soap stars arent real life people, they are poor actors who act out poorly written scripts.
I know that people send babyclothes to the TV studios when the plot has someone in who is pregnant and when I lived in Washinton my MP was the idiot who stood up in the house of commons and demanded that Deirde should be freed.
Ofcourse Soap stars aren't real life people and anyone who thinks they are are truly simple minded but as regards poor actors and poorly written scripts you are in the minority here, Sandra.
Not every episode is great but there are some really fine actors and there have been exceptionally well written scripts down through the years. You have to take it as what it's meant to be and enjoy it for what it is.
As for Lost, and prisonbreak, they started off being interesting then ended up so farcical, even the actors can't believe just where Lost is going. I haven't watched Jericho so can't comment.
Your taste in television and mine strongly differ as I would never sit all morning watching little cars going round and round a race track. Now that's what I really call BORING.