Soap opera largely aired soap opera reruns, began to be phased out in 2012 and fully ceased operations the following year. The Daytime Emmy Awards, which honor soap operas and other daytime shows, moved from primetime network television to smaller cable channels in 2012, then failed to get any TV broadcast at all in 2014, 2016, and 2017. Several of the U.S.’s most established soaps ended between 2009 and 2012. The longest-running drama in television and radio history, "Guiding Light", barely reached 2.1 million daily viewers in 2009 and ended on September 18 of that year, after a 72-year run. "As the
Vine Street (TV series) California. Audiences were already accustomed to continuing story serials from the radio, but this was the first attempt on television. The term "soap opera" came about since many soap and cleaning product companies started trying to reach the many housewives who were home to listen these programs which normally aired in the afternoons. The "Oxford English Dictionary"s citation for the phrase dates its first appearance in print to 1938. Vine Street (TV series) Vine Street, considered the first American television soap opera, was first broadcast on 15 April 1938 by W6XAO in Los Angeles, as a daily 15-minute serial, and