The news that the Australian soap opera Neighbors is coming to an end after 37 years is no surprise to Talpa bobo Paul Römer. “Soap is on the decline. GTST no longer has an audience of millions.”
Soap series such as Good Times Bad Times were a great success on linear television for years, but that is no longer the case. The painful thing is that RTL 4 scores especially well at eight o’clock in the evening when GTST has a summer break. The substitute I Know Everything About with presenter Ruben Nicolai traditionally attracts many more viewers.
38 seasons
The news that the Australian GTST, Neighbours, is coming to an end after 37 years, does not surprise Talpa’s TV boss Paul Römer. “It does stand for something. It has run for 38 seasons, so there are generations of mothers with children and maybe even grandchildren for whom it has always existed,” he says. NPO Radio 1.
He continues: “It is not the first soap, but it is almost the last soap that is gradually disappearing. So slowly but surely the soap genre has been wiped out from the world.”
Soap out, reality in
How are all those soap operas being replaced? “It has been replaced by reality. If you watch Dutch television, the public broadcaster has just started again with Een Huis Vol: the experiences of real people every day. We do the Meilandjes, Gillis and Urk.”
He continues: “So you see that scripted texts with actors have been replaced by the daily lives of real or special people. This puts an end to a genre that has been very dominant for a long time.”
Falling GTST
GTST is the only remaining soap opera in the Netherlands, but also no longer a linear viewing figure hit. “In the Netherlands we still have Good Times. It still works well, but it’s no longer the million-dollar audience it used to be, so slowly but surely the soap is on its way back and this is a big milestone.”
Is it a shame that soap is disappearing? “Not at all. Genres come and genres go. Good Times is now also about thirty years old. (…) More drama is made than ever right now, just in a different form. Also in public and commercial broadcasting. I think drama as a form of storytelling will always exist.”
media forum
Paul Römer in the media forum of NPO Radio 1: