What is As the World Turns?
{{Infobox television | runtime = 60 minutes<br>(30 minutes from 1956 to 1975) | creator = [[Irna Phillips]] | starring = [[Helen Wagner]]<br>[[Eileen Fulton]]<br>[[Don Hastings]]<br>[[Marie Masters]]<br>[[Kathryn Hays]]<br>[[Susan Brown]] | country = [[United States]] | executive_producer = [[Christopher Goutman]] | network = [[CBS]] | first_aired = {{start date|1956|04|02}} | last_aired = {{end date|2010|09|17}} | num_episodes = 13,858 | related = | num_seasons = 54 }} '''''As the World Turns''''' ('''''ATWT''''') is an [[United States|American]] television [[soap opera]] that airs each weekday on [[CBS]]. Set in the made-up town of [[Oakdale (As the World Turns)|Oakdale, Illinois]], the show first went on TV on Monday, April 2, 1956<ref>{{Citation | last = tv.com | title = As The World Turns | url = http://www.tv.com/as-the-world-turns/show/162/summary.html | access-date = 2007-04-30 | archive-date = 2007-09-30 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930041615/http://www.tv.com/as-the-world-turns/show/162/summary.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> at 1:30pm [[Eastern Time Zone (North America)|EST]]. Before this show, all soaps were fifteen minutes in length; ATWT was the first half-hour soap opera.<ref>{{Citation | last = Grant | first = Matthew | title = Daytime Soap Operas - Trivia | url = http://www.matthewgrantonline.com/Daytime_Soap_Opera_Trivia.html | access-date = 2007-04-30 | archive-date = 2007-04-21 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070421110853/http://www.matthewgrantonline.com/Daytime_Soap_Opera_Trivia.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> At first, viewers were not excited about it, but ratings picked up in its second year, and reached the top spot in the daytime [[Nielsen Ratings]] by the fall of 1958.<ref>{{Citation | last = soap-news.com | title = ATWT Ratings | url = http://www.so