All My Children and One Life to Live will continue to Live Online!

All My Children and One Life to Live will continue to Live Online!

A company called Prospect Park has licensed both shows and will show them on internet based platforms.  As part of the deal, Prospect Park will use the same sets and casts but will feature these soap operas on the web.

Sounds Crazy?  Needless to say, there are a lot of happy people; fans as well as cast and crew who get to keep their jobs.

Agnes Nixon who is the creator of both shows is ecstatic.  On news of the cancellation, passionate fans flooded Oprah with so many letters that she had to conduct an internet response to tell fans that she could not support the daytime dramas on OWN.  It looked like our favorite Soaps were doomed!

“All my Children” will run until Sept 23 and “One life to live” will run until the Jan 2012.

Prospect Park released a statement regarding their new deal,
“We are privileged to continue the legacy of two of the greatest programs to air on daytime television, and are committed to delivering the storylines, characters and quality that audiences have come to love for over 40 years. ‘All My Children’ and ‘One Life to Live’ are television icons, and we are looking forward to providing anytime, anywhere viewing to their loyal community of millions,”

Soap operas don’t command the same audience as they once did in the 70 and early 80’s.  More moms’ are working and there is more competing television with cheaper production costs making it very difficult to maintain ratings and profit.  During the OJ Simpson trial, soaps were pre-empted for months and never regained their gusto, much like the NHL lockout of 1994.

For those mom’s who are at home, many of them used to work, and instead of traveling to Pine Valley, they would like to stay connected to the real world where shows like “The View” and “The talk” become very relevant.  Production costs are much cheaper and the shows themselves are commercial venues for products as well as other programming for the respective channels.

Now the question arises, will internet viewing pay the same as the big networks?

Well just how much do soap opera stars make?

• A new comer, virtually unknown – $700 to $1500

• If you have some experience (5 -10 yrs) – $1500 to $3000 per episode, but 1 – 3 days per week

• Veterans (10 years or more.)  – $5000 per episode.  It’s said that there are very few that make this level of money.

Annual Soap Opera Salaries look like:

• 1st Year Mark – $72,800 – $156,000/per year
• 5 Year Mark – $156,000 – $312,000/per year
• 10 Year Mark – $208,000 – $520,000/per year

These numbers are based on a typical work week of two days per week, times 52 weeks per year, which does not account for holidays, vacations, etc

Susan Lucci has been reported as earning over $1 million per year since the 90’s.

I personally thought they made a lot more, but overhead to produce a show that plays everyday has to be phenomenal.

Either way fans can rejoice as their favorite soaps “ain’t going no where”.  Even better, you can stream them from your I-pad while at work.  Ratings out looks have just tripled.  D’oh!

-Cosmo
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