[quote]How are GH and BTG not canceled with ratings at or lower than GL, ATWT, AMC, OLTL had when they were canceled? All soap demos for 18-49 are below 0.3.
A few reasons.
1) "Linear" Viewership is down across all network programming. The audience is divided between streaming, premium, and basic cable channels, as well as the internet and phones. The "Big 3" networks and basic cable are not the only game in town for original programming anymore. More people are watching YouTube videos than the top network primetime shows.
2) Soap budgets are a fraction of what they used to be. I read somewhere that Days is produced for $400,000 a week, with GH and YR produced for not much more than that. The big three soaps, YR, GH, and Days, used to have enormous (for soaps) 7-figure budgets per week. We've all heard the stories about primetime cuts. They're only experiencing, now, what daytime has been going through for years.
3) Days, GH, and now BTG are huge successes in streaming. Streaming also allows networks to target ads to specific audiences in ways they can't on network, which brings in more ad revenue.
4) Salaries are down in daytime. BTG is a new soap; those actors probably make slightly above scale. Clifton Davis is probably working for insurance. Over at GH, Frank Valentini is known for being a budget master. There are a few actors over there doing well, but most aren't making the kinds of salaries that soap stars used to make. Even the crew and writers have voluntarily taken cuts to keep these shows on the air.
5) Big Pharma keeps daytime and primetime afloat, especially in daytime, where the target demos are 25-54 and 50+. Those folks are prime Big Pharma age.
My guess is GenX is the last big soap generation. After we die out, these shows are gone. Some older millennials may have watched Passions when they were kids, but they didn't stick with soaps. Southern high school-educated white women and black viewers appear to be holding on, but even those numbers aren't what they used to be.
