Are 'Real Housewives,' 'Jersey Shore' The Soap Opera of the Future?

With the demise of the ABC soap opera, are "reality" shows like MTV's "Jersey Shore" and Bravo's "Real Housewives" slated to be the new soap?

After ABC unceremoniously canceled two of their longest running soaps last week, even Oprah has gone on record as saying the era of the scripted soap opera is over. After frenzied fans tried to persuade Oprah Winfrey to take on the dying genre, she politely declined-- via Youtube-- saying, "All good things must come to an end."

Winfrey cited the fact that soaps like "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" have rapidly declined in viewership over the past decade.

Meanwhile, reality TV has taken over the airwaves.

And while vote-off reality shows like "Survivor" were once all the rage, now continuing reality sagas like "Jersey Shore" and "The Real Housewives" franchise have more of a soap opera feel to them. With continuing "storylines" (Sammie and Ronnie's ongoing breakup; Camille Grammer and Kyle Richards' ongoing catfight) shows like this may just be the soap opera of the future.

NBC has already figured out that formula. Last fall the network added "The Real Housewives" to their daytime lineup, sandwiched between long-running soap "Days of Our Lives" and talk shows like "The Nate Berkus Show."

The voyeuristic look into the lives of the rich and famous has been with since "The Osbournes" took that fateful trip into reality TV land back in 2002 with their self-titled MTV show. Copycat shows like "The Anna Nicole Show" quickly followed, until before you knew it everyone from Jessica Simpson to her lesser-known (at the time) sister had their own reality show. That trend quickly translated into turning unknowns into reality TV stars.

But the latest crop of ongoing reality sagas have "soap opera" written all over them.From catfighting divas to on-camera romantic hookups, Erica Kane may have done it classier, but reality TV does it on a fraction of the budget.

"The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' even left us with somewhat of a soapy cliffhanger: On the first season finale, Kyle Richards outed big sister Kim's alleged drinking problem. To be continued.....

As for the possibility of adding reality TV drama to the Big Three network's daytime lineups, here's one thing I hope I never see: Snooki sandwiched between "The Young and the Restless" and "The Price is Right."
Because some things are just sacred.