Page "Soap opera" Paragraph 126

In the 80s, German networks successfully added American daytime and primetime soap operas to their schedule before Das Erste introduced its first self-produced weekly soap with Lindenstraße, which was seen as a German counterpart to Coronation Street.

Like in other countries, the soap opera met with negative reviews but eventually proved critics wrong with nearly 13 million viewers tuning in each week.

Even though the format proved successful it took until 1992 before Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten became the first German daily soap opera.

Early ratings were bad as were the reviews, but as the network RTL was willing to give its first soap opera a chance, ratings got better and climbed to seven million viewers in 2002.

Not long after Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten, Das Erste introduced Marienhof, airing it two times a week.