compete with those times, and even though talented actresses like Elizabeth Hubbard, Martha Byrne, and Colleen Zenk Pinter remained with the soap and gave great performances, As The World Turns right now cannot hold a candle to the past.

So I can’t say that I’m really sorry to see As The World Turns go–it’s been on life support for a while. When As The World Turns ends in September 2010, it will have been broadcast for 54 years! What disturbs me is the short attention span of the modern viewer, and where the acting and television industry appears to be heading these days.

The slot once held by As The World Turns will probably be filled by another game show, a reality show or celebrity talk show. Do we really need more of those shows clogging the airwaves? I’m disheartened that people would rather surf the internet, watch online videos, hang out on social networking sites or fill their minds with more reality TV. In this modern age, it’s like no one has time anymore to invest in characters or storylines like As The World Turns, which held viewer interest and had a place in the hearts of fans for over 50 years!

So yes, soaps are a relic and they will probably all get the axe in the name of progress. But I’m glad I grew up when I did, when the women of my family liked to join together to watch strong female characters, like the ones presented on daytime soaps. It seems like a more innocent era, one that will not happen again.

New York soaps like Guiding Light and As The World Turns provided jobs for lots of actors, especially female actors over 40, who sometimes have a hard time finding roles. I believe the demise of soaps like As The World Turns will only make it harder for actors to find work in this age of reality television. When networks realize they can crank out a few reality shows or talk shows and increase their revenues, do the TV shows with actors and storylines just disappear?

While I believe As The World Turns had it coming due to terrible decisions about storylines lately, I am still a bit sad to see it end. However, if the soap continues to offer such horrible plots like the ones they are indulging in lately (Good cop Jack accidentally kills his brother Brad, then Brad comes back to town as a ghost, then Brad’s teenage daughter is diagnosed with leukemia!) I won’t be watching the final episode of As The World Turns when it airs in 2010.