Let me tell you a little story - for most of my life I was addicted to soap operas like All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital. They used to take up a lot of my time and I thought they would be there forever. Up until now some of them have lasted 60 to 70 years. They used to idols to me and even now some of the characters are in my dreams. They took a huge chunk of my spiritual life even after I became Christian. I didn't think there was anything wrong with them despite the constant depiction of lust, fornication, and adultery, but I kept getting convicted over and over again. I would get convicted and I would ignore and I would get convicted and I would ignore again until one day I said, "hey, this stuff I am watching is really dark" I kept meditating on that verse - Whatever is pure, lovely, etc. meditate on these things-And I began to pull the plug on things that would haunt the mind like soap operas. That was in 2008. Now I found out these shows are getting cancelled - primarily because they haven't been pulling ratings and also because they wanted to negotiate to have Katie Couric former news anchor to host a television talk show and they want to pay her $20 million. Also Oprah is ending her show this season like you mentioned. So that leaves some airtime....And in the natural networks are trying to find something to take the place of these shows. Some of these secular networks will have a hard time maintaining their status and viewers and financial support. But I believe that this is an opportunity for further preaching of the gospel through television. I heard a prophet and several people in Christian media say that these are the times that God is going to use to spread out His Word using television and other forms of mainstream media. The world is hungry. Especially Americans to see something that will show them unselfishness and something that can really sink into their spirits. God is already using shows like Extreme Makeover Home Edition to reach out to the needy in the community and give them homes. But television can go a lot further to spread the gospel. These people are really hungry, and it is up to us as a body of Christ to seize the opportunity to take control of the airwaves so that at least we can stop seeing junk on the television. I encourage you guys to pray and seek God in this matter. Only He knows what is in store for the future of television!!!!

Very interesting article. It's so true - soap operas are being replaced by real-life drama: Facebook and reality tv. Why watch somebody else's drama when you can turn on your computer and see your own?

This is very interesting. At first, I was excited at the idea of soap operas losing viewership. However, you bring up such a valid point that people are instead being entertained by Real Housewives or the real lives of celebrities. The implications of this trend are very disturbing, and I think we ought to foster lives so that we follow Philippians 4:8: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." I firmly believe this starts with each individual, and in the home. We need to be on guard about what we are consuming with our eyes, ears, and minds. It might be easier to be entertained by celebrity gossip, but is it pure and lovely and admirable? This is something I've been convicted of in my own life. Although I may never have been caught dead watching a soap opera, I certainly ate up People magazine at the gym. And during college, I scoffed at reality shows while watching Sex in the City. Both of these things slowly chipped away at my own morals and standards. After seeing the subtle but clear destructiveness of these things in my own life, I cut them out. And now I am very cautious about what I let my eyes to see and my ears to hear.

A few more thoughts on soaps while we're at it. It's been years since I read on the genre, but an interesting fact is that worldwide, The Bold and the Beautiful was an enormous hit - by far the most widely-viewed soap (at that time, I don't know about now) - even though domestically, it seemed relatively few watched it. I've seen numerous episodes when spending time with Flemish female housemates. Acting is amazingly wooden - diction makes one think of Star Trek. This is already a very interesting tidbit if we're thinking ethnographically and anthropologically. It was theorized that B&B was popular worldwide because the English was easy to understand. I'm not so sure. There was a comforting effect in the heightened conventionality of acting and diction amidst all the posh adultery. Americans who have never lived abroad probably have little notion of what their soaps do to the image of American domestic life, and - by extension - Western culture in general. Those living in other countries tend to see us as lavishly wasting a good deal more than we actually are wasting, and fornicating a good bit more than most sane people do. It's effect is generally to produce unconscious thoughts of simultaneous veneration / emulation and anger. You love it, you hate it. Perfect recipe for maintaining dramatic tension and captive viewers. Of course, the emulation of conspicuous consumption and waste is spread far abroad: Look, the West is so successful, and this is the West. Why don't I make a heap of cash, blow it on tacky dress & interior design, and do a lot of fornicating as I go? With all the inane emulation of Western customs one sees wherever one goes, it's very unlikely that a good bit of this isn't being transferred by this very odd, vacuously decadent soap opera. For all intents and purposes, The Bold and The Beautiful is like having ten American Embassies in each city or tiny village of every foreign country, large to small. And each one of these American Embassies is staffed by blonde, buxom women and tall, handsome men who do nothing all day but bathe in champagne and give each other lap dances while throwing about ripped up dollar bills as confetti. That's how The United States chooses to represent itself culturally to the world. That some persons living in cultures which are generally critical of such behavior might grow to foster attitudes of distrust toward The United States - well, I say, let them stay in their primitive huts fomenting with bigotry. To be honest, living twenty years in a foreign country, I've grown a bit like those foreign locals in my attitudes to the good U.S.A. The thought of it makes me want to cry, or wretch, or both. I probably should have told my good Flemish female friends, "No thanks, I'll pass ... I already feel the U.S. is creepy enough!"

