Television's longest-running broadcast programme, the daytime soap Guiding Light, will come to an end in September after 57 years on the air.

Various news sites reported that CBS has pulled the plug on the show which will wrap up with its Sept 18 episode, having been on the air since 1952.

The soap's producers are still trying to keep it going, perhaps on another network. Prospects are not bright, however, because daytime soap operas are apparently facing extinction owing to the economic downturn and the surging popularity of daytime talk shows.

Guiding Light first saw life as a radio serial in 1937 - so it's actually 72 years old! The series won 60 Daytime Emmy awards, no mean feat considering that, according to TV.com, the awards only started 20 years after Light had been on the air.