Why are Soap Operas so popular?

Some of the wrestling matches are far less realistic than soap operas, yet people still flock to see them.

I know exactly what you mean. If a soap opera has 20 characters, there are 20 with totally bizarre lives and nobody living a simple existence. sadly, this appears to be what the viewers want.

I saw a few soap operas when I lived with my parents. people always said that they were like real life, but more seems to happen in one street than would normally occur in a small town.

LOL, my grandmother never had the opportunity to watch the soaps but she always talked back to the weatherman and the news repoters. When anyone said "good evening" on tv, she would reply "good evening ..name of the reporter". She had Alzheimers and was starting to be a bit senile when she first saw television and I think she really thought those people were in her living room.

I understand that, but so many people seem to consider the events in a soap opera to be more important than actual events, which is quite bizarre.

I have never been interested in soap operas, but I can appreciate the point that you make. The storyline may change a hundred times but the characters still have the same traits and even after missing dozens of episodes you can follow the current plot.

I can understand you watching soap operas after becoming accustomed to the program and I used to watch Coronation Street at one time. When I lived with my parents it was always on the television because my mother watched it, so I would watch rather than sit there looking at the walls. As soon as I moved home I ceased to watch it. It would not be so bad having a few soap operas, after all it is important to show all types of programs in order to cater for the whole cross section of public. Here in England we have more soap operas than I can list, which seems outrageous. They must be wonderful for the television companies because they are easy to compile and very easy to cast. You would not need an good actor or actress because you can simply write the story around the character of the actor.

No great actors required for sure. The two I used to really like are still on here but they have taken the others off. Where I have worked and continue to work so much, there is nowhere near time to worry about the soaps. There are some people that are very faithful to the genre though.

hello kprofgames, you have a very good point there with "Coversation piece". The average person seems to love having something to gossip about and soap operas certainly offer a lot of material in that department. As soon as the latest scandal has lost momentum there is something else to shock the viewers.

I understand exactly what you mean, but the constant affairs, vendettas and subterfuge are seriously excessive. I realise that everything that you see in a soap opera does happen in real life, but certainly not so prolifically as it does in these imaginary locations.