ABC has announced that it is moving the time slot of The Story of Soaps back one hour from 8PM ET/PT to 9PM ET/PT in order to air After the Dance with Stephen A. Smith: A SportsCenter Special to coincide with the end of ESPN's breakout docuseries After the Dance.
The sports series, which follows Michael Jordan's last year with the Chicago Bulls, averaged over five million same-day viewers over its first four weeks on ESPN. ABC hopes that the special, set to include commentary by basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson and other NBA stars, will provide lead-in support for the previously announced two-hour broadcast The Story of Soaps, featuring some of today's hottest film and TV stars. (Preview video below.)
As soap fans may know, After the Dance host Stephen A. Smith is a huge soap opera fan himself and has appeared on ABC's General Hospital several times over the years, first as a fictional television reporter and then as a mastermind named Brick, who's helped Sonny (Maurice Benard) with mob-related surveillance. The ESPN commentator has even compared Sonny to basketball legend LeBron James.
The Story of Soaps isn't the only program to be affected by ABC's decision to broadcast After the Dance with Stephen A. Smith: A SportsCenter Special on May 19. The premiere of The Genetic Detective is being pushed back a week to Tuesday, May 26.
What do you think about ABC's decision to move back The Story of Soaps by one hour to fit in the special on After the Dance? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
