CBS Cancels 'As the World Turns' After 54 Years

After more than 50 years on the air, CBS is canceling the soap opera As the World Turns, according to Variety. The final episode will be broadcast in September of 2010 in its 54th year.  The completion of the show is reportedly a reflection of ratings decline, a pattern CBS also saw with it's other daytime drama, the recently cancelled Guiding Light. 

Guest stars to have appeared on the As the World Turns set through the years include stage stars Marisa Tomei, Parker Posey and James Earl Jones, and has launched the career of a countless number of others.

Set in the fictional town of Oakdale, Illinois, the show debuted on April 2, 1956. In its second year reaching the top spot in the daytime Nielsen Ratings by the fall of 1958. In 1959, the show started a streak of weekly ratings wins that would not be interrupted for over twelve years. In the year-to-date ratings, As the World Turns was the most-watched daytime drama from 1958 until 1978, with ten million viewers tuning in each day. At its height, core actors such as Helen Wagner, Don MacLaughlin, Don Hastings, and Eileen Fulton became nationally known. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to their other soap opera Guiding Light.

The show passed its 10,000th episode on May 12, 1995, and celebrated its 50th anniversary on April 2, 2006. As the World Turns is the last remaining Procter and Gamble produced soap opera on television, as Guiding Light aired its final episode on September 18, 2009 on CBS. As the World Turns is also the longest running soap opera currently airing on television, succeeding the aforementioned Guiding Light.

The cancellation will leave CBS with only two daytime dramas: "The Young and the Restless" and "Bold and Beautiful."

 

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