Why TeenNick Needs To Make A Soap!
By Johnathon on October 19, 2009
So we all know the story of a modern soap opera fan right? For those of you who don't, here are the bullet points.
So we all know the story of a modern soap opera fan right? For those of you who don't, here are the bullet points.
The soap opera genre is dying. It's doomed. The sky is falling, blah, blah, blah, blah. But in this day and age of the internet and cable television, is there any reason for this industry to die? Shouldn't this be the time for the industry to innovate and for this genre to kick into overdrive?
Before we go on any furthur, let's add a few more specifics, shall we?
The age demographic that advertisers really, and I mean REALLY care about is the 18-49 year old women. Why do they care so much about that group? And is there any real sense to it? Nope, but that's just the way it is.
What are some of the hit shows that the younger demographic just cannot get enough of, that get all the buzz? Well, shows like Gossip Girl, 90210, The Secret Life of The American Teenager, Greek, Degrassi: The Next Generation, and Melrose Place.
So what is the one thing all of those shows have in common? And before you say it, no it's not bad acting, but nice try. All of the shows listed are prime time soap operas that are geared towards teens!
Now, we know that teens like a dose of drama. Let's look at the current landscape of American produced daily soap operas. Out of all of the soaps, the one that sounds like it would have a big teen presence with good teen storylines is The Young and The Restless right? I mean it has 'Young' in the title after all right? Well you would be wrong, because on Y&R at this moment there are only three teenagers total, and if they are seen once every few weeks you are lucky. The other soaps are not much better.
So we have a genre that is gunning for the teen demographic, but isn't really showing teens. When teens are shown, they are in horribly written situations, with piss-poor acting to boot.
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Comments
2 January 2009
8 weeks 2 days
i totally support this. i'm a teen and all the teen dramas that are supposedly good suck. 90210, The Secret Life of The American Teenager, Degrassi: The Next Generation, and Melrose Place all suck and the other two aren't even keeping my interest like they used to. networks keep cancelling all the shows that were good like veronica mars or just turning them into crap like one tree hill. a short teen soap w/ real storylines is just what teens need. not all this crap they see on the cw, abc family, and that dumb canadian show.
3 July 2008
21 hours 6 min
Why not ... the German Nick channel has started it's own soap last month. And so far it's seems to be a ratings success. But in Germany are all soaps still pretty popular and they don't have the problems that US soaps have.
But it could work, why not. I would totally support the idea too. It's a chance for the industry and any of them is a good one these days, right!?
14 December 2008
7 weeks 1 day
As a Canadian, you'd think I'd stand up for the television treaure known as the Degrassi series. Well I'm not.
I believe that the best Degrassi was in the eighties and ninties. When everything wasn't always so blown out of proportion.
Drama can be good,but kids need to see someone they relate to, not pretty, rich kids with problems. Degrassi: TNG should have ended when the original characters graduated. Or they could have created better characters when they left.
These days on Degrassi, it's about being famous and those who try, succeed everytime. Like the teen mom who became a model in Paris, or a whole bunch of kids who became movie stars (by sing on a bus to impress the director(WTF?)) or Paige who became a celebutante. They are basically saying "it's so easy to become famous, so who needs school?"
Mark my words, if I make my own REALISTIC teen drama myself (which I already know what I want to do), I'll do it, and it will be made.
11 December 2008
1 day 14 hours
Nickelodeon had a teen soap many years ago. It was called Swan's Crossing. I watched. I loved it. It starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as the main mean girl. It never caught on though and was cancelled. Passions used to attract a lot of the 18-49 crowd. They should've dropped that show to one hour/once a week. They should bring it back as the teen soap. Rebranded. Revamped. One hour/Once a week.
20 October 2009
4 days 15 hours
RCLGuard, actually Swans Crossing was syndicated. Nickelodeon did have a soap called Fifteen that aired weekly.
14 December 2008
18 hours 12 min
Good post, Jonathan. I agree with you that there should be a teen soap on to help revitilaize the genre in general. I aslo think they'll need some older characters as well though, since I really think tenns like veterans and older couples too.
I also agree with Dainella1030, I loved Degrassi in the '80's when they had real storylines [ Spike's teen pregnancy, the twins and the abortion storyline.] I tried watching one episode of the new show and I thought it was okay, but didn't need to watch again. Oh well, at least they have Spike and Joey.