“How did the ‘stories that never end’ end? Institutional concentration and the decline of the U.S. soap opera industry.”

Using a comprehensive data set containing organizational histories of all television soap operas that aired in the United States from 1949 to 2012, we focus on endogenous institutional dynamics that ultimately led to the dramatic decline of the once thriving form. Specifically, we focus on the rise of “institutionally central” soap operas that gave legitimacy to the form. We show that these soap operas, more than others, led to both the dramatic success and deep institutionalization of the form in the years following its emergence on television and also to the stagnation and decline of the form more recently. By defining the form in the minds of audiences in fairly narrow terms and attractive a lion’s share of viewers, these institutional central soap operas crowded out existing competitors and new entrants that may have given the industry added dynamism and diversity that would have helped it weather a changing industry landscape.