All My Children & One Life To Live Canceled

The landscape of daytime television is shifting, as ABC has announced today that two long-running daytime soap operas, All My Children and One Life To Live, will be coming to an end.

All My Children and One Life To Live, both created by writer Agnes Nixon, have amassed a large following over their 40+ years on the air.

In the mid-60s, after working for Procter and Gamble on daytime soap operas Tomorrow, Guiding Light and Another World, Nixon had developed an idea for her own series - All My Children. After presenting her idea to ABC, the network promptly declined and suggested that she create a series with a more contemporary tone - that series became One Life To Live.

One Life To Live premiered on ABC in 1968. Reflecting many of the country’s socioeconomic changes, One Life To Live quickly became a hit and Nixon was finally given permission from ABC to develop All My Children into a series.

All My Children premiered on ABC in 1970. Like One Life To Live, All My Children focused on many of the country’s issues. Although, this time, instead of focusing on the lifestyles of the affluent and beggardly, Nixon tackled social issues such as homosexuality, AIDS and abortion. And of course, the show featured the reign of a great TV villain, Susan Lucci's Erica Kane.

Despite the fact that soap operas are generally laughed at amongst the so-called television elite, almost everyone has, at one time, sat through their fair share of them. Whether it be from a grandmother, mother, sister - or because you’re home sick from school and nothing else was on - many of the country’s 120 million television households have been intrigued by daytime soap storylines at some point.

With almost 11,000 episodes each, All My Children and One Life To Live have also been noted for starting the careers of many of Hollywood’s familiar faces.

Here is a list of just a few:

One Life To Live

Nathan Fillion, Laurence Fishburne, Tommy Lee Jones, Hayden Panettiere, Ryan Phillippe, Brandon Routh, Blair Underwood and Tom Berenger.

All My Children

Mischa Barton, Kim Delaney, Josh Duhamel, Jesse McCartney, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lauren Holly, Christian Slater, Michelle Trachtenberg and Amanda Seyfried.

Even though soap operas have been a staple in daytime television for the past 40 years, the recent trend amongst the networks appears to be towards that of the daytime talk show. With shows like Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, Rachael Ray and The Gayle King Show costing less to produce than soap operas and garnering higher ratings, networks have no choice but to continue this model.

Replacing All My Children and One Life To Live will be two new talk shows, The Chew and The Revolution.

The Chew will premiere in September 2011 and is described as a show that will focus on “food from EVERY Angle.” Hosts include restaurateur Mario Batali, entertaining expert Clinton Kelly, Top Chef's Carla Hall, restaurateur Michael Symon and nutrition expert Daphne Oz.

Meanwhile, The Revolution comes from the producers of The Biggest Loser and Masterchef, and will premiere in January 2012. The series is described as a show about health and lifestyle transformations. The show is hosted by a team of experts who will help viewers transform all areas of their lives. Experts include Project Runway’s Tim Gunn, celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak and American Idol’s alum Kimberley Locke.

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One Life To Live will end in January 2012

All My Children will end September 2011