"even sought divine intervention to save these shows. But, as much as she empathized with their feelings of grief, Oprah..." OMgosh! So funny!

Beautiful article. Years ago I would have applauded the demise of the soap opera, the curmudgeonly individual I am. I can't understand why any end of the political spectrum would sit idly with this stuff - e.g., "rewarding" the rapist by letting him marry his victim. What message is this conveying to men? Art and media may indeed portray us something "larger than life," but when we see the conspicuous consumption that these soaps valorize - we're creating only more mimetic rivalry and sharpening class distinctions. "Yes, it's a glorious and wildly pleasant thing to go spending oodles and oodles of money on unspeakably huge housing units and other things we don't need, while the have-nots stare at us in awe and affection." It's no wonder that suburban social life came to be dominated by our pathetic mega-malls. But you are so very, very right at the demise of the soap opera as a symptom of an even worse social disease. We all felt that there was something very a-not-right with this all. But in the manner of soap operas, felt we needed to somehow "project" this emotion of our consciousness-of-things-needing-to-be-different by: adopting various lifestyle-adornments that send out the social message: "I am different, edgy, ironic, and sassy." Our celebrities get all edgy. Hillary Clinton shows a little cleavage and women love that "empowerment." Let's get all different and challenging in a deep and meaningful way, like getting piercings. We go to these self-same malls, we buy "urban" gear, get tattoos, purchase books of ridiculous scholarship by Matthew Fox about how the paintings of Hildegaard von Bingen are exactly the same thing as Buddhist mandalas and how the atonement is such a scandalously, morally repulsive thought (which of course is utterly alien to Hildegaard von Bingen), etc. etc.. We were simply acting out our odd, late 20th century version of the petty bourgeois ... identifying with the "ruling class" (in this case, our celebrities) ... acting out odd, circular dramas which signify ourselves as important, edgy individuals intent upon social change ... but in the end, gnawing at our social cohesion due to the huge amount of "noise" and empty statements ... requiring more "law and order" to enforce a harmoniously functioning society ... and of course, societies in greater need of policing in general are not particularly good at bringing together rich and poor. Left and right work together politically - a lot of "good causes," little substance, lots of dramatic posturing ... everybody buys more stuff, everybody must consume in order to make "identity statements" ... the upper classes grow wealthier and are protected by more blue on the streets. We all need to read more of the Frankfurter Schule on "Late Capitalism." We all need to learn to live more simply, and foster community-forming habits. We all need to learn to articulate more softly but nonetheless compellingly ... resorting less to "statements" and more to habits of generous discursiveness. We need a more substantial look at this "postmodern" thing making little ADD bunnies out of the best of us, and learn the difference between noise that's likely to inspire more noise, and dialogue that unites in love. Less Che Guevara and Rush Limbaugh T-shirts; more reaching out in love to those we fear won't understand or accept us. I.e., more Jesus all around - His way of speaking; His way of interacting socially; His transformative grace. And I'd really like to add that we need to bulldoze those suburban mega-malls. But that would be "noise."