Guiding Light hasn’t even been gone for more than a few months and already it’s time to say goodbye to the show that replaced it as the longest currently running daytime drama.  CBS announced today that As the World Turns has been canceled and will air its final episode next September with production ending in June.  Do the math, and that means almost one year to the date that GL ended, its sister soap will go black too.

CBS Daytime president Barbara Bloom says on the CBS daytime website, “It’s extremely difficult to say good-bye to a long-running series that’s been close to our hearts for so long.  The almanacs will show AS THE WORLD TURNS as a pioneer of the format, a hallmark for quality with its numerous Emmy’s, the launching pad for many television and film stars and a daytime ratings powerhouse for parts of three decades. But, the true legacy of AS THE WORLD TURNS will be the fictional characters and stories of a small Midwest town that resonated every day with millions of viewers over multiple generations, becoming a treasured daytime institution in the process. We thank our partners at Procter & Gamble for the privilege of hosting this beloved series…the actors, writers, producers and crew who worked so hard and shared their amazing talents to bring this series to life…and, of course, the viewers who shared the journey on our network.”

In a statement on the the CBS Soaps in Depth website, Brian T. Cahill, senior vice president and managing director of TeleNext Media, Inc promises, “We are proactively seeking a new outlet to carry the show, and we are open to exploring innovative formats and relationships that will enable the future success of ATWT.”

Ask GL fans how that search worked out for them.  There were rumors, how true they may or may not have been we’ll never know, that GL was on the verge of being saved by Lifetime. Yesterday in his Soapgeist for TV Guide Canada, Nelson Branco reported that a former GL director told him had GL been canceled a month earlier, a deal could have been worked out.  “The main problem was that Lifetime had already cemented their fall lineup, but they wanted it.”  The following is mostly dreaming on my part, but if Lifetime truthfully wanted GL and if the welcome mat could possibly be extended to ATWT, how about a sort of soap hybrid at the very least?  GL ended with a flashforward of one year, and ATWT will be wrapping up at that one year mark.  Just saying…

I actually started watching ATWT earlier this summer, in part because I’m a glutton for punishment at the time of GL’s demise, ATWT was rumored to be next to go; and in part because I wanted to see Lynn Herring who played Lucy Coe on Port Charles/General Hospital. Despite the fact that I’m a newbie to this show in particular, I’m a soap fan, and I saw PC through from day one through its final episode, and I watched Sunset Beach end earlier as well.  Given that these shows air day in and day out, losing one isn’t easy.  Making it even harder to swallow, when these shows drop, they aren’t being replaced with new soaps:  When they’re gone, they’re gone.  Rumors that One Life to Live is next to go may or may not prove to be true, but the sad reality is, come next June when ATWT wraps, OLTL will be the last soap standing in New York City.

In the meantime, let’s take a minute to remember ATWT and the history that came with it.  By the time it leaves the airwaves, it will have spanned 54 years and over 13,000 episodes.   James Earl Jones, Meg Ryan, and Parker Posey, among others all appeared on the soap in the past.  More importantly, a number of veterans continue to on the show to this day, Eileen Fulton and Don Hastings have both appeared on the show as Lisa Grimaldi and Dr. Bob Hughes for 49 years.  But it’s Helen Wagner, the last remaining original cast member who’s Nancy Hughes spoke the first words that launched the show back in 1956.  Hopefully if those exhaustive efforts to save the show don’t pan out, she’ll be allowed to bring the World to a halt in 2010.