Soap Talk, the Emmy-nominated talk show on the Disney-owned all-things-soap cable network, SOAPnet, has been cancelled after four seasons. The announcement was made earlier this week and came as a total surprise to everyone involved with the show.
"It's been a great run and all of us here at SOAPnet are very proud of Soap Talk, its 12 Daytime Emmy nominations and the incredible staff for their role in developing, creating and making this show work week after week," SOAPnet president Deborah Blackwell said in a statement. "We also thank our hosts, Lisa Rinna and Ty Treadway, for their constant professionalism and charm. Soap Talk will remain a part of our schedule at 11 am, 4 pm and midnight and [the 28 remaining unaired episodes from Season Four] will continue to roll out through the fall."
Unfortunately, Soap Talk failed to make a dent in the ratings: Its first-run episodes received roughly the same ratings as reruns. Despite requests, actual ratings numbers were not made available to Soap Central.
Earlier this year, the Disney-ABC Television Group named Brian Frons the president of the newly-created Daytime, Disney-ABC Television Group. Frons had previously served as president of ABC Daytime. As part of his new role with Disney, Frons duties include the overseeing of SOAPnet. It is unclear if Frons had any hand in the decision to cancel Soap Talk.
Soap Talk was just one of SOAPnet's original series. The network remained committed to its reality offering, "I Wanna Be a Soap Star" and its Lifetime-esque "One Day With..." and "Soapography."