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Original poster

Have soap opera had their day!

28 replies

thinking123 · 12/08/2022 09:39

I noticed a news story the other day saying eastenders has its lowest ratings ever.

It made me think, hardly anyone I know watches them anymore.
I honestly think in ten years time they will be gone from tv

OP posts:
Horcruxe · 12/08/2022 09:40

YANBU

I cant believe the inappropriate storylines that were pre-watershed

I dont watch them and wouldn't let my kids watch them.

Snowleopard98 · 12/08/2022 10:34

The only person I know who still watches soaps is my mother-in-law. I never hear other people talk about soaps any more .

When I was single in the 90's I used to watch Eastenders and Brookside. I watched some old YouTube clips recently of some episodes from back then and I can't believe how awful they were. Absolutely dire.

Antarcticant · 12/08/2022 10:39

'Neighbours' has recently bitten the dust so you might be right.

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RudsyFarmer · 12/08/2022 10:41

I stopped watching them once I had children. I was so sick of the miscarriage abd child death storylines. Made me feel sick.

Emeraldopal · 12/08/2022 10:42

It’s sad as I seem to remember them being so good - Corrie, eastenders were both fantastic back in the day.

Sparklingbrook · 12/08/2022 10:44

I don't think i know anyone that watches Emmerdale/Corrie/Eastenders any more.
At work I never hear 'Did you see <insert soap opera> last night'. I think people are watching other stuff and not on BBC/ITV etc.

Original poster
thinking123 · 12/08/2022 10:51

My mother used to watch them all. Now she watches classic Corrie and classic emmerdale on itv2

OP posts:
BorderlineObsessedWithYou · 12/08/2022 10:55

I like Home and Away, as do my friends, although we don’t know any others that do. 😂 I don’t know anyone that watches British soaps.

GiveMyHeadPeaceffs · 12/08/2022 10:58

I think you're probably right, OP. I only know one person that watches them and that's my MIL. There's never any chat in work about them either. But if there's no soaps then who will populate Strictly etc?! 😱

Original poster
thinking123 · 12/08/2022 11:04

GiveMyHeadPeaceffs · 12/08/2022 10:58

I think you're probably right, OP. I only know one person that watches them and that's my MIL. There's never any chat in work about them either. But if there's no soaps then who will populate Strictly etc?! 😱

The love island people :)

OP posts:
PuppyMonkey · 12/08/2022 11:06

I used to love them all, but I think once they started doing 4, 5, 6 episodes a week, coupled with the acting and stories getting more and abysmal, it became quite a “chore” to keep up with viewing. First I gave up emmerdale, then EastEnders and finally Corrie. I’m two or three years clean now and have never looked back.Grin

Annoyedwithmyself · 12/08/2022 11:06

I think so, they just seem to have evolved the wrong way.

Storylines have got so far removed from what made them interesting and compelling originally.

I don't regularly watch any but it seems to be a conveyor belt of crime and completely outrageous events that would be the talking point in an area for decades happening monthly when the original appeal was a portrait of human life and interactions.

The Carters in Eastenders for instance could have been a gentle portrayal of an ambitious and likeable family using some great character actors that went into more depth as the family got older, with the occasional drama as in real life but instead has spiralled into all kinds of murder and despair for no discernible reason.

Original poster
thinking123 · 12/08/2022 11:36

Can you imagine if you knew Ken Barlow in real life! You would call him cursed lol

OP posts:
Wheelyweddingwipedout · 12/08/2022 11:45

Agree - they used to be fabulous. Coronation Street in particular had character driven storylines with strong female characters. As pp’s have said, story lines quickly sink into bizarre extreme situations

Bringon2023 · 12/08/2022 11:50

I said this the other day after Neighbours finished. It's mostly older people that watch them still, and after 60 years of soaps I think all the storylines have been done. Plus they've got to compete with series on streaming sites like Netflix with original content, bigger budgets and better acting!

Blossomandbee · 12/08/2022 11:55

I used to watch most of them but don't watch any anymore.
Coronation Street just got abysmal, awful characters and unbelievable storylines that dragged on and on and tried to cover every single horrific issue possible. Murder, death, illness, and misery isn't entertainment to me. Eastenders is the same and the old characters seem to be creeping back in a weird rehash of the good storylines from the 90's.
I do love the classic Corrie and eastenders though when it was good storylines and humour.

sunsetsandsandybeaches · 12/08/2022 11:57

There's only so many storylines you can use though.

I used to love Hollyoaks and Neighbours but haven't watched either in probably a decade or more.

I think the rise of on-demand TV and internet streaming means sitting down at a certain time to watch a soap just doesn't happen anymore.

GiveMyHeadPeaceffs · 12/08/2022 12:24

@thinking123 oh I forgot about them (still don't know any of them though!) Grin

Gymnopedie · 12/08/2022 12:41

It was never going to work once they decided to have episodes every day. they did it off the back of their incredibly high ratings for their twice a week broadcasts, but they failed to realise that you can't do that and keep the same standards. Instead of being able to concentrate on some reasonable 'ordinary' storylines they had to get more and more outlandish with shootings and murder etc. Before Brookside stopped, I read that on a close of 14 houses they'd had eight murders.

Original poster
thinking123 · 12/08/2022 12:53

Wonder how many there have been in the other soaps.

OP posts:
Georgeskitchen · 12/08/2022 13:16

Back when Corrie, Emmerdale and Eastenders used to air twice a week the storylines were of a better quality. (Always found EE's a bit shouty and depressing though)
Now they are mostly on every night there is much more airtime to fill so the quality has been diluted massively, and now Emmerdale and Corrie have gone just as shouty and depressing as EEs

icebearforpresident · 12/08/2022 13:34

My Dad, long dead, was a long distance lorry driver and used to spear his weekends home watching all the soaps my mum had recorded for him during the week.

I did go through an Emmerdale phase in the early 2000’s but never really bothered with the rest. Although I do look back on my uni days and the lunchtime trio of Neighbours/Doctors/Diagnosis Murder fondly.

GCAcademic · 12/08/2022 13:38

For the sake of nostalgia I thought I would watch the final episodes of Neighbours, having not watched it since I was a student.

I was shocked at how terrible it was - the poor acting, infantile script, the fact that no scene seemed to last more than 45 seconds.

I'm not sure if it was always like that (in my nostalgic memory, it wasn't), but I do think that television (at the decent end) has become a lot more sophisticated and there is much more available now so as to preclude watching this kind of dross.

Battlecat98 · 12/08/2022 13:52

I am sad to say, I still watch EastEnders, I think it's just a bit of familiarity for me now. I readily accept that it has poor scripts and acting but, it's a bit of mindless TV for me after a long day at work. I would be sad to see it end but, I daresay I would survive.

VickerishAllsort · 12/08/2022 14:09

I gave up Corrie 2 years ago after following it for decades. It had gone beyond ridiculous and I haven't once been tempted to dive back in.