With Latvia's top-rated soap opera set to fall victim to belt-tightening in the recession-hit Baltic nation, the show's creators are turning to its fans to keep it on the air.
"We have received many letters and phone calls from viewers, suggesting this is a way to solve the problem," Baiba Salniece, head of NEPTRATA CENA (The Unreasonable Price), told the Latvian news agency Leta on Friday.
The producers are hoping to raise 160,000 lats (308,000 dollars, 228,000 euros) through Internet and telephone donations -- enough to keep filming another six months of episodes.
With Latvia's economy in freefall, the government is slashing spending -- forcing the state-funded public broadcaster LTV to adjust its budget.
It decided to axe NEPTRATA CENA later this month despite its popularity -- episodes in October drew 182,000 viewers in this country of 2.3 million people, according to the TNS Latvia rating agency.
Ironically, the show is sponsored by Parex, Latvia's largest locally-owned bank, which was taken over by the government after facing liquidity problems at the end of 2008.
Should we start taking up a college for the US daytime soaps as well?
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