What kind of people watch soap operas on network television?

[JakeWIlls92]

I am not into soap opera nor do I know people who watch "soap opera" but I am curious.

I heard back in the early 2010s shows on ABC like "Once Upon A Time" had viewerships past 10 million viewers in America alone.

I was under the impression that the average viewer of an ABC show are people from the suburbs in their 30s that thought HBO was too "graphic" for them. Is that just a preconceived notion or is there some truth to that?

Back in 2015 there was this show called "Astronaut Wives Club".



And it got more than 5 million US viewers on it's premiere episode and dropped to little below 4 million by it's last episode.

Later that year Syfy's shiny new space opera "The Expanse" premiered to a little more than 1 million viewers.



Would something like this appeal to a wider audience since there is no weird alien stuff? For a space adventure on TV to attract mainstream TV viewers would it have to be either "Star Wars" or an astronaut soap opera?

 

[Ringel05]

There's frequently a good soap opera on C-SPAN.......

 

[iamwhatiseem]

75 year old women

 

[miketx]

My wife and I watched them in the 70's.

 

[BlueGin]

College students,gay men,stay at home moms,retired senior women.

 

[DGS49]

I watched a bio on Meg Ryan and it said that she was the bride on a wedding on a daytime soap, and it drew the second highest audience in the history or daytime television - over 20 million people.

So it is clear that word gets around, and a lot of people watch this stuff.

I've never seen a minute of it, but then I'm only 72.

 

[petro]

Probably the same people entertained by other television crap like the Masked Singer.

 

[JOSweetHeart]

I used to be really into them, but I officially gave them up in 2008 after an almost eight-year period.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

P.S. The Young and The Restless was my show.

 

[lg325]

both grandmas, my mother, and 5 sisters were big fans of those. Me I had to because they outnumbered me