But it is rare for viewers to fight back against the slide of an entire genre. WhenĬanned 'Father Knows Best' in 1955, after its first year on TV, a letter-writing campaign helped resurrect it. Spurned viewers have long protested cancellations. 'I'm afraid that this country is going to realize a little too late that it has discounted its own heritage,' she says. 'The stereotype of a soap opera fan is a fat, lazy housewife lying on the couch eating bonbons all day long,' says Flo DiBona, 56, a consultant who has watched every episode of 'All My Children' for the last 33 years. ABC said it hopes its new daytime shows, one about cooking and another about weight loss, will attract a younger audience that has been lured to cable TV.

Nielsen estimates most soap opera viewers are now over 55, a group advertisers pay less to reach.

Some say ageism and prejudice are behind the cancellations. 'I just didn't want to let it go down without making my voice heard,' he says. He started watching soaps with his mom when he was 7, and hasn't stopped. 'We're swimming against the tide of pop culture,' says Mr. Read summaries of some of the remaining and recently deceased soaps. 'All good things come to an end,' she said.ĭuring the heyday of daytime soap operas, nearly 20 were on the air.

Winfrey said in a video to communicate what she called the 'bone-marrow truth' to fans who asked her to put the shows on her new cable channel. 'There just are not enough people who are at home in the daytime to watch,' Ms. ABC executives said Hoover wasn't a major advertiser, and removing ads doesn't help soaps' shaky finances. , made a splash in April by saying it would stop advertising on ABC in solidarity with the fans. Hoover Co., a division of Hong Kong-based So far, the protesters have yet to find a savior. 'Nothing is ever dead when you're a soap opera fan,' says Coleman Bell, the group's founder.Ī spokesman for ABC declined to comment on the fan protests. On Monday, a group called Fans United Against ABC plans rallies outside ABC-affiliated television stations in 21 cities from Orlando to Omaha, timed to follow Sunday's Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards.

Soap opera network saved by the bell