TV programs are lures designed to deliver an audience to advertisers.

Radio "soaps" started in the 1930s; TV "soaps" in the 1950s. Such serialized domestic melodramas and romantic stories were originally targeted at women who were at home during the day, especially "housewives" and young mothers.

Thus, for this target audience of women, who were the traditional caretakers and housekeepers, most of the ads were for "Protection" products: primarily house care products (soaps and detergents), foods, clothes care, and child care.

By the 1980s, students (and others "with time on their hands" during daytime hours) were lured to the soap operas. As this was recognized by the producers, they adapted by writing more glamorous "younger" actors into the scripts which became less concerned with realistic domestic problems, pitching the story (and the ads) more toward this new audience.

When Tivo and VCRs became common in the 1990s, many full-time working women began tape recording their favorite serials. But, even with this wider diversity of programming and products advertised, these programs are still called "soap operas," or "the soaps." Later, prime-time programs, such as "Sex and the City" used the soap-opera formula to target primarily female audiences both on television, and online.