NEWS ROUNDUP: ABC Focused On GENERAL HOSPITAL, Very Pleased With THE CHEW

ABC not looking to revive ONE LIFE TO LIVE or ALL MY CHILDREN
The daytime dramas were canceled in favor of shows like THE REVOLUTION, which failed to find an audience and was canceled this summer. Despite that show's demise, though, ABC President of Entertainment Paul Lee says ABC is not looking to revive ALL MY CHILDREN or ONE LIFE TO LIVE, and they're not looking at picking up new scripted daytime shows.

"I think those decisions were made," he says. "No. Our focus is on GENERAL HOSPITAL, and I think Frank [Valentini] is doing a great job with that, and a lot of his crossovers. So we like that and are great supporters of it."

"We're very pleased with THE CHEW. It has great energy," said Lee. "It'll be a huge asset for us in the holiday season... Our focus is on GENERAL HOSPITAL and the crossovers."

NASHVILLE Team on Connie Britton's 'Journey' as a Singer
Appearing at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in Beverly Hills on Friday, Britton and Panettiere were asked to weigh in on the singing aspect of their roles. Since the GUIDING LIGHT alumna has at least a smidgen of a pop artist background, Britton joked, “I think Connie and Hayden would have very different conversation about the singing. Hayden is a great singer; Connie is having a ‘journey.’ It’s an exciting journey, because it’s a journey with [acclaimed songwriter/producer] T-Bone Burnett. But it’s a journey.”

NASHVILLE's Hayden Panettiere: My Character Is Not Based on Taylor Swift!
"I've heard the Taylor Swift [comparison] quite a bit," Panettiere said during the Nashville panel at ABC's TCA press day. "I think aside from being about the same age and blond—and not even the same height at all!—once you get to see Juliet you'll disagree wholeheartedly. I think Taylor would disagree. She's much nicer than my character."

Emily's home featured in REVENGE, located in North Carolina, for sale
Listed at $1.579 million, $816,000 less than the original asking price of $2.395 million, the property offers the luxury of the Hamptons at a lower price.

Gregg Henry and Jillian Armenante to recur on SCANDAL
Henry will play Jackson, a big-money Southern guy who is smart and warm unless you cross him. Armenante, currently seen in The Dark Knight Rises, will play the role of Lucas which was originally written as male. Lucas is described as smart, well-spoken and brash. Armenante is with Domain and Framework.

'Building Hope' in Haiti: New radio soap opera connects displaced to services
Now, life in an earthquake refugee camp is serving as the basis for a radio soap opera hitting Haitian airwaves. In the style of the popular Latino television soap operas, or telenovelas (but without the steamy story lines), the radio series follows the life of one family that survived the earthquake only to find a drawn-out struggle in a camp.

Soap opera 2.0: the rise of branded entertainment in the age of smart TV
Branded content apps are already launching on smart TVs, with the likes of Red Bull, Audi TV and M&S TV on the Samsung platform. These content apps provide an ideal channel for brands to create original entertainment formats.

BBC1 to use Olympics coverage to launch autumn drama season
The marketing campaign, the first of its kind undertaken by the channel, will focus on six new dramas under the heading "Made in Britain".

Ronn Moss brand ambassador?
According to Kalyan Ganguly, director of UB Ltd, Mallya met an American actor at a party, then "called me and said, this guy, he's a good-looking chap, everybody's watching him. Why don't we create a brand ambassador out of him?"

Before long Ronn Moss - better known as Ridge Forrester from THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL - was endorsing Kingfisher.