Soap Opera News (Page 5)

Just like Soap Opera Digest did, TV Guide Magazine named One Life to Live the best soap opera of 2007.

Here is a summary of that publication's awards for the year:

Best Show: One Life to Live
Best Actor: Jon Hensley (Holden, pictured, As the World Turns)
Best Actress: Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki, The Young and the Restless)
Best Supporting Actor: Carolyn Hennesy (Diane, General Hospital)
Best Supporting Actress: Graham Shiels (Cody, General Hospital: Night Shift)

As December comes to a close, we figured it was time to chime in on the numerous end-of-the-year awards handed out. Our thanks to Daytime Confidential for coming up with the crux of this list.

With that in mind, here are our 2007's Top 10 Newcomers in the world of daytime television:

1. Billy Miller (Richie Novak, All My Children)
2. Megan Ward (Kate Howard, General Hospital)
3. John Brotherton (Jared Banks, One Life to Live)
4. Sebastian Roche (Jerry Jacks, General Hospital)
5. Carolyn Hennesy (Diane Miller, General Hospital)
6. Murray Bartlett (Cyrus Foley, Guiding Light)
7. Dylan Bruce (Chris Hughes, As the World Turns)
8. Daniel Goddard (Cane, The Young and the Restless)
9. Brandon Barash (Johnny Zacchara, General Hospital)
10. Lauretta Vaughn (Kit, As the World Turns)

Why did we rank Billy Miller number-one? For his honesty. The man portrays Richie in a slick, twisted way that makes for a true, fun-loving villain.

Nelson Branco  of TV Guide Canada has handed out a slew of awards for the 2007 year in soap operas. Read through them all here, and take a look at a few examples below:

MASTER CLASS PERFORMANCES
Alicia Minshew (Kendall Hart, All My Children)
For carrying the entire show; and proving once again that Erica Kane’s offspring are always more talented. Well, except for Colin.

Jon Hensley (Holden Snyder, As the World Turns)
The most underrated actor on soaps; and a big thanks for being solely responsible for making Holden Snyder soaps’ only real man. Luke is one lucky stepson! Let’s hope you take home an Emmy in 2008 for all your efforts and hard work!

Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke Logan, The Bold and the Beautiful)
For finally letting go.

PROTEGES: THE NEXT BIG THINGS
Austin Peck (Brad Snyder, pictured, As the World Turns)
A revelation. If you ever needed to believe in miracles; let me present you the sexy and charming Mr. Peck — finally. Yummy; he’s the next Tuc Watkins. What are Carly and Katie thinking? You’re chasing after the wrong man!

Kyle Lowder (Rick Forrester, The Bold and the Beautiful)
Beautiful, sexy and soulful – he’s daytime’s McDreamy and McSteamy rolled into one soapy package. Memo to Ashley: you’re a moron.

BethAnn Bonner (Talia Sayid, One Life to Live)
The next Sarah Brown. Move her to the frontburner stat — hell, she even makes me like Antonio — and I can’t stand the character.

Here are the latest soap opera ratings, as The Young and the Restless continues to dominate the competition:

• The Young and the Restless 3.8
• The Bold and the Beautiful 2.7
• General Hospital 2.2
• As the World Turns 2.1
• One Life to Live 2.1
• All My Children 1.9
• Days of Our Lives 1.8
• Guiding Light 1.8

NOTE: Each ratings point equals 1,128,000 viewers.
SOURCE: A.C. Nielsen and soapcentral.com

Stars from a handful of your favorite soap operas will be appearing on behalf of a great cause in a couple months. Here are the details:

What: The fourth annual ABC Daytime Salutes Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit. Your favorite stars from All My Children, One Life to Live, General Hospital and The View will perform music and comedy for a good cause.
When: Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 7:30 pm/ET
Where: Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street in New York City
Order tickets online or call (212) 840-0770. See you there!

A handful of stars from your favorite ABC soap operas recently came together to celebrate Super Soap Weekend in Florida.

Here are a few photos from the event:

Alicia Minshew looks happy to answer questions from fans of All My Children.

Bree Williamson poses with a One Life to Live admirer.

A pair of General Hospital veterans: Jason Thompson and Kimberly McCullough.

Might soap opera writers be the first to cross the picket lines of the Writers Guild of America?

Variety reports that a high-ranking writer-producer on The Young and the Restless has informed the WGA that he plans to go "financial core;" i.e. give up full membership in the guild and withhold the dues spent on political activities in order to continue writing during the strike.

Another source with knowledge of the situation added that two other scribes on The Young and the Restless will follow suit, while a writer on Days of Our Lives may also be considering crossing the picket line.

The WGA  refused to comment on the rumors yesterday and there have been no reports of writers on primetime or latenight series picking up their pens.

Daytime, however, is different.

Ratings for most soap operas have been dropping for years, with several sudsers barely hanging on. NBC, for example, has made it clear that Days of Our Lives may not be renewed when its license agreement expires.

That's one reason why networks have been scrambling to make sure their soaps stay in production. After all, a long stretch of pre-emptions or repeats could prove fatal.

During the 1988 walkout, network and studio executives were enlisted to keep the daytime dramas fresh. There were also widespread reports of WGA scribes writing scripts at home and finding a way to get those scripts into producers' hands without physically crossing a picket line.

"You'd hear stories about scripts being dropped off behind a trash can or in an alley," a soap opera veteran said to Variety.

Still, the majority of soap scribes appear to be keeping their computers turned off.

Continue Reading...

It's official: writers in Hollywood are on strike.

While this may have an immediate effect on talk shows such as The Late Show with David Letterman (because the host is also a writer, meaning he'd have to cross the picket line in order to air a new episode), soap operas at ABC are in good shape for the next few months.

Referring to All My Children, General Hospital and One Life to Live, a network insider said:

"ABC's daytime dramas are written well into the new year, and we will continue to produce original programming with no repeats and without interruption."

Starting Monday, November 12, it's celebrity week on Wheel of Fortune.

Here are the soap opera stars you can look forward to seeing during those episodes:

• Robin Strasser (One Life to Live)
• Alison Sweeney (Days of Our Lives)
• Gina Tognoni (Guiding Light)
• Jacob Young (All My Children, pictured)

How do you feel about the Luke/Noah story line on As the World Turns?

What about Todd McKee coming back to The Bold and the Beautiful?

Or the odds of Cameron Mathison actually winning Dancing with the Stars?

Talk about all these topics and so much more in our soap opera forum. It's live right now, it's free, it's fast and it's easy.

Discuss your favorite daytime drama with fellow fans each and every day. We'll see you there!