EXCLUSIVE UPDATE: What Happened To Supercouples on Soaps?

Photo Credit: JPI/Studios

Back in the day, soaps built super couples that fans are still talking about decades later. General Hospital had Luke and Laura, while Days of Our Lives had Bo and Hope, and John and Marlena, to name a few.

Some super couples are still going strong today, like The Young and the Restless’ Victor (Eric Braeden) and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott), and DAYS Steve (Stephen Nichols) and Kayla (Mary Beth Evans). However, creating new super couples isn’t really a thing.

Bye Bye Bye

Listening to GH’s Steve Burton on his podcast, That’s Awesome, with co-host Bradford Anderson, got us thinking about super couples.

“It doesn’t happen that often, like Brad, you and I were talking about, kind of the era of supercouples are non-existent anymore, when you had Luke and Laura, or you had Patch and Kayla. You had all these supercouples,” Burton shared.

The actor is right; the supercouple’s heyday is over. There could be many reasons for this, but the simple fact is that soaps have changed in the past couple of decades. The way they are written, the cast shake-ups, and the pace at which they are filmed are just a few examples.

Soaps went through an era of being a dying genre with the cancellation of four soaps, All My Children, One Life to Live, Guiding Light, and As the World Turns, within a couple of years of each other.

The good news is that Beyond the Gates has brought life back into the daytime world. It has exceeded expectations, and the show has only been airing for six months.

Streaming has also helped, especially moving DAYS from NBC to Peacock. Although this outraged fans, it was the best thing for the show, which was renewed for two more seasons in July.

READ THIS: Here’s Why Soap Fans Need to Tune In to Greg Rikaart and Rebecca Budig’s ‘Soapy’

Ships Are All the Rage

Instead of supercouples, fans have ships, meaning a duo they love as a couple, but one character can have many ships. For example, GH’s Jason has JaSam, Jason (Steve Burton) and Sam (Kelly Monaco), and Lison, Liz (Rebecca Herbst) and Jason.

There’s no question that ships are not the same as a supercouple, but it’s the thing today. Ships also give fans a team to root for and share their opinions on that ship on social media. It’s a form of connection with other fans who are shipping the same duo.

READ MORE: Soap Opera Critics Review Hits and Misses: Top 10 Moments of the Week of August 4-8

The Bold and the Beautiful fans have many opinions on whether they want Sinn, Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood), and Finn (Tanner Nolvan), Steam, Steffy and Liam (Scott Clifton), or even Lope, Liam, and Hope (Annika Noelle). Now that ships seem to have replaced new supercouples, it brings up a question. Can a ship turn into a supercouple?

Let us know what you think, and which ship you think has a supercouple making.