Soap spoilers (explain!)

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As someone who’s never seen a single soap opera (that I know of, anyway), I probably have little chance of getting it, but what’s the deal with soap opera spoilers? I see them everywhere in the media.

On a pure marketing level, I understand that the intention is to “hook” the viewer, but why is this so common with shows like Emmerdale & Corrie - so-called “soaps” (I’m aware the definition itself may be called into question, but for the purposes of this, extremely long-running series centring around family relationships etc.)?

My guess is a mix of a) they’re seen as less “elite” than “proper” drama shows and hence there’s a sense that finding out there’s a “shocking death” in tonight’s episode or that there’s a “dark secret to do with Amanda’s pregnancy” won’t affect your interest if you do choose to keep watching and b) there’s a sense that you’ll want to see how exactly the shocking death occurs and who dies and what the secret around Amanda’s pregnancy is, and that will hook you more.

Still, I don’t really get why this happens with soaps and not other forms of content. Digital Spy actually has a section called “soap spoilers”.

Is it all to do with the presumed “low-grade” quality of soaps that allows them to be spoilt? This comes after I’ve read a Sunday Times (I think) article that argued publications are becoming more sensitive to and understanding of spoilers, and that no review has as yet spoilt No Time to Die without explicitly warning it was about to do so. It made an argument via empathy/respect/care not to ruin others’ enjoyment.

I’m reading around it now but wondering if anyone has any views. If there’s a consensus that this belongs in the general spoilers thread, happy for it to be moved there. I just feel like soap opera spoilers are a different kettle of fish altogether, hence the thread.



I'm not a big soaps fan myself, but here are some thoughts:

1) Many soaps have a ridiculous number of episodes. It might be considered more okay to "spoil" things because it's more likely someone will have missed an episode.

2) Soap operas notoriously don't have a lot of permanent "big events". Characters can die a shocking death . . . . and then it turns out their death was faked, or their identical twin shows up right afterward. So spoiling a death on a soap might not be considered as serious as spoiling a death on a show where such a thing might actually have lasting, serious consequences for the program.

3) Soap operas tend to skew into the realm of pulpy fun. Relating back to both the first and second points, "shocking deaths" and "big secrets" are pretty dime a dozen. You're not really telling anyone something different about what they're expecting to see, but rather just giving them a vague sense of the gist of the episode.



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
My guess is that there really is no true spoiler for daytime drama, as daytime drama isn't building for a single climax as with a movie that's set within a defined timeline with a defined ending. Soaps just keep going.


Today's pregnancy will be overshadowed by tomorrow's car accident ending the pregnancy. The resulting coma will motivate the boyfriend to cheat and give room to the attending doctor to fall in love with the now abandoned and comatose woman. She wakes up, they have an affair. Doctor leaves his wife for the younger girl. Ex boyfriend gets his new girl pregnant. Wait. They're actually related after previous girlfriend tracks down orphanage history on the new girl. Repeat.


There's no ending to spoil. It just keeps mutating.


I can speak as a professional soap opera viewer having been forced to watch them every summer with my grandma as we shelled peas all morning.





Today's pregnancy will be overshadowed by tomorrow's car accident ending the pregnancy. The resulting coma will motivate the boyfriend to cheat and give room to the attending doctor to fall in love with the now abandoned and comatose woman. She wakes up, they have an affair. Doctor leaves his wife for the younger girl. Ex boyfriend gets his new girl pregnant. Wait. They're actually related after previous girlfriend tracks down orphanage history on the new girl. Repeat.
This is great. Thank you for that. I feel like I’ve finally seen a soap! *hat off*



My guess is that there really is no true spoiler for daytime drama, as daytime drama isn't building for a single climax as with a movie that's set within a defined timeline with a defined ending. Soaps just keep going
Exactly. Every "ending" is just a beginning.



I think ynwtf has pretty much hit the nail on the head. There's no 'end' to spoil. Even a big reveal isn't an ending, it's just the start of (an)other storyline(s).

To expand on that, like life, it's a continuous story and we like to know what's going on in people's life and what's coming up. Also, while I know there are people who hate to know the spoilers (my sister watches a couple of the soaps and can't understand why anyone would want to know what's going to happen. Why watch it then? is very much her answer to that) there's also the fact that, as 'never ending stories' there are periods where an individual may get bored with what's happening and think about not watching/start paying less attention. In that respect the spoilers act like little teasers. A kind of "OK, you're a bit bored now, but stick around because it's about to kick off." The hardcore fans are always there and a show loses very few of them once they get past their mid 20's-30 (I'd guess. I do hear that soaps are very much an 'older' person thing) so the spoilers also act like ads for fans who've stopped watching to get back into it. Believe it or not, people will tune back in to see character X return because they liked them or just to see how it happens. Ditto a death or wedding. Even if only 1% keep watching beyond that episode, that'll probably be 1,000's of people (depending on how many extra watched) and those people will talk about it to others who, in turn, may decide to give it a go. As with many things, no one's really trying to please the hardcore fans because they're there regardless. It's the casual fans and first timers that everyone wants because that's where the money is.

Lastly, and this is common to most people, people like to be in the know. They like to know they know something someone else may not.
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