Oprah: I Can't Save “the Soaps”

The Queen of Daytime TV decrees: soap operas’ reign has past.

In the wake of ABC canceling “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” Oprah Winfrey took to YouTube Thursday to explain why viewers shouldn’t expect "the soaps" to land on her new network OWN.

Winfrey said fans had “bombarded” her with requests to take action, and she understood “what it feels like to have a show that you love go off the air.”

“I appreciate that you all think that I could save the soaps,” Winfrey said in the two-minute video, MSNBC reported.

But she said it was the “bone marrow truth” that the audience for soaps had dried up over the years. Programs went from having “double-digit ratings” when she first began her TV career to lately “not even getting a full, single digit number,” Winfrey said.

She said there just weren't enough people at home in the daytime anymore to tune in to the genre.

“Believe me, if there was a dime to be made from them on broadcast television it would still be happening,” Winfrey said. “All good things come to an end.”

Check out Winfrey's full vid below.

Selected Reading: MSNBC, YouTube

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