I'm surprised some of these soaps last as long as they do. The production costs obviously aren't as high as prime time shows, but they still need large casts of paid actors, writers, directors, producers, makeup artists, set designers, etc. I don't know much about this stuff, but I'm guessing that producing a cooking talk show will cost a tiny fraction of a big soap opera.
yeah, but these shows used to be watched by lots more people....so perhaps it is only recently that it became a big difference.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_daytime_soap_opera_ratings
--
I'm "kind of a big deal".
http://img.imgcake.com/cyclo/Cyclopngegpngre.png