Soap Scheduling in Your Country

[Willie Oleson]

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Compared to other European countries, the prime time time slot for prime time soaps looks very consistent in Italy.

 

[LB-Colby]

ITALY 2

US Daytime Soaps:

The Bold & The Beautiful is the most successful by far here and the only one that is still airing.
Other successful soaps in Italy were Guiding Light, The Young and the Restless, Capitol, Loving, Santa Barbara and General Hospital. Most soaps frequently changed their schedules and programming.

The Bold & The Beautiful (“Beautiful”)
From 1990 to now (Rai2, Canale5)
All the episodes
Around 1.40 p.m.

Guiding Light (“Sentieri”)
From 1982 to 2012 (Canale5, Rete4)
US episodes from 1979 to 2006

The Young & the Restless (“Febbre d’amore”)
From 1983 to 2009 (Italia1, Rete4, Canale5)
US episodes from 1979 to 2006

Capitol
From 1983 to 1988 (Rai2)
All the episodes

Loving (“Quando si ama”)
From 1986 to 1999 (Rai2)
All the episodes

Santa Barbara
From 1989 to 1999 (Rai1, Rai2)
All the episodes

General Hospital
From 1982 to 1993 (Italia1, Canale5, Rete4)
US episodes from 1979 to 1988

Other US soaps that aired in Italy (mostly in the 80s and early 90s): Search for Tomorrow, Ryan's Hope, The Edge of Night, As the World Turns, One Life to Live, All My Children, Days of Our Lives, Another World, Port Charles.
During the 90s, most US soaps were replaced by South American telenovelas (because they were cheaper to buy).

Guiding Light was my favourite soap.
As for The Bold & The Beautiful, it’s nearly unwatchable now.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Gosh, I had not expected Italy to be Europe's most soap-loving country.
You learn something new every day.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Loving (“Quando si ama”)
From 1986 to 1999 (Rai2)
All the episodes

Randolph Mantooth (Clay Alden/Alex Masters) mentions the show’s popularity in Italy in this interview.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

A couple of the more short-lived primetime soaps here:

The Monroes: eight episodes aired across weekday mornings at 9.30am in July 1997 on Channel 4. It had presumably been bought for primetime but after it crashed so quickly in the US, it was burned off in this daytime summer slot.

Winnetka Road: aired on ITV daytime in some regions in 1997 before resurfacing in a midnight slot on ITV2 in late 1999.

Angel Falls: aired at 8pm Wednesdays on Sky One at some point in 1994.

2000 Malibu Road: after as a three part miniseries across consecutive afternoons on Channel 5 in July 1999.

 

[bmasters9]

Here's how some of the daily serials in my part of the world (the USA) have been (can't say anything about the ABC serials, because I don't know anything about their scheduling):

--Another World on NBC was (IIRC) on at 2 on WYFF 4 (when I was a boy, it was WFBC, before it became WYFF Your Friend Four in 1983), preceded by Days at 1, and followed by Santa Barbara at 3.

--The Young and the Restless has been in the same time slot for all my 44 years on this Earth, on WSPA 7 (the CBS station of the Upstate), at 12:30 P.M., following the local noon news (which was Eyewitness News to begin with, then became NewsChannel 7, before becoming 7 On Your Side and now 7 News); it was on from that time to 1:30, then came The Bold and the Beautiful (the last remaining half-hour daily serial, IIRC), and then ATWT, Capitol and Guiding Light (when Capitol ended out in 1987, it became just ATWT and Guiding Light).