Autoworkers and newspaper reporters aren't the only ones worried about their jobs these days. Or worried about their industries.
These are also scary times for anyone who works on a daytime soap opera — an industry that some are predicting will soon face extinction.
Every daytime soap is in some degree of danger, not just "Guiding Light," which is going off the air for good on Sept. 18 after 72 years.
(The first 15 years were on radio; "Guiding Light" moved to CBS television in 1952.)
Overall ratings for daytime soaps have been in decline for years, and the ratings for "Guiding Light" were the lowest of any of them. While not entirely unexpected, the cancellation still sent a shockwave through the daytime serial landscape.
"It's a big buzz all through the medium," said "General Hospital" star Anthony Geary, a Utah native. "Whenever we lose one, it always affects all of us. The more competition there is, the better it is for any business.
"It was a real cornerstone in our medium, so to lose it is quite a blow."
It's just the latest to go, however — the latest victim of the long, slow decline that shows no signs of bottoming out. "Guiding Light" joins a long list of canceled daytime serials, including:
"Another World" (1964-99)
"The Brighter Day" (1954-62)
"The City/Loving" (1983-97)
"Dark Shadows" (1966-71)
"The Doctors" (1963-82)
"The Edge of Night" (1956-84)
"Generations" (1989-91)
"Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" (1967-73)
"Love of Life" (1951-80)
"Passions" (1999-2008)
"Port Charles" (1997-2003)
"Ryan's Hope" (1975-89)
"Santa Barbara" (1984-93)
"Search for Tomorrow" (1951-86)
"Somerset" (1970-76)
"Texas" (1980-82)
There's an argument to be made that soaps are the victim of a changing America. When they were at their peak, tens of millions of women — the demographic soaps aim at — didn't work outside the home, so they were home to watch soap operas.
But changing lifestyles, including more women working outside the home, have decimated the pool of potential viewers.
And, perhaps, the shorter attention spans of today's viewers mean they aren't into watching soap characters over the course of years — even decades — the way their mothers and grandmothers did.
Even after "Guiding Light" signs off, there will still be seven daytime soaps — "All My Children," "As the World Turns," "Bold and the Beautiful," "Days of Our Lives," "General Hospital," "One Life to Live" and "Young and the Restless." But some of those are rumored to be in trouble, and even those that aren't are in a genre that's going to have a tough time surviving.
Maybe there's enough of an audience to support three or four (or one or two) shows. Maybe the SoapNet channel could afford to produce one daily show if all the others are gone. Maybe there's some other miracle out there.
But probably not.
Even if daytime soaps disappear, it's not like the genre will be altogether dead. A lot of prime-time shows on both broadcast and cable television are serialized, too.
So that outlet will remain. As long as broadcast and cable networks can continue producing prime-time dramas.
But that's the subject of another downbeat column.
EVEN 30 YEARS LATER, the Luke-and-Laura phenomenon remains the biggest thing ever to hit daytime soap operas.
Nobody expects it to ever happen again, and not just because today's most popular daytime soap, "Young and the Restless" draws about 5 million viewers — one-sixth of the 30 million who tuned in to watch Luke and Laura get married on "General Hospital" in 1981.
"First of all, you don't romanticize a rapist, which is what the character was," Geary told the Deseret News. "That would never happen."
Of course, the "General Hospital" writers didn't intend to make a soap super couple out of Luke and Laura after he raped her. But, as it turned out, the viewers sort of demanded it.
"(The writers) just intended to do a tough story about a guy who was in love who lost his mind one night and attacked a girl that he was in love with," Geary said. "Nobody expected the reaction that we got. It just seemed to be a cultural signpost of some kind, I suppose. That daytime at that time became the hip thing to watch.
"It was all in the timing, I think. It was a phenomenon that probably wouldn't happen today."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com