Soap opera

A soap opera is a television or radio program that airs in episodic series. This means that each episode continues telling a story, which, in turn, tells more of the last episode's story. A single story on a soap opera can be told for weeks, months, or sometimes even years.

In America, each soap opera airs every day, Monday through Friday, in the afternoon. Because they air at this time, they are sometimes called daytime serials. In the U.K. and other countries, the soap operas air in the evening, twice or three times a week.

This is a list of soap operas that air in America, in their current order of popularity:

1. The Young and the Restless
2. The Bold and the Beautiful
3. General Hospital
4. Supernatural
5. Lost
6. Days of Our Lives
7. All My Children
8. As the World Turns
9. One Life to Live
10. Guiding Light
11. Passions

There are still two soap operas that air in Australia, Network Ten's Neighbours and the Seven Network's Home and Away. Strangely, Neighbours is more popular in England than it is in Australia.

In the U.K., the most popular soap operas are Coronation Street and EastEnders. Coronation Street is about people who live in Manchester, in the northern part of England. EastEnders is about people who live in an imaginary place called Albert Square in the East London. Another popular soap opera is Emmerdale, and it is about people who live in a small village in Yorkshire, also in the northern part of England. In the 1970s Crossroads became the most watched soap in England. It was shown from 1964 to 1988.

In Latin America (including Brazil), Spain, Portugal and Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa (like Angola), soap operas are called telenovelas, and usually run for a limited time.

Related pages

• Dorama
• Serial
• Radio drama
• Playwright
• Theatre