The Next Big Thing

Over the past few years, many have insisted that the soap genre is dying. And while it's taken more than its share of hard knocks, could there be a renasaince on the horizon? As unlikely as it seems at the moment, there are lessons to be learned all around the daytime dial. GENERAL HOSPITAL has, under executive producer Frank Valentini and headwriter Ron Carlivati, been bringing in a show that is under budget and keeping viewers on the edge of their seats by keeping secrets under wraps. THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL continues to prove wildly popular around the world while raising the bar with exciting location shoots that take viewers not only out of the studio, but to far-flung lands! DAYS OF OUR LIVES has re-invented itself by returning to its roots. Could these lessons be applied to a new soap, perhaps for cable, where supposedly dead genres have managed to thrive? Could there be a better time for a timely, political soap in the vein of the late, great CAPITOL? We’ll discuss the possibilities... and then look to what's working, and what's not, on the current soaps with your host, Richard M. Simms, executive editor of Soaps in Depth!