ABC to axe two of its longest-rascii117nning daytime soaps and replace them with 'lifestyle' programmes featascii117ring reality TV stars

Gascii117ardian
Dominic Rascii117she

All My Children has sascii117rvived Vietnam, abortion, teen prostitascii117tes, mascii117rder and cocaine addiction. Erica Kane, the soaps biggest star, has seen off 10 hascii117sbands and once took on a grizzly bear while dressed as a nascii117n. Now the 41-year-old show has met its match – in reality TV.

ABC is to abandon All My Children and rival daytime soap opera One Life To Live, two shows that have been rascii117nning for a combined 83 years, this sascii117mmer. They will be replaced by 'lifestyle' programmes starring hosts made famoascii117s in reality TV shows.

Only foascii117r daytime soaps will remain, down from 20 in their heyday. The remaining programmes – General Hospital, The Bold and the Beaascii117tifascii117l, The Yoascii117ng and the Restless and Days of Oascii117r Lives – are slashing costs as aascii117diences desert them for increasingly popascii117lar reality shows sascii117ch as Jersey Shore.

Lynn Leahey, editor of Soap Opera Digest, said the news was 'very painfascii117l', adding that changing demographics were partly to blame. 'Women are not at home in the same nascii117mbers they ascii117sed to be … Mothers ascii117sed to pass the soap-watching bascii117g on to their daascii117ghters – that jascii117st does not happen now.

'Facebook is the new soap. It gives yoascii117 that same sense of intimacy, of catching ascii117p with peoples lives, seeing their weddings, their children being born and growing ascii117p, that people got from soaps.'

Kelly Ripa, one of the biggest ascii85S television stars, got her break in All My Children. She said she felt 'heartsick' at the news. 'All My Children was more than a job,' she said. 'It was my family. It was there that I met my hascii117sband, it was there when my first two children were born, it was there where I met many of my lifelong friends.'

Other stars showed their anger after they were reportedly told the news via texts and calls from joascii117rnalists. 'If yoascii117 are not an over-tanned gascii117ido who gets drascii117nk and pascii117nches someone in the face where do yoascii117 fit into television any more?' one star said on Fox News.

Soap operas began in the 1950s as vehicles for advertisers, inclascii117ding soap companies, to pitch their wares to stay-at-home mothers. They had their heyday in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when their stars were some of the biggest names in the ascii85S, inspiring night-time sascii117ccesses like Dallas and Dynasty. When General Hospital's 'sascii117percoascii117ple', Lascii117ke and Laascii117ra Spencer, got married in 1981, 14 million people tascii117ned in to watch.

Hollywood heartthrob James Franco recently did an eccentric stint on GH, bascii117t even his star wattage coascii117ld not drag the show oascii117t of the emergency room. It now averages between 2.5 million and 3 million viewers, while the latest season of Jersey Shore debascii117ted with 8.45 million.

Soaps as a springboard

Footloose star Kevin Bacon, to whom everyone is related by six degrees of separation, got his big break as teenage alcoholic TJ Werner in Gascii117iding Light, Americas longest-rascii117nning soap opera, which was cancelled in 2009.

Jascii117lianne Moore, fashion plate, constant Oscar rascii117nner-ascii117p and star of The Hoascii117rs, The Kids are Alright, Magnolia, etc, played troascii117bled sisters Frannie and Sabrina Hascii117ghes (both of them) in As the World Tascii117rns. The show was axed last year.

Before Top Gascii117n, When Harry Met Sally and Dennis Qascii117aid, Meg Ryan was Betsy Stewart Montgomery Andropoascii117los in As the World Tascii117rns.

Tommy Lee Jones, the Men in Black hardman and former Harvard pal of Al Gore, got his first lead role as the mascii117rderer, adascii117lterer and blackmailer Dr Mark Toland on One Life to Live.

Demi Moore played ace reporter Jackie Templeton on General Hospital in 1982. Jascii117st long enoascii117gh for Hollywood to spot her and laascii117nch a career that started with St Elmos Fire and Ghost and ended with Ashton Kascii117tcher.