Soap opera Soap opera A soap opera is an ongoing drama serial on television or radio, featuring the lives of many characters and their emotional relationships. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas being sponsored by soap manufacturers. BBC Radio's "The Archers", first broadcast in 1950, is the world’s longest-running radio soap opera; the world's longest-running television soap opera is "Coronation Street", first broadcast on ITV in 1960. The first serial considered to be a "soap opera" was "Painted Dreams", which debuted on October 20, 1930 on Chicago radio station WGN. Early radio series such as "Painted Dreams" were broadcast in
Soap opera weekday daytime slots, usually five days a week. Most of the listeners would be housewives.Thus, the shows were aimed at and consumed by a predominantly female audience. The first nationally broadcast radio soap opera was "Clara, Lu, and Em", which aired on the NBC Blue Network at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time on January 27, 1931. One of the defining features that makes a television program a soap opera, according to Albert Moran, is that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. While Spanish language telenovelas are sometimes called "soap operas," telenovelas have conflicts that get resolved and