Boycotting CBS Soap Operas to Save America
Maybe I'm Crazy but Extreme Times Call for Extreme Measures
I’m a lifelong soap opera super fan. While I was a toddler, my mother watched Days of Our Lives and The Doctors. I’m turning 60 in October and I still watch DOOL today. A few years ago, the show left its home network NBC to air on the streaming service Peacock. I followed them there. I probably would still be watching The Doctors also except it got canceled in 1982. A few years ago, an online tv station called Retro TV streamed 1970s re-runs of the show. I watched and loved it because I’m a devoted student of soap opera history. I knew that the queen of the show was Elizabeth Hubbard who played Dr. Althea Davis and won the first daytime Emmy for Best Actress. I also knew that a lot of great actors got their start on the show: Armand Assante, Alec Baldwin, Kim Zimmer, Ellen Burstyn, Dixie Carter, Peggy Cass, Ted Danson and Swoosie Kurtz to name nut a few. Over the years I’ve been a regular viewer of almost every soap on TV. The ones I didn’t watch regularly, I kept up with by reading Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly. My favorite shows at one time or another included All My Children, Search for Tomorrow, General Hospital, Another World, As the World Turns, Guiding Light, Passions, the Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives. In addition to keeping up with the news in the magazines, I would change the dial now and again to check in on favorite characters or switch shows when I heard about great new characters or wild storylines like the Salem Serial Killer madness on DOOL in 2003.
I love daytime soaps, nighttime soaps, fancy streaming series that are really soaps. Hello, Bridgerton. Heated Rivalry even has a lot in common with soap opera at its best.
And yet, I’m currently boycotting some of the best soaps around because I refuse to watch CBS. It’s owned by David Ellison, a Trumper who has done so much to suck up to our hideous President. Installing Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News and firing Stephen Colbert combined to push me over the edge. I cancelled my Paramount Plus subscription, deleted my TikTok account (the Ellisons also own TikTok) and decided to take all 3 CBS soaps off my DVR season pass- yes I still have cable, I’m almost 60. I watch DVR’d episodes of my show and also stream them, depending on my mood. Every soap has ups and downs but Young and the Restless is a great show. What a cast of legendary divas. Great actors, sexy actors, iconic actors. The Bold and the Beautiful, Y&R’s sister show is set in the fashion world of Los Angeles. Both shows were created by the late Bill Bell, one of the holy trinity of soap opera. Irna Phillips and her two former proteges, Agnes Nixon and Bell. Those three created almost every legendary soap opera and iconic long-running character. Bell’s shows are now run by his son Bradley and while not as great as they were in their heyday, they’re still the top-rated shows on daytime and so fun to watch. CBS launched their 3rd soap, Beyond the Gates in early 2025. It was created by Michele Val Jean, a black woman who’s had a long and fabulous career in soaps and it centers around a rich black family. I watched occasionally, excited to support some diversity in daytime (and a cast that includes some iconic favorites) but hadn’t gotten fully hooked yet.
I realize my boycotting CBS and not watching these soaps most likely will change nothing. But the ratings for CBS News are down 25%. They lost a million viewers in the first week with new anchor Tony Dokoupil. So boycotting obviously has real effects.
Also, I’m a soap superfan. I’m always singing the praises of soaps and soap stars. I’m a journalist who’s covered many of my favorite soap stars over the years. And I plan to continue to cover and celebrate soaps- unless they’re on CBS. We’re living in a country run by a crew of the most corrupt, cruel and incompetent people imaginable and corporations like CBS, and many others, are collaborating and subsidizing the madness. A serious crisis means we all have to speak out and act like our country depends on it, because it does. My CBS boycott probably won’t be what saves our country from fascism but I’m doing it just in case.