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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Monzo" data-source="post: 443689" data-attributes="member: 19949">I’m not certain (since I know nothing about the Indian or Japanese markets), but I think no other country airs as many domestically produced daily soaps as Germany—even though daily soaps aren't exactly massive hits here. Daily soaps in the UK and France draw larger audiences than those in Germany, despite those countries having significantly smaller populations. In Germany, the most-watched daily soap, Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten (Good Times, Bad Times based on the Australian format The Restless Years), currently has a total audience of around 2.5 million (out of a population of 83 million) split roughly between live viewing (half), streaming (one-third), and DVR recordings and morning reruns (the rest).I think soap fans in Germany are lucky to have three rival broadcasting groups sharing the eight soaps among them. From Monday to Thursday, there is a fifteen-minute window (7:30 PM to 7:45 PM) where five different soaps air. Of eight German soaps, four follow a fairly classic soap structure; another is also classic in structure but shot in Bavarian language (a German dialect); one is filmed more like a reality show; and the final two are so-called dailynovelas. That format originated in Germany (and has been successfully used in Turkey for several years) during the early 2000s when German telenovelas emerged and immediately became hits, yet broadcasters didn't want to end them after a few months. Two dailynovelas are left from the telenovela genre, each season features a new supercouple who leave the series after that season concludes. Just today, there was an outcry among fans after it was announced that the 22nd season of dailynovela Sturm der Liebe (Storm of Love) would—for the first time ever—not have a happy ending; instead of choosing the supposed dream man as usual, the heroine opts for her other love interest of the season. Fans are already calling this the jump the shark moment of that dailynovela, but only time will tell if that's the case. Incidentally, Sturm der Liebe is the best-selling German daily soap, having been broadcast in over 20 countries to date (though not successfully everywhere, of course).There is a specific narrative device in one soap that makes me wonder whether it was borrowed from elsewhere or is an original idea. During the closing credits, one of the characters looks directly into the camera, addresses the audience personally, comments on the events of the episode, and offers a brief—often humorous—preview of the next installment. Are you familiar with this storytelling technique from any other soap?</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?