Guiding Light
"The Guiding Light" was broadcast first by CBS Television on June 30, 1952, replacing the canceled soap opera "The First Hundred Years". These episodes were also 15 minutes long. During the period from 1952 to 1956, "The Guiding Light" existed as both a radio and television serial, with actors recording their performances twice for each day that the shows were broadcast. The radio broadcast of "The Guiding Light" ceased production during 1956, ending this overlap.
Guiding Light
The 1970s saw the popularity of "The Guiding Light" dip somewhat. The competition imposed upon "The Guiding Light" during this decade was from other serials such as "The Doctors" on NBC, but it still garnered decent ratings. After four years, CBS bumped its timeslot up by a half-hour to accommodate Procter & Gamble's demand that "The Edge of Night" move to 2:30/1:30, a move that led to the end of that show on CBS three years later. In the meantime, "The Guiding Light" stayed steadily on course against NBC's "Days of Our Lives" and ABC's "The Newlywed Game." In late 1974, ABC replaced "The Newlywed Game" with "The $10,000 Pyramid," which went on to garner strong ratings, but not greatly at "The Guiding Light's" expense. Meanwhile, by fall 1975 (at which point the show had officially dropped the word "The" from its title, although it was still referred to as "The Guiding Light" on air for several years after), the impending departure of "The Edge of Night" for ABC - to say nothing of CBS' planned expansion of some serials - affected "Guiding Light" by pushing it back to 2:30/1:30 once more in December. At that time, NBC still ran "The Doctors" in the 2:30 slot, and ABC had a short-lived hit the next year with an updated version of the game show "Break the Bank." To complicate the picture further, ABC opted to make its first show expansions, that of "One Life to Live" and "General Hospital," in July 1976; each of those shows occupied one-half of a 90-minute block until November 4, 1977.