Re end of ONE LIFE TO LIVE: Disney/ABC has only one more soap to cancel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Life_to_Live
http://www.indystar.com/article/20120113/ENTERTAINMENT/201140309/-One-Life-Live-takes-its-last-breath-today?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CIndyStar.com
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/television/9933537-421/one-life-to-live-airs-final-episode.html

RIP (likely) GENERAL HOSPITAL 1963-2012.

Take a look at this article from THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER site:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/what-katie-courics-new-show-195183

I'm making a sort-of-educated guess that Disney/ABC will again manage for margins (i.e. low ratings don't matter as much if production costs are cheap--the rationale behind THE CHEW and THE REVOLUTION replacing ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE) and cancel their remaining soap opera aka "daytime drama."

More regarding ABC soap cancellations--the fix was in and public kept in the dark.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/04/abc-daytime-chief-on-why-amc-oltl-were-axed-general-hospital-katie-couric/

And here's a key passage from the article:
 The demise of the two venerable soaps was actually a year in the making, Frons tells me. "A year ago, we started to look at our projections where the ratings for the soaps would go," he said. When those projections came in pretty discouraging, the network began to aggressively develop replacement shows, 15 of them. Four of the 15 were picked up to pilot: The Chew, The Revolution and two others, a talk show and a dating show. Originally, the idea was to cancel only one daytime drama, Frons said. But "the way the ratings developed and the pilots turned out, the ratings developed negatively and pilots developed positively, so we decided to make a bigger shift."

Soap operas aka daytime dramas--and then there were four.

http://abc.go.com/site/abcdaytimenews
http://www.tvsquad.com/2011/04/14/abc-cancels-all-my-children-one-life-to-live/?flv=1
http://daytimeconfidential.zap2it.com/2011/04/15/the-decline-of-the-american-soap-opera
And a flip, we're-above-this post from THE ONION'S AV CLUB:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/abc-cancels-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live,54616/
Plus this sort-of-loud-and-symbolic-gesture from Hoover, the vacuum cleaner manufacturers:
http://www.deadline.com/2011/04/hoover-pulls-abc-advertising-in-protest-over-cancelations-of-soaps-amc-oltl/

My opinions:
1. ABC Daytime's Brian Frons is certainly playing the "managing for margins" game that Jeff Zucker did at NBC last season when pulling 10 o'clock series for the disastrous-but-cheap JAY LENO SHOW.  Since THE CHEW (rhymes with THE VIEW) and THE REVOLUTION will be less expensive than either AMC or OLTL, it's safe to guess that Frons won't stress out from fall 2011 to late-summer 2012 if the ratings for both series are lower than what they're replacing.

2. I feel sorry for the NYC-based actors who counted on NYC-taped soaps for all or at least part of their annual income.  Certainly the cancellation of OLTL (the last NYC soap standing) is the end of an era.

3. It may be easy to mock and smirk at daytime soaps--particularly about their tendencies to be rather broad and unsubtle in characterizations and scripting.  But I've watched them on and off through my lifetime (SANTA BARBARA was a particular favorite).  And it's sad to see them gradually become extinct (expecting the usual cliche about how pre-emptions for the O.J. Simpson trial coverage started the inevitable-slide-downwards).