WHERE AR MY SOAPS? ASK SOME

For the past 40 years, Inatha Mansker has tuned into CBS every weekday to watch her favorite soap operas. But now, when she turns on her television, she finds the O.J. Simpson hearing instead of her soaps.

"I wish they'd put my soaps back on," said Mansker. "They haven't been taken off for this long since Watergate."

All three major networks have pre-empted their regularly scheduled programs to show the live broadcast of Simpson's preliminary hearing.

At lounges all over Cape Girardeau, people gather around big-screen televisions to watch Simpson's defense attorneys battle it out with the prosecution. Throughout the country, people are getting a first-hand look at the American judicial system at work.

"I think people watch it because it's fascinating, because it's O.J. and because it's a real courtroom drama," said Becky Atkins, a bartender at BG's Old Tyme Deli. "We have people getting up from the restaurant and coming over here to the bar just to get up-to-date on the situation."

The lounge at Pagoda Gardens is also showing the hearings, mainly because not much else is on television. "It's the general consensus of our customers that everybody is sick of hearing about it," said Nancy Glover, manager. "It would be nicer if they just showed highlights."

Highlights might be a good idea, but they wouldn't get the ratings the hearing is getting. ABC recently stopped broadcasting the live hearing, and its ratings dropped so much it started showing the hearing again the next day.

Many people's main concern is that they are missing their soap operas. But the networks have promised that after the hearing the soaps will resume where they left off.

Popular soap operas such as "Young and the Restless," "Bold and the Beautiful" and "As the World Turns" are being pre-empted by CBS. KFVS breaks from the hearings with a local news program at noon.

"We feel an obligation to our viewers to give them an adequate dose of news and weather," said operations manager Dean Leipsner. "We monitor the trial the entire time, so if anything major happens we can report that in our newscast. We do realize that there is news out there other than this trial."

Leipsner said that a few advertisers have asked not to be associated with the hearing, but for the most part advertisers know there are a lot of people watching it.

"There is a mixed reaction, but many viewers find it to be very interesting," Leipsner said.

While all three networks are showing the same program, some viewers might be turning to other stations. For instance, Fox network chose not to air the Simpson hearings in hopes of gaining viewers.

"It's highly possible that people who don't want to watch the trials are switching to our station," said Jean Graham, program director for Fox-23 KBSI.

With all of the recent media attention, many people question whether Simpson will get a fair trial.

"I, like many other people, watched the hearings so that I could decide if he's guilty," said Becky Job of Cape Girardeau. "I think he's guilty, and just about anybody else watching the trial would think he is too. I think the media have made it pretty clear."

Still, some believe that the hearing is the focus of the media because of its importance to society.

"We are dealing with someone of national hero status," said Leipsner. "That's why it's so important. If he's guilty, we have to think about what it will do in terms of our children. If he's not guilty, it confirms our belief in our heroes. The outcome here is very important.