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WEEKEND SUDS FLASHES
Soap hopper Robin Mattson joins DAYS!
• Daytime Emmy-nominated actress and soap-hopper extraordinaire Robin Mattson has joined the cast of DAYS in Stacy Haiduk’s storyline as Lee. The short-term gig begins around November sweeps.
• Yes, he can! Score one for ABC chief Brian Frons. President Barack Obama’s visit to The View drew 6.59 million viewers on Thursday, the show's most-watched episode ever. Maybe the sitting prez could visit One Life? Oh, wait — they don’t allow black people on that show any more.
• Carolyn Hennesy’s primetime show is sticking with its original name, Cougar Town — a very smart move. But that means that Hennesy’s man-eating character, Barb, is the only cougar on the show. Who needs an Emmy when an entire show is named after you? Though Hennesy Town does have a nice ring to it, too! |
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• In her latest newsletter, six-time Emmy winner Erika Slezak says she’s looking forward to working with Jean Passanante’s new material. She says, “Jean is a wonderful writer. She left and went to other shows and she is a very clever woman and she has joined as a breakdown writer, and I think she is going to assist in story meetings and things like that. And I like her very much. She a very nice woman and has a lot of good ideas — so hopefully it will all work out. She‘s one of those kinds of writers who goes back to the core of the show, so I think that she will come up with stuff, hopefully, for the core characters — which will be nice. I think that’s required at this point.” Slezak goes on to say she agrees that young characters are overrunning One Life. “It’s too much,” she says. Head over to erikaslezak.com to read more from soap legend.
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CASTING COUCH
Should Kyle Lowder pull a Wayne Northrop?
If B&B doesn’t know what to do with Daytime Emmy-nominated actor Kyle Lowder, then can we suggest he return to DAYS? Calm down, Eric Martsolf fans, I’m not suggesting Lowder reclaim his popular role, Brady Black, but as an Eric Brady recast. Imagine that! It’s certainly not the first time the soap has done this. Moreover, Lowder would still share his infamous sisterly chemistry with Alison Sweeney and be re-paired with Nadia Bjorlin’s Chloe, one of my all-time favourite DAYS super-couples ever.
FAN CAMPAIGNS
Should DAYS revisit a BroeMance?
Speaking of Broe, while Chloe has her hands full with Philip and Daniel, it’s always struck me as odd that DAYS pretends as if Brady and Chloe never happened. Nadia Bjorlin and Kyle Lowder graced more Soap Opera Digest covers than I can remember and their fan base is still loyal and vocal about repairing the couple. It couldn’t be a chemistry issue because the brief scenes that Bjorlin and Eric Martsolf have shared show potential heat. |
The Broe fan base isn’t the only one who wants Brady and Chloe to touch each other in a bad way down there. Bjorlin tells Soapgeist, “Brady and Chloe should be revisited because there's so much history and they’ve always been star-crossed lovers. What made them so great from the beginning is that the odds seemed to be against them. They’ve always shared the same passion for music ... and Eric Martsolf is so [musically] talented, that it would be cool to see a more mature version of the couple. Maybe portray that soulmates always come together in the end ...”
SUDS POLL
Which couple do you want to see reunited ASAP? Click here to vote.
—Jason and Liz, GH
—Nick and Phyllis, Y&R
—Hope and Bo, DAYS
—Luke and Noah, World Turns
—Brady and Chloe, DAYS
—Nick and Brooke, B&B
—Spinelli and Maxie, GH
—Ani and Gina, Venice
—Viki and Clint, One Life
—Johnny and Olivia, GH
Editor’s Note — Some readers are having trouble accessing our polls on Firefox, so use Safari instead
THE NELSON RATINGS
Can’t watch all the soaps this week? No worries — here’s a cheat sheet!
Top 3 Soaps to Watch:
1. One Life To Live, ABC
2. The Bold and the Beautiful, CBS/CTV
3. General Hospital, ABC/A
Top 3 Storylines to Watch:
1. Dead Woman Walking … Down The Aisle, One Life
2. #$@ My Bitchy Mother-in-Law Screams, B&B
3. Gilding the Faux Lily, World Turns
Top 5 Actresses to Watch:
1. Florencia Lozano (Téa, One Life)
2. Lesli Kay (Molly, World Turns)
3. Debbi Morgan (Angie, AMC)
4. Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke, B&B)
5. Kimberly McCullough (Robin, GH)
Top 5 Actors to Watch:
1. Trevor St. John (Todd, One Life)
2. James Scott (EJ, DAYS)
3. Michael Muhney (Adam, Y&R)
4. Tuc Watkins (David, One Life)
5. Jason Thompson (Patrick, GH)
Top 3 Duos to Watch:
1. Todd and Téa, One Life
2. Holden and Molly, World Turns
3. Sharon and Adam, Y&R
Top 3 Couples to Fast-Forward Through:
1. Lisa and Patrick, GH
2. Chance and anyone, Y&R
3. Maxie and Matt, GH
Top 3 Partners-In-Crime:
1. Steffy and Liam, B&B
2. Téa and Blair, One Life
3. Jake and Angie, AMC
Top 3 New Duos to Watch:
1. Tucker and Ash, Y&R
2. Chloe and Ronan, Y&R
3. Maxie and Lucky, GH
Top 3 Rivals:
1. Brooke vs. Stephanie, B&B
2. Molly vs. Lily, World Turns
3. Johnny vs. Sonny, GH
Top 3 Love Triangles to Watch:
1. EJ/Sami/Rafe, DAYS
2. Reid/Luke/Noah, World Turns
3. Molly/Holden/Lily, World Turns
Top 3 Soap Magazine Covers (based on art direction):
1. CBS Soaps In Depth: B&B’s Stephanie and Brooke/Y&R’s Jill and Lauren
2. Soap Opera Digest: Y&R’s Sharon Tragic Mistake!
3. Soap Opera Weekly: Hope Confesses to Bo on DAYS!
Top 3 Best Reads/Buys at the Newsstand:
1. Soap Opera Digest
2. Soap Opera Weekly
3. CBS Soaps In Depth
Top 3 Soap Moments To Watch:
1. Wednesday: Henry dons another drag outfit in his search to find Babs on World Turns. “The things I do for an Emmy nomination,” sighs Trent Dawson.
2. Wednesday: Natalie tells John she’s preggers on One Life. The next day, he learns that Vangie is dead. “It’s not a good week for JoVan fans, is it?” muses John.
3. Friday: B&B’s Hope asks Oliver to recreate the night of her graduation party. “But use a condom this time,” she pleas.
Want to dish the soaps with Nelson Branco? Join The Suds Report discussion group today on Facebook.
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Nelson Branco is a Toronto freelance entertainment journalist, who regularly contributes to Hello! Canada, The National Post, The Los Angeles Times' theenvelope.com, TV Guide USA, tvguide.com, Inside Entertainment, OUT, and fab magazine, along with spearheading the soap coverage for TVGuide.ca's popular daytime TV hub. After graduating from Ryerson University in 1997, he moved from Toronto to New York in 1998 to take on the roles as senior news editor at Soap Opera Update. Branco first freelanced for Soap Opera Weekly as an intern in 1994, and after leaving Soap Update to help create and launch Bauer Publishing's In Touch Weekly in 2003, Branco continued to freelance occasionally for its sister publication, Soaps In Depth. Most recently, he helped create and launch Canada's first celebrity magazine, Weekly Scoop in 2005 as its news and entertainment director. Branco is also a contributor to a new TV show titled Planet Soap to air in Canada and America. |
