I have personally never been a big fan of TV daytime dramas (also known of course as "soap operas," so let's call them that), and have done very little watching of them over the years.
But many people are enamoured of them, watch them constantly, and soap operas remain a staple of TV viewing, not only in the U.S. but around the world.
In fact, it could be argued that wherever there is TV, there are soap operas, and usually in abundance. Take a look at this wikipedia article to get an idea of the
enormous number of soap operas broadcast throughout the world as part of local TV offerings. They're
everywhere:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_soap_operasAlso, a few quick facts about
American soap operas, from various websites:
They started on radio in the 1930s. First on TV in 1952. Viewer ratio: about
80/20 (female/male). Largest demographic: women over 50. Most watched by: those who work from home, those who work nights, those on sick leave, unemployed people, retired people. Some of the historically highest rated in U.S.: General Hospital (1963- ), Days of Our Lives (1965- ), The Young and the Restless (1973- ), The Bold and the Beautiful (1987- ).
But to the point of this thread: illnesses of various kinds have always been a ready source of story ideas for virtually all of the soaps since their beginnings, and cancer in particular has served as a rich source for storylines.
Since most of the viewers are women, the female cancers have been center stage for most of these stories, with breast cancer stories dominant:
https://daytimeconfidential.com/2010/10/05/soaps-and-breast-cancer-five-powerful-storylinesBut getting closer to home, have there ever been any
prostate cancer storylines on any of the major soaps?
Well, so far I have found just one. On the soap The Young and the Restless, there has been a long-time (since 1991) character named Michael Baldwin. It seems he is a bad-guy type, an unscrupulous lawyer, who eventually has to deal with PCa:
"In 2014, Michael is under a lot of stress with his workload ... Michael continues to be stressed out, so Lauren suggests Michael go to the doctor ... the doctor calls Michael back with the lab results. The doctor explains to Michael that his PSA is elevated, and Michael asks if he has cancer. The doctor diagnoses Michael with stage 3 prostate cancer. So far, only Kevin, Lauren, Fen, Phyllis, and Jill know Michael has stage 3 prostate cancer. Michael is planning on telling the rest of his family and friends his news eventually."--From "Michael Baldwin" (Wikipedia article):
Here in a Youtube video he informs his wife of his Dx, in typical soap opera fashion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aauaaco_e40I did some further checking, and apparently this PCa storyline on Y&R ends mysteriously, unresolved, and the character of Michael Baldwin moves on to other soapish adventures:
"Michael Baldwin’s three decades on the soap opera have been pretty eventful. He’s survived donating a kidney, battling prostate cancer and several attempts on his life but ... he’s likely to remain on the show for some time."(From a website)
But perhaps it's at least worth noting that the writers for Young and the Restless at one point saw fit to include in the show's offerings at least some attention to PCa in one of the characters.
A lot of people would have been watching that show at the time, and perhaps were prompted to at least think about
PCa because of it.
And I suppose it could be argued that when an issue makes its way into one of the major American TV daytime dramas, that means, at least in the eyes of the show's writers, that it's something worthy of the public's attention?