Daytime Soap Poll: Which Is Your Favorite Show Right Now – BB, GH, YR or Days – VOTE!

Just a few short years ago, we had eight soaps to choose from across the three major broadcast networks – ABC, NBC and CBS – but then we lost four of the oldest to abrupt cancellations amid a storm of poor ratings. Here’s the four we bid farewell to between 2009 and 2011:

Guiding Light (1951-2009) CBS
As The World Turns (1956-2009) CBS
One Life to Live (1968-2011) ABC
All My Children (1970-2011) ABC

And now the field has narrowed to just four soaps:

The Young and the Restless (CBS)
The Bold and the Beautiful (CBS)
General Hospital (ABC)
Days of Our Lives (NBC)

While ratings bottomed out just prior to the two sets of cancellations, recently there has been a resurgence for the four surviving soaps. Not only have the ratings struggles scared producers and writers into getting off their duffs and crafting better storyline. Case in point is Ron Carlivati’s firing at General Hospital after 13 continual weeks of ratings slump.

The dire ratings have also scared fans to some extent. It’s kind of a use it or lose it thing – but more like “watch it or lose it” and ratings have been on the rise, for most of the shows, over the past year. So which is your favorite of the four shows? Here’s a quick look at the four soaps.

The Young and the Restless (CBS)

The clear ratings winner, Y&R, is seen daily by about 3.8 million viewers. Y&R just celebrated not only 42 years on air, but 20 consecutive years of being the top-rated soap on daytime TV. Since 1973, CBS has brought us years of intrigue and rivalry in Genoa City between the Newmans, Abbotts, Chancellors, Baldwins and Williams clans.

The Bold and the Beautiful (CBS)

Nearly 3 million viewers daily tune in to watch daytime’s only 30 minute serial set in swank Los Angeles and the glittering world of high fashion. Sister show to Y&R, B&B premiered in 1987 and launched the rivalry between Forrester Creation and other fashion houses as well as the emergence of Spencer Publications and the ties between the two primary corporations.

General Hospital (ABC)

GH is now the grandmother of the four soaps as the longest running – it premiered way back in 1963 but has expanded beyond its medical-centric roots. Nearly 3 million viewers watch the goings on of the Quartermaines, Cassadines, Spencers and Corinthos clans. The mob element has set this soap apart since the 80s along with the strong and conflicting family storylines.

Days of Our Lives (NBC)

The second oldest of the four remaining soaps, DOOL has been on the air since 1965 although it first started out as a 30 minute show. In 1975, it expanded to fill an hour and the Bradys and DiMeras became prominent in the 80s along with the Hortons in fictional Salem. Days has been a consistent last in the ratings with around 2.2 million average viewers.

So which is your favorite of the four?  Vote in our poll below!

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