If you love your “Revenge,” you will most likely also enjoy a series of “Deception.” Debuting Monday, January 7 at 10:00 PM ET/9:00 PM CT on NBC, “Deception” tells the story of Vivian Bowers, a wealthy socialite and notorious party girl who appears to have died from a drug overdose. In actuality, it looks like Vivian may have been murdered. Portraying the role of the dead is former “One Life to Live” star Bree Williamson, who can be seen in the first act of the series pilot as an alive Vivian just before her death, while seen subsequently in various flashbacks and imagery.
Author: Errol Lewis
Congratulations are in order for former “General Hospital” and “General Hospital: Night Shift” actress Kent King and husband Christian Cardona, who welcomed their first child, Griffin King Cardona, on Thursday, December 27, 2012. “He is so sweet and yummy, and I’m so in love!” said King in a posting on Facebook. The newborn baby boy was born at 12:29 PM PT and weighed in at 8lbs 1oz, the actress told Soap Opera Network exclusively.
Just about a month before announcing their decision to postpone plans to launch “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” on the web in early 2012, Prospect Park announced a partnership with Universal Music Group that would bring music, e-commerce and artist participation to new productions of “All My Children” and “One Life to Live.” So now that word broke that Prospect Park is re-rebooting both soaps for the web in 2013, we felt it was a great opportunity to check on the status of this endeavor.
A few days ago a comment was posted on our website regarding why SOAPnet was still on the air, particularly on the posters cable system, despite the network widely expected to have left the airwaves in 2012. As we reported in April 2011, SOAPnet will transition into Disney Jr. at some point, but not until new deals are forged with cable operators.
From “Cold Spring” to “Prosecuting Casey Anthony,” former soap stars Marisa Ramirez (“General Hospital”), Sam Page (“All My Children”), Patrick Muldoon (“Days of our Lives,” “Melrose Place”), Aiden Turner (“All My Children”), Elizabeth Rohm (“One Life to Live”), Sean Patrick Flannery (“The Young and the Restless”) and Scott Evans (“One Life to Live”) will grace the Lifetime movie screens this month as the group of actors help tell the networks tradition of stories involving stalkings, affairs and murder.
Beginning in February 2013, fans of NBC’s “Days of our Lives” will have to get used to seeing a new set of faces portraying the role of Sydney DiMera, Sami (Alison Sweeney) and EJ’s (James Scott) daughter. According to website Jason47.com, twins Nadia and Talia Hartounian will assume the role from twins Isabelle and Sahara Roberts at that time.
Barring any unexpected preemptions, NBC’s “Days of our Lives” will celebrate episode 12,000 with a bang on Friday, January 11, 2013 as friends and family in the town of Salem gather together for a wedding that will end all weddings. While we can’t reveal what exactly will happen in the episode, we can tell you a huge secret will be revealed by an unexpected individual and that relationships (both familial and intimately) will be torn apart! Fans will be in for a treat as Cliffhanger Friday marks its return to “Days of our Lives.”
The big news of December 2012 was word that Prospect Park was taking another stab at moving ABC’s “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” to the web in 2013. The news was first reported by Deadline.com’s Nellie Andreeva. In her initial reporting, Andreeva revealed that Prospect Park had made agreements with the unions SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and the DGA (Directors Guild of America). Previously, while the company had planned on debuting the shows on the web in early 2012, no deals had been signed with either union or the WGA (Writers Guild of America). This hindered the company’s plan to