Clare Sellers
British soaps are arguably one of the biggest successes of our history. They somehow prevail, against all odds, evading cancellation for decades and finding the perfect sweet spot between being loved and hated by the nation.
I have never been a lover of soaps, but I can see their appeal. Airing most nights, they offer consistent entertainment, and viewers are never made to wait a year for new seasons like most other shows.
It is almost guaranteed that most households will have people who love to watch soaps like Coronation Street, Emmerdale, or Eastenders, but there is also a good portion of people who can’t think of anything worse than sitting through nightly episodes of the same show.
“It is often overdone and people get bored of the story by the time they begin to wrap it up”
Soaps are known for their over-the-top plots that can last for weeks, or at times even months. The problem with this is that it is often overdone and people get bored of the story by the time they begin to wrap it up, it might even make long-term viewers quit watching for a time.
Of course, this lends to the beauty of soaps, the ability to tune in one night and be able to piece together what is happening and who is involved means that new viewers can start watching from the current episode without needing to go back and wade through the hundreds of episodes preceding it.
One of the biggest issues people have with soaps is that they are often quite depressive to watch. After running for so long, the shows are constantly having to up the drama with each plotline in order to keep people interested, but this can sometimes have an adverse effect.
There are tram crashes, fires, illness, toxic relationships, abuse, the list could simply go on and on. With so much joy being created by these shows, who could resist tuning in?
The reason they are able to play on these plots and have viewing stay steady instead of declining is that it often mirrors problems the nation may be facing or can relate to, and people want to see that represented on screen.
Those who don’t watch tend to find these storylines morbid and would probably prefer some light-hearted viewing – perhaps The Office is more in their lane – and I would be with them on that one.
However, after running for so long we must question when these shows will run out of plot lines, or more likely when the viewers will finally get tired of these recycled ideas passing from show to show.
“The soap world will now be fighting for viewership rather than complimenting each other”
During the pandemic, soaps struggled to capture audiences as they were having to compete with major league streamers offering new concepts to viewers. Now, trying to rectify this Coronation Street will change from daily episodes during the week to just three episodes a week, each an hour long.
This presents the opportunity to clash with other soaps airing at the same time, essentially the soap world will now be fighting for viewership rather than complimenting each other in the TV schedule.
It almost seems as though it has been haphazardly thought through. At least one of the soaps is destined to crash from this change, although it seems it will not be the longest-standing show Coronation Street, which has recently celebrated its 55 year anniversary.
So, are the soaps days coming to an end? It’s definitely a possibility, and with no plans to shake up plot ideas or allow for a concept change, it’s safe to say that the soap world may be crumbling around us.
Featured image courtesy of Possessed Photography on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.
claresellers
I am a 20-year-old multimedia journalism student in my final year studying at the University of Salford