The All Time Greatest Daytime Soap Operas
The soap opera was among the first genres of television to gain traction with audiences, since the birth of TV in the late 1940s. The first daytime soap opera was "Faraway Hill," which premiered in 1946. Since then, soap operas have been a pivotal part of televised entertainment. Daytime soaps differ from primetime television because there’s a new episode every weekday, instead of once a week. Some daytime soap operas began as radio broadcasts and then went on to span many decades on the television airways. This list of the best daytime soap operas has been voted on and ranked by the community.
"Guiding Light" holds the Guinness World Record for longest-running TV drama, with 57 seasons under its belt. Other programs, like "General Hospital" and "Days of Our Lives" have also lasted many decades.
These days there are only 4 soap operas still on the air, although some shows have continued their life on through internet webisodes. Although many of the daytime soaps on this list didn’t last decades, they made a lasting impressionon those who watched.
What are the best daytime soaps of all time? Vote up the daytime soap operas you think are the best of all time below and see where the soaps you think are great rank.- Suzanne Rogers, Lauren Koslow, Josh Taylor
- Premiered: November 8, 1965
The lives, loves, triumphs and tragedies of families in a Midwestern town.Available On:
- Hayden Panettiere, Kourtney Kardashian, Marcia Cross
- Premiered: July 15, 1968
One Life to Live is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu ...more - Cameron Mathison, Michael E. Knight, Alicia Minshew
- Premiered: January 5, 1970
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC for 41 years, from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, and on The Online Network from April 29, 2013, to September 2, 2013, ...more - Maurice Benard, Steve Burton, Michael Easton
- Jonathan Frid, Grayson Hall, Alexandra Isles
- Hayden Panettiere, Matt Bomer, Brittany Snow
- Premiered: January 25, 1937
Guiding Light is an American television soap opera that is listed in Guinness World Records as the longest-running drama in television in American history, broadcast on CBS for 57 years from June 30, ...more