Something about this deal is way off. I just watched, on ONTD, this video:

It's weird to me that Oprah suggests that there's not enough people at home to watch these shows in a time of record unemployment. If Nielsen families are just a tiny fraction of the viewing population, how could it possibly be representative of the actual viewerbase (most of which would not be Nielsen families, but be lower-mid to lower class families).

Seems to me that soaps, as a format, are being PUSHED off deliberately and the studios are either being held hostage or they are the ones who are sick of producing them - NOT that the viewership isn't there. Even the people who do have jobs and are fans would be DVRing them or whathaveyou.

I know people who have watched these soaps for the better part of their lives.