Just as
Guiding Light's lesbian storyline was heating up, sagging ratings have forced producers to pull the plug on the longest-running soap opera in history, ending its 72-year run that kicked off on radio.
Guiding Light's final episode will air Sept. 18.
"
Guiding Light has achieved a piece of television history that will never be matched; it has crossed mediums, adapted its stories to decades of social change and woven its way through generations of audiences like no other," CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group president Nancy Tellem said.
The soap moved from
NBC radio to
CBS television in 1952. It has since won 60 Daytime Emmy Awards.
According to Guinness World Records names the show the world's longest-running TV drama with more than 15,700 episodes by the time the final episode airs.
Recently,
Guiding Light introduced a blossoming lesbian relationship between Crystal Chappell's Olivia and Jessica Leccia's Natalia, which has been widely praised by its fans.
While
Guiding Light's final episode is slated for September, Brian T. Cahill, senior vice president and managing director, TeleNext Media, Inc., which produces the show said, "We are working hard to find the show a new home, and we are exploring all our options to continue to bring loyal fans the characters and stories they love."
