Tuned In

Guiding Light to Go Dark

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I don’t tend to cover a lot of daytime TV at Tuned In, because, well, there are so many hours in a day and that’s a full-time job in itself. But this is worth note: CBS’s Guiding Light, which began on the network in 1952, is reportedly going off the air in September. Counting its original radio iteration, the show has been on in various forms for 72 years

I can’t say I was ever a fan—I had brief General Hospital and Young and the Restless habits at various times in my life—but this is like a giant redwood falling. In fact, it make me wonder: at 72 years, is this a candidate for the longest-lived single story in history? What would be the competition (assuming you exclude things like oral legends, which have been repeated for centuries but are not continuing narratives)?

The only thing I can think of that might beat this for story longevity might be a comic strip. I suppose it’s a question for the folks at Guinness.