The BBC reports:

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US show As The World Turns, one of the world’s longest-running daytime soap operas, is being cancelled after 54 years, broadcaster CBS has announced.
The show, which has helped to launch the careers of stars like Meg Ryan, will end in September.
The announcement was made on the day the show’s 13,661st episode was aired.

Reality TV killed the soap opera star.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

8 replies on “As The World Turns Meets the End”

  1. Intarwebs and social networking killed the TV star. Decentralized mass communication killed the TV star, too.

    Reality TV will survive only because it can easily convert to a YouTube universe.

  2. I thought Reality TV was a direct the result of unions and the cost of scripted/acted shows. The same rationale went into the new Jay Leno show – lower ratings expectations but a better ROI overall.

  3. Au contraire. What has killed daytime television is the fact that there’s pretty much no such thing as a “housewife” any more.

  4. @ 4 makes a good point. plus, i think people now prefer to watch losers (jerry springer, judge judy) who make them feel better about their own lives, as opposed to fabulous rich pretty people who make them feel bad about their own lives.

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