On the second day of trial proceedings over the impeachment of President Donald Trump, airings of “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Days of our Lives,” “General Hospital” and “The Young and the Restless” continued being impacted by preemptions, re-runs (depending on time zone), and the forcing of some episodes to be released online.
In the case of “B&B,” “GH” and “Y&R,” each soap has experienced full network preemptions to date. Social media handles for the ABC and CBS soaps noted that they will continue monitoring their respective network’s coverage of the impeachment trial before a final decision to air episodes or fully preempt is made. Thus far, the decision to preempt has come mere moments before the scheduled airings.
On Wednesday, January 22, “Y&R” aired a repeat centered on the character Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) in some markets. As of Tuesday, January 21, the show continued airing originals on Global TV, thus making the show two days ahead of its U.S. airings. The show has traditionally been one day ahead.
Despite many expecting trial proceedings to continue well into February, it appears the two networks are not officially prepared to make any final decisions on the scheduling of their soaps and will continue to play things by ear each weekday until further notice.
None of the three soaps have aired an original episode since Monday, January 20.
“DAYS” is the only soap to have aired original episodes thus far. With some markets airing the show before trial proceedings begin, NBC has released full episodes of the show online via the NBC app and Hulu, among other platforms, for those who were impacted by the national preemption.
Considering “DAYS” was eight months ahead in terms of its film to air schedule prior to a production hiatus that began in late November, NBC’s handling of the show during the impeachment trial thus far has come as sort of a blessing in disguise when compared to its soap counterparts. By airing the show, online or otherwise, the air schedule helps further reduce the production gap that has plagued the show for several years.
Soap Opera Network will continue monitoring what impact the impeachment trial has on the soaps for as long as proceedings continue and will indeed provide ratings data throughout.