Looking at Soap Opera Episodes

Hollyoaks Table

'Hollyoaks' is a soap opera broadcasted on Channel 4, usually from 6:30pm to 7:00pm every weekday. Since the soap is shown before the watershed (9pm), it is implied there is no extreme or disturbing scenes or strong language throughout the programme. If anything that could be classed as 'distressing' is featured in an episode, a helpline is displayed at the end of the show during the final credits. As other soap operas are on later in the evening (e.g. Eastenders at 7:30pm), it's ensured there is a wider audience to watch the show. The time of broadcasting also suggests an audience of teenagers to young adults since it's after schools, colleges or businesses would close but is late enough for young children not to watch, applying to demographic groups B to E. Furthermore, this suggests that there could be mature themes, though not distressing. Without commercials, each episode lasts around 24 minutes.

The 2011 Hollyoaks cast

The specific episode of Hollyoaks (21/06/2011) that I analysed denoted several story lines, with a couple overlapping to connect the characters together, known as a fractured narrative. The themes included relationships, sex with minors, holidays and girls which are common in most soaps and include mature themes but nothing considered distressing to the target audience. There were 20 scenes, varying in location but most of which were urban or iconic settings, such as a cafe or pub. This suggests that the target audience of the soap will also most likely live in an urban area and that other soap operas will have similar settings.


There were a total of 16 characters, 9 females and 7 males, all approximately aged between 20 and 30 which implies that the target audience is both males and females in their late teens to thirties or demographic groups B and below. A majority of the characters were white though 2 characters from other ethnicities were used, perhaps as tokenism, in order to produce verisimilitude and reflect a British city or town and help the audience to identify with the characters (Uses and Gratifications Theory).
  

EastEnders Table


'EastEnders' is broadcasted on BBC1 every weekday except Wednesday, at 7.30pm or 8:00pm before the watershed. Like Hollyoaks, this means that there is no extreme or disturbing scenes and strong language throughout the programme with a helpline in place if anything distressing does appear in an episode. The time of broadcasting of the soap opera means that there is some competition from Coronation Street (ITV) as this is also broadcasted at 7:30pm on weekdays, with a similar target audience of demographic groups B to E. The later time also suggests mature themes and dramatic story lines but not that distressing to the viewer. The characters in EastEnders include a variety of ages spanning from teenagers to the elderly and so this implies that the show aims to reach a wide target audience of both sexes. As a later showing soap, more people who travel further to go to work can watch it, also reaching the target audiences of demographic groups B to E but in higher numbers. With TV tax, the BBC does not use commercials from external sources to fund their company and so there are no commercials during EastEnders. As a result, each episode lasts around 28 minutes.

Where this episode of EastEnders
was set and filmed

This episode of EastEnders (26/01/2011) followed a fractured narrative with forking paths, with most the story lines revolving around a trip to Southend (England) . These included a murder and fight, family feuds, an affair and relationships which are common themes not only in soap operas but in the ordinary lives of the targert audience creating verisimilitude, allowing the audience to indetify with the characters more (Uses and Gratifications Theory). Since there were some distressing themes and scenes, a helpline was also displayed during the final credits. There were 23 scenes across various locations, around 2/3 of which were exterior locations at Southend's Adventure Island and the beach. As unconventional locations for a soap opera, this implies a special event or story line, however, there were also the interior locations of a pub, cafe and several homes which are iconic for urban areas and soap operas. This suggests, like Hollyoaks, that the audience will also live in an urban area and, since these locations appeared in Hollyoaks also, that they're common in other soap operas.

The character of 'Whitney'
was at the centre of the
murder/prostitution story line

There were a total of 10 characters in this episode, 6 females and 4 males, all approximately aged between 20 and 80 suggesting a target audience of males and females in every age group, a large audience in demographic groups B to E. Like Hollyoaks, a majority of the characters were white though 2 characters from other ethnicities were used, perhaps as tokenism, in order to create verisimilitude and reflect a British city or town and help the audience to identify with the characters (Uses and Gratifications Theory). Previously knowing the soap before hand, I know that there are a lot more characters in EastEnders of more ethnicities and that this particular episode is not a conventional episode. I will consider this more when looking at stereotypes and characterisation during the creation of our own soap opera trailer.