On the one hand, executives like Brian Frons gutted these shows. When Frons came to ABC Daytime, there was a thriving lineup, and he decimated it with his micromanagement.

On the other hand, the daytime audience has shrunk--as has the audience for network TV, period, what with cable/the Internet/etc. But ABC primetime is firmly behind serial drama--Revenge, for example. I think it might still be possible to rethink the daytime soaps for a different time slot or format (a weekly show or a half-hour show or a telenovela-style show, etc.), in the same way that soaps went from radio to TV.