Why Telenovelas Are Winning While English Soaps Are Dying

[Mysterious Benefactor]

EXCLUSIVE: Univision's Cesar Conde On Why Telenovelas Are Winning While English Soaps Are Dying

Though it probably isn't feasible for soaps to try to adapt themselves to the telenovela route because miniseries, which were once big draws, are dead in this country. Too few network audiences in the US are even willing to commit to a story that lasts 12 eps, so it's very hard to imagine they'd be willing to commit to one that lasts 100 to 120 eps. More's the pity, actually...

[David]

In the past year alone, Y & R has done multiple storylines about dead characters not really being dead and identity theft via plastic surgery. AMC is doing both those same storylines right now--
the American soaps are plum out of ideas.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

What it is is that they have head writers who are out of ideas. What the genre needs is an influx of new writers, not continually recycling the same writers from one soap to another - especially when they take a writer from a canceled soap and transplant them on another soap. No surprise when the transplanted to soap starts failing. Well, no surprise to audiences. Apparently it is a surprise to those in the industry.