As the World Turns

As the World Turns was a CBS network soap opera created by Irna Phillips which first premiered on April 2, 1956 and ran for 54 seasons, ending on September 17, 2010, airing for 13,858 episodes.

The show holds the second-longest continuous run of any daytime network soap opera on American television, surpassed only by "Guiding Light".

Plot
Set in the fictional town of Oakdale, Illinois, "As the World Turns" focused on the relationships and difficulties of the people of the town including the Hughes, Snyder and Walsh families.

Broadcast History
"As the World Turns" enjoyed a virtually uninterrupted reign as the highest-rated soap from 1958 to 1978, tying for first place with NBC Daytime's "Another World" (1973–1974, 1977–1978) and "Days of Our Lives" (1973–1974).

By the mid-1960s, it was so firmly entrenched that its strongest competition "Let's Make a Deal" despite developing a devoted fan base in its own right and becoming one of daytime's most popular game shows, could not come close to matching it in the Nielsens.

Its strength was such that ABC ran hour-long drama reruns in the 1:00–2:00 pm. (noon–1:00 Central) slot in the mid-1960s and NBC after losing "Let's Make a Deal" to ABC in 1968, ran a total of eight shows, all short-lived (with the exception of "Three on a Match" which lasted three years), against "As the World Turns" & "Let's Make a Deal" from that point until 1975.

As that year began, "Another World" was expanded to 60 minutes, with their first hour-long episode airing on January 6, 1975.

Although this did not directly affect "As the World Turns" as the two shows were not in competition for anything other than the overall ratings win, CBS' afternoon lineup suffered some ratings damage as the popular soap put a dent in the ratings of both of CBS' popular afternoon game shows "The Price Is Right and "Match Game".

NBC (pleased by the success that the expansion of "Another World" had brought to the network) elected to do the same thing with Days of Our Lives beginning on April 21, 1975; this put "Days of Our Lives" and "As the World Turns" in direct competition for ratings.

Incidentally, the expansions were occurring seven years after the last two 15-minute serials, "Search for Tomorrow" and The Guiding Light, expanded to 30 minutes.

CBS considered expanding "As the World Turns" and "Search for Tomorrow" to 45 minutes (eliminating the timeslot during which stations broadcast local newscasts), but eventually decided to expand the show its front-runner in the ratings battle to a full-hour length.

CBS set a target of September 1975 to complete the expansion and needed to free up 30 minutes' worth of space on its schedule to do so. Game show "The Price Is Right" was relocated to 10:30 am and aired a week's worth of 60-minute shows in September as a test for a potential permanent expansion.

While "The Price is Right"'s expansion was intended as temporary to start, the expansion of "As the World Turns" was to be permanent. As such, the network was required to cancel one of the other programs on its schedule.

CBS turned its eye to "The Edge of Night" (which at the time was the network's lowest-rated program). The former hit had been moved (at Procter and Gamble's insistence) from its 3:30 pm timeslot to the 2:30 pm slot following "The Guiding Light" in 1972. As a result, The Edge of Night lost a large portion of its audience.

In addition to those factors working against it, the rest of CBS' drama lineup was performing well in the ratings and the network could not move the long-running serial to another time slot without risking pre-emption from local affiliates, which would have driven ratings even lower.

An agreement was struck between CBS, Procter and Gamble, and ABC to get the necessary 30 minutes for the As the World Turns expansion. CBS would not renew The Edge of Night once its contract was up, and Procter and Gamble moved the serial to ABC and aired it there.

However, a problem arose that would have caused a major issue had CBS elected to go ahead with a September expansion of "As the World Turns".

The network's contract with Procter and Gamble was not due to expire until December 1975 which meant that no new episodes of "The Edge of Night" would air for three months and ABC wanted to keep the series' continuity intact. CBS decided to hold off on the expansion and continue airing "The Edge of Night" until ABC could find a space for it.

In November 1975, ABC announced the cancellation of the game show "You Don't Say!" which had been airing in the network's 4:00 pm timeslot. The final episode was scheduled to air on November 28, 1975, after which "The Edge of Night" would be free to leave CBS and As the World Turns would be free to expand to 60 minutes.

The first hour-long episode of "As the World Turns" aired on December 1, 1975. The first half of the show continued to perform well against "Let's Make a Deal" on ABC, which the network moved to the noon timeslot within four weeks of the expansion.

The second half put the show in competition with ABC's most popular game show "The $10,000 Pyramid" which had done well against "Guiding Light" since the network moved it to 2:00 pm at the end of 1974 and kept doing so against "As the World Turns."

Although the expansion was not a complete success, at the end of the season, the serial was again at the top of the daytime Nielsens despite a 1.4-point drop from the year before.

Although the eventual hit game "Family Feud" ran against "As The World Turns" from July 12, 1976 until April 22, 1977, it did not become a hit for ABC until its move to the mornings.

Only when ABC made its first move to a one-hour soap with "All My Children" did trouble really began for As the World Turns (and Days of our Lives) since ABC kept that serial's starting time at 1:00/noon, meaning that fans of that serial who tuned to NBC or CBS would miss the last half of that day's storyline (or, contrariwise, would not if they watched until the mid-program commercial break and then changed channels, pick up the As "The World Turns" or "Days of Our Lives" activities from the episode's beginning, since ABC strategically placed its break several minutes after the bottom of the hour).

Further, "All My Children"'s emphasis on youth-oriented, sexier story lines provided a sharp contrast to the domestic, almost quaint tone of "As the World Turns" (and to a lesser degree, the melodramatic, somewhat topical Days).

On January 16, 1978, ABC ballooned its decade-old "One Life to Live" to the 2:00 PM/1:00 PM starting time, compounding the other networks' headaches. These factors helped contribute to the fall of "As The World Turns" from the top spot in the ratings at the end of the 1978-79 season.

After finishing the previous season tied with "Another World" for number one in the Nielsens, "As the World Turns" fell to fourth behind "All My Children," "General Hospital" and "The Young and the Restless."

On February 4, 1980, CBS moved and expanded The Young and the Restless to a full hour after the cancellation of the soap opera "Love of Life", moving from noon/11:00 am to 1:00 pm/noon (the former affiliate break timeslot) and it was bumped up to 2:00 /1:00 pm and "Guiding Light" to 3:00/2:00 pm.

On June 8, 1981, As the World Turns returned to its longtime 1:30/12:30 pm start time with Search for Tomorrow following at 2:30/1:30 pm and "The Young and the Restless" leading off the serial lineup at either noon/11:00 am or 12:30 pm/11:30 am (depending on affiliate preference).

The show remained at 1:30/12:30 pm until March 20, 1987, when CBS cancelled the five-year-old "Capitol" in favor of "The Bold and the Beautiful." CBS scheduled it at 1:30/12:30 pm and finally settled "As the World Turns" at 2:00/1:00 pm, where it remained until its final network episode on September 17, 2010.

Although facing the full length of "Another World" and "One Life to Live" once again, the Douglas Marland era of 1985 to 1993 had a resurgence in ratings, and by 1991, it was back in its once habitual top-four placing. The show survived NBC's cancellation of its sister "Another World" in 1999.

Broadcast Schedule

 * April 2, 1956-November 28, 1975: 1:30–2:00 PM (12:30–1:00 PM, CT/PT)
 * December 1, 1975-February 1, 1980: 1:30–2:30 PM (12:30–1:30 PM, CT/PT)
 * February 4, 1980-June 5, 1981: 2:00–3:00 PM (1:00–2:00 PM, CT/PT)
 * June 8, 1981-March 20, 1987: 1:30–2:30 PM (12:30–1:30 PM, CT/PT)
 * March 23, 1987-September 17, 2010: 2:00–3:00 PM (1:00–2:00 PM, CT/PT)

Cancellation
In December 2009, CBS confirmed that it would not renew "As the World Turns" and the final episode was taped on June 23, 2010, at JC Studios in Brooklyn, which aired on September 17, 2010.

The final scene included Kim Hughes (Kathryn Hays) telling Bob Hughes (Don Hastings) to take as much time as he needed. Bob said the final two lines: "Good Night" and left the Oakdale Memorial Hospital for the last time, and the globe started spinning before the final fade-out.