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In life you set goals for yourself, or at least you try to. You even have expectations for yourself that you hope will eventually get fulfilled. In my case, over the years I had set a specific list of goals that included certain expectations as they related to one another. Earlier this year, I officially crossed one of the major things off that list. It wasn’t easy as it had plagued me for nearly a decade. A stepping stone you might call it. I took up something many years ago that eventually became impossible to maintain on a full-time basis. I decided to do it part-time. I went from part-time to being very part-time. Later you could say I dropped it completely in order to concentrate on the things that either gave me personal joy and fulfillment (this site) or put several well earned dollars in my pocket. I imagine I’m not the only one out there who’s ever had pull some sort of double duty in their lifetime. Right?

Late last month we released a new layout of our website that was to allow us to present our content in manner we’ve been working towards for some time. Unfortunately, the design came with some issues that needed to be cleaned up. That cleanup left the site virtually silent news and interview wise. That’s now over.

If things look a little bit different around here it’s because things are different. As promised on our social networks, we have been working very hard behind the scenes leading up to this Thanksgiving holiday weekend to bring you the best user experience at Soap Opera Network, which not only includes the most up-to-date soap opera related content, but also a more visually appealing layout with page speed in mind. As a result of our new design, there will be plenty of new features we’ll be able to play around with that’ll provide our readers with the best presentation of our content, including this puppy.

From re-runs of soap classics “Dallas,” “Dynasty,” “Another World,” “Port Charles,” and “Falcon Crest,” to the launches of original series “SoapCenter,” “Soap Talk” and “General Hospital: Night Shift,” SOAPnet was defined as the “new way to watch soaps” for much of its near 14-year run. With just 2 days left before SOAPnet is no more, we thought it would be a great opportunity to look back at the inaugural year of a network that gave diehard soap fans their own platform to shout with glee through the death of a network that outlived its purpose.

Celebrating its 12th year online, Soap Opera Network is currently experiencing its biggest year on record in terms of page views and unique visitors. This year we’ve been able to provide exclusive insight into the world of soaps while bringing readers inside the minds of some of their favorite characters and actors featured on “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Days of our Lives,” “General Hospital” and “The Young and the Restless.” As we come off of the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, we’re gearing up for even more features in the coming weeks and the new year including the return of the SON Awards along with the annual Airhog Awards, while introducing new features such as our first annual best and worst of the year report and our new best of soaps weekly poll highlighting the best actors, best soaps, and best storylines of the week for both daytime and primetime soap opera related programming. To better present all this content we’ve made significant alterations to our website design that gets rid of clutter and inactive coding that previously prevented the site from being presented in the best way possible. The new design codenamed “refresh” was launched today.

For more than 10 years fans of daytime soap operas have been coming to Soap Opera Network to find out how their favorite soap was faring in the weekly ratings report. From time to time we would also provide analysis of how they stacked up when compared to their broadcast counterparts in the talk show and game show genres, but we’ve never looked at how the broadcast soaps (and to a lesser extent the broadcast talk and game shows) compared to syndicated television. Not that it wasn’t easy to provide a comparison, it was just never something we found necessary. In recent months, with the introduction of several syndicated talk shows including “Katie” and “The Steve Harvey Show,” which together took over the 3:00 PM slot from “General Hospital” in much of the country this past September after “GH” moved to 2:00 PM, and the second season without “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” things have changed. Recently, Broadcasting & Cable came out with a report that showed how syndicated programs might be a solid alternative to our soaps in the key demographics when it comes to Madison Avenue buying advertising time. While we wouldn’t want advertisers to give up on our favorite shows, B&C does provide a solid rationalization and even highlights the value of soap operas when it comes to the all important key women demos (Women 18-49, Women 25-54, etc).

During its second week up against season premieres of nearly every other syndicated talker, newly-rechristened “LIVE! with Kelly and Michael” finished as the No. 1 talk show overall in Households (leading the premiere week of “Ellen” by 2 shares and tied in rating – 2.8/10 vs. 2.8/8). Its top-ranked position becomes even more impressive considering “LIVE! with Kelly and Michael” airs earlier in the day with lower overall HUT levels.

Debuting amidst one of the most competitive landscapes in years for syndicated talkers, “Katie” opened as the clear No. 1 freshman daytime talk show, winning all 5 days of its opening week in Homes. On average during the week, “Katie” held wide advantages over its freshman competitors in both Households (2.3/7) and Women 25-54 (1.2/7), including “Steve Harvey” (+64%/+33%), “Jeff Probst” (+188%/140%) and “Ricki Lake” (+229%/+200%).

For the first time since the show launched back in the 1980’s, the female co-host’s name in “LIVE!” will lead the shows permanent title when “LIVE! with Kelly” becomes “LIVE! with Kelly and …” That’s right folks, “LIVE!” has found its permanent co-host after nearly a year-long search.

A number of syndicated programs hit their season lows during the week of July 30, 2012 thanks to the Olympics on NBC, while others were so heavily preempted that Nielsen Media Research excluded them from the weekly ratings averages, which was the case for Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution’s (WBDTD)’ “Anderson,” “Ellen” and “Extra,” and CBS Television Distribution’s (CTD) “Rachael Ray” and “The Doctors.” In the case of daytime talker “Live! with Kelly,” however, the show hit its lowest ratings in more than 20 years.