As the World Turns (often referred to as ATWT) is an American television soap opera that airs each weekday on CBS.
Set in the fictional town of Oakdale, Illinois, the show debuted on Monday, April 2, 1956 at 1:30pm EST. Prior to April 2, 1956 all serials were fifteen minutes in length. As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, which premiered on the same day at 4:30 pm EST, were the first two to be thirty minutes in length from their premiere.
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As the World Turns (often referred to as ATWT) is an American television soap opera that airs each weekday on CBS.
Set in the fictional town of Oakdale, Illinois, the show debuted on Monday, April 2, 1956 at 1:30pm EST. Prior to April 2, 1956 all serials were fifteen minutes in length. As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, which premiered on the same day at 4:30 pm EST, were the first two to be thirty minutes in length from their premiere.
At first, viewers did not respond to the new half-hour serial, but ratings picked up in its second year, eventually reaching the top spot in the daytime Nielsen Ratings by the fall of 1958. In 1959, the show started a streak of weekly ratings wins that would not be interrupted for over twelve years. In the year-to-date ratings, As the World Turns was the most-watched daytime drama from 1958 until 1978, with ten million viewers tuning in each day. At its height, core actors such as Helen Wagner, Don MacLaughlin, Don Hastings, and Eileen Fulton...
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