I think the majority of women across the world who watch daytime television, shed a collective tear when Oprah Winfrey announced this would be her last season. This month, it was announced that two popular soap operas would be cancelled as well – All My Children and One Life To Live.

The horror, right?

I was never a soap opera fan, but I do remember afternoons spent wishing Mom would change the channel so I could watch cartoons instead of General Hospital. She went through a Days Of Our Lives phase too. I still remember giggling as Jason got amnesia for the 14th time, or when Lorenzo Alcazar ended up being Sonny’s brother and so was Rick – if that’s how I remember it all correctly. 

I learned quickly what soap operas were all about. They never showed a car scene unless someone was about to crash. If there was an attractive, kind character, they most likely had an evil twin. People often came back from the dead, and there were a lot of long-lost siblings. 

Soaps also tackled important social issues, however. AMC’s Susan Lucci had the first legal abortion on television, General Hospitals’ Robin was HIV-positive and OLTL featured the first Jewish family on daytime television, among others.

ABC says it is cancelling the two popular soaps because ratings have declined, leaving only General Hospital. Fans of the two shows have rallied to Oprah  – who claims she is a fan of the shows herself – to try to save the two soaps, but the queen of daytime TV said in a recent video on her YouTube channel that there just isn’t any money in them anymore. 

OLTL premiered in 1968, and averages about 2.6 million viewers per episode, while AMC began in 1970 and has about 2.5 million viewers on average per episode. 

This week Hoover announced it would be pulling their ads from ABC to protest the cancellation, because vice president of marketing Brian Kirkendall’s mother and wife are big fans of the two shows. 

This left me wondering; isn’t Hoover’s decision really not helping the fact that no money is being made from the programs? Won’t they just be cancelled sooner if a big time advertiser like them pulls all advertising dollars? Will others follow suit?

Since their decision, thousands of OLTL and AMC fans have taken to the vacuum brand’s Facebook page to applaud their efforts – and many have flooded to buy their dirt-suckers. This is all beginning to sound like a sneaky, and utterly genius marketing campaign to me. 

The effects of soaps are far reaching in the entertainment industry. Kelly Ripa, a former star, said soaps act as a training ground for many famous actors and actresses. Those stars include James Franco, Ryan Phillippe, Yasmine Bleeth, Marcia Cross and more – and just what would the world do without Franco’s weirdness, or Phillippe’s sparkling smile?

So will the women of the world truly miss these two soaps? Will General Hospital take on the over five million viewers left scrambling to find a substitute? Or will everyone just get amnesia and forget there were ever soaps on the air?

Tune in next week to find out, and keep an eye out around Jasper for my evil twin Zannalee.

DISCLAIMER: The Last Word is an opinion column, it is meant to provoke thought and debate. As such, any opinions written here are the writer’s own and do not reflect the viewpoint of any other Fitzhugh staff member or the directors of the Jasper Media Group Inc.