daytime drama

plural daytime dramas

1. countableuncountableA television or radio serial broadcast during the daytime, especially one featuring melodramatic stories or characters.

   David Canary, Awards […] 87. Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Drama (1985) 88. Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Daytime Drama (1986)

   2005, Bruce Leiby, Linda Leiby, A Reference Guide to Television’s Bonanza, page 295

   1 more example

   Daytime dramas were as successful as their prime-time counterparts, despite concerns that an economically unattractive listening audience (housewives) would deter sponsors from purchasing advertising spot time in this scheduling block.

   1993, Marilyn J. Matelski, “Resilient radio”, in Media Studies, volume 7, page 9

   Synonyms: daytime serial, soap opera

2. uncountableThe genre comprising such serials.

   In the anything but static popular culture of the 1970s, daytime drama found itself at odds with both the place of women in contemporary, real-world situations and the contextualized, melodramatic world of females in soap operas.

   2003, Thomas D. Petitjean, Jr., “Soap Spin: Changing Female Images in American Soap Operas”, in Sherrie Inness, editor, Disco Divas: Women and Popular Culture in the 1970s, page 116