A number of soap stories exploded on the internet or in the mainstream press this year. Here's a look back at some of the most memorable.
Nuke Fans Create An International Media Blitz
It was obvious to fans of AS THE WORLD TURNS' Luke and Noah that something was up when the camera panned to the mistletoe last Christmas when the couple went in for a kiss. After a special Valentine's Day episode where every other couple kissed except Luke and Noah, fans organized a media blitz. The result was bigger than anyone could have expected. I was personally interviewed by the Associated Press (whose story ended up in at least 300 newspapers incuding the New York Times and Canada's Globe and Mail), El País in Spain, National Public Radio (twice), "The Agenda with Joe Solmonese," several gay media outlets and even ended up on the front page of USA Today's Life section. And that was just me. Other newspapers running their own stories with interviews from Nuke fans included the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times and the New York Daily News. TIME Magazine mentioned the kissing ban as did Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide and dozens of other magazines. The ban was debated on CNN on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT and on various radio programs. Largely ignored by the soap print press, fans took the story to the mainstream media with unprecedented results. The stories hit in late February and Early March and on April 23, Luke and Noah shared a kiss that had not been spoiled much to the delight of fans.
Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn Fired From DAYS OF OUR LIVES/Soaps and stars face cost-cutting
This is the second year in a row that Hogestyn has been fired. DAYS is notorious for firing actors, creating a stir, and then bringing them back a few months later. But the addition of Deidre Hall this year made headline news beyond the soap world. The situation at DAYS lead to a number of follow up stories full of doom and gloom including an Associated Press article about cost-cutting at ABC (with Susan Lucci and others) and a feature in Ad Age which talked about advertising drying up for soap operas. While these stories did not have as much media coverage as kissing ban, a number of newspapers and publications around the world printed or re-printed articles including international newspapers in France and Italy.
GUIDING LIGHT Launches New Production Model
GUIDING LIGHT pulled out all the stops to promote its new production model which rolled out on February 29. There were stories in a number of newspapers across the country such as the Baltimore Sun and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and a feature in Variety. Stars from the show even rang the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange on February 27 to celebrate the launch.
The Writer's Srike Impacts All of Television Including Daytime
The year started with the Writer's Guild of America on Strike impacting almost all forms of television and especially the daytime soaps who were written by unnamed "scabs" for months. The strike was daily news on the entertainment programs and industry magazines with regular quotes coming from some of daytime's finest. Regular rallies were held including one for daytime writers referred to as Daytime United. Melissa Salmons was included in a strike edition of David Letterman's Top 10 list in early January. Even after the strike was settled, mainstream news was made with the outing of the writers who chose to file for financial core status. Later the WGA filed separate arbitration cases against ABC and Corday Productions for allegedly violating the guild’s strike termination agreement by retaining writers hired during the writers strike earlier this year.
Carolyn Hinsey Fired From Soap Opera Weekly
The announcement from Jossip that Carolyn Hinsey had been fired from Soap Opera Weekly possibly due to "budgetary" reasons set off a barage of outrageous claims against Hinsey and others in positions of power in the soap print press like we have never seen before. The responses quickly deterioriated into some nasty anonymous attacks, but between the lines you could gleam so many fascinating details about what possibly was going on behind the scenes at the magazines. The entire incident became known as "Hinsey-gate" and made news in several newspapers around the country including the Cleveland Plain Dealer who said "soap fans and journalists seem to be wallowing in the schadenfreude" over the firing. A number of fascinating blog posts also sprung up from Bibel, Casiello, Liccardo and others who wanted to weigh in on the subject.
We also had anniversary celebrations for GENERAL HOSPITAL (45), ONE LIFE TO LIVE (40) and ALL MY CHILDREN (10,00Oth episode) which attracted a bit of mainstream coverage. There were also many other stories that made for headlines news and much consternation in the soap community including rumors of backstage turmoil at DAYS OF OUR LIVES (Higley out then back in, Scott Out, Tomlin in) and THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS (Latham and Griffith out, Bell and Sheffer in), the cancellation of PASSIONS and the firing of beloved stars like Martha Byrne and Scott Bryce. But none of these stories made much of an impact in the mainstream media.
It has been an interesting year. It looks like AS THE WORLD TURNS is correcting their mistletoe mistake from last year next week so somes lessons have been learned. Bell has turned around Y&R and OLTL is on another upswing. Several of the prime time soaps are in top form. The soap genre is still alive and well at the end of 2008 despite all the predictions of doom.
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