First Guiding Light and now this: CBS confirmed this morning that they are canceling another long-running soap opera. Don't worry Young & The Restless fans (for now), the show that is going away is As The World Turns.

The show has been on the air for 54 years. The last episode will air in September.

This is actually really depressing. Soap operas (daytime soap operas, not prime time shows like Melrose Place) are a great dramatic format and deserve a place on the television landscape.

Unfortunately, it looks like the networks are moving further and further away from them, looking for cheaper alternatives. It's weird to think about, but now the only soaps that are left are Y&R, The Bold and the Beautiful, All My Children, General Hospital, One Life To Live, and Day Of Our Lives. And I bet none of those are safe (especially the ones on CBS).

Usually when you talk about death on soap operas, you have to know that like science fiction, death doesn't mean the end of the story. After all, many characters have come back from the dead thanks to mistaken identity, bizarre abductions, switched coffins, et. al. But when I tell you now that the NBC soap opera Passions is dead, I really mean it. Really.

There is no chance that Passions is coming back to NBC. The soap was yanked from the daytime lineup last year, but in a deal with DirecTV, Passions has remained in production. The satellite provider has been showing episodes of the bizarrely-plotted show for months. However, in a recent development, DirecTV has decided to pull the plug. Universal Media Studios, which produces the one-hours, has been trying to find a new place on the dial for Passions without any luck.