The Archers listening figures. Partly established with the aim towards educating farmers following World War II, "The Archers" soon became a popular source of entertainment for the population at large, attracting nine million listeners by 1953. "The Archers" is set in the fictional village of Ambridge in the fictional county of Borsetshire, in England. Borsetshire is situated between, in reality, the contiguous counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire, south of Birmingham in The Midlands. Possibly based on the village of Cutnall Green, various other villages claim to be the inspiration for Ambridge; "The Bull", Ambridge's pub, is modelled on The Old Bull in
Soap opera 2000s, ABC began to revitalize the primetime soap opera format with shows such as "Desperate Housewives", "Grey's Anatomy", "Brothers & Sisters", "Ugly Betty", "Private Practice", and more recently "Revenge", "Nashville", "Scandal", "Mistresses", and formerly "Ringer", which its sister production company ABC Studios co-produced with CBS Television Studios for The CW. While not soaps in the traditional sense, these shows managed to appeal to wide audiences with their high drama mixed with humor, and are soap operas by definition. These successes led to NBC's launching serials, including "Heroes" and "Friday Night Lights". The upstart MyNetworkTV, a sister network of Fox, launched