It’s fairly amazing when you think about how much prime time television changed in the last five or ten years, but how little daytime television has. Think about it… describing daytime television today could be describing it 15 years ago.
Daytime soap operas are pretty much the same formula and still have most of the same players. General Hospital, One Life to Live, etc. still head up the time between noon and 4pm bringing a little drama to the stay-at-home set. I will say that when I saw they were doing supernatural elements in some soap operas a couple of years ago, I was pretty surprised, but I’m hoping that goofy trend has passed.
Courtroom shows have also remained largely unchanged in their long run, started in 1981 with The People’s Court and rekindled more recently with Judge Judy. Sure, the judges have changed and there are a wider variety of shows on now, but for the most part, the format is the same: judge, trusty bailiff, and some schlubs arguing about who’s dog pooed in their yard. And all the while, they’ve kept a sense of decorum not well kept by…
… daytime talk shows. Yes, they’ve changed pretty dramatically (does anyone remember when Jerry Springer was actually a serious show?). Really, though, their format has just (d)evolved, while the “look and feel” of the shows have remained pretty much the same. The same set of people popular in 1995 are still popular now, too: Montel, Maury (that’s me!), Jerry, and Oprah.
And lastly, there’s game shows. While there are fewer on today (we need to bring back Win, Lose, or Draw at 4pm), The Price is Right remains the late-morning anchor for CBS, and I think it always will.
I fully expect that in 2014, I’ll be writing a Ping about how Bob Barker looks good for being 137 years old and how I’m amazed that Luke and Laura have returned to General Hospital yet again. Lots of things change, but one thing that seems to remain quite stable is daytime television.
Posted in Television, Movies, and Music