Wishing A Soap Dead

This is going to be one of my speechifying posts. I apologize in advance, but I needed to get this out of my system.

Due to some of what has been going on with some soap operas, I've seen other viewers state they wish their favorite show gets cancelled. (Mainly Days of Our Lives and General Hospital, but I've seen it with other shows in the past.) I get the grief and all the negative emotions as I've run the gamut of them over the years I've watched daytime television.

Fandom isn't always pretty, and I don't mean bad behavior from fans or anything of that nature. That's another issue entirely, I'm referring to the concept of the long term fan who has invested years in a show, and then over a matter of months or years becomes so frustrated at what happened to their favorite program that they become disheartened eventually losing interest. These days online, I see examples of that regularly for each of the four remaining soap operas. This would be one of the things I would list if asked what is hurting the genre. It is pushing away people who watched for years, who've advocated particular shows and then felt like they were tossed aside. Ironically many of the viewers who have gone through this are in the demos soaps want, so to get better demos you get rid of people you already have watching in the demo. That makes a lot of sense.

Whenever someone says they want a particular soap opera to be cancelled, my first reaction isn't OMG what a mean person. Usually I wonder what happened to make this person become so distressed that they wish this show dead? What did the show do that was so unforgivable, that a person would feel that way? A lot of times, the answers to that are interesting. if a viewer (or former viewer) can make a decent list of all the ways they felt disgusted, I usually feel empathy.

Sometimes I think the people who work in the industry don't grasp that some of the viewers who become the most disheartened are those who are the most invested. Not everyone watches soap operas like their favorite sports team, and will watch regardless of the quality. I think content is a factor, and people can only take so material they do not enjoy before they react, whether it is by turning off the program or sending diatribes in the mail for example.

While I never wished a show cancelled, I have wished for "Regime Change Now". Every soap I've watched over the years, has done something I've found unforgivable, so really I get the disgust and the feelings of being misled.

For me the one comfort over certain shows being off the air, is that I can imagine whatever plots I want, ignore the ones I didn't like and remember what I do. Of course, with what is going on with One Life to Live stories being rewritten as actors from that show appearing on General Hospital that is not possible. With that situation, I just think alternative universe to push it out of my mind.

So while I get why people get upset if someone wishes a show away, I just see it as that person mourning what they've lost. If they are reacting in this manner and being respectful to people who don't feel the same way I have no problem with them. I don't think the average unhappy viewer wants to be in that situation, but cannot act like everything is "normal". That would be a disservice to their memories.

Getting off my soapbox now and apologizing if this doesn't make complete sense, but at least I feel like I got my thoughts down on virtual paper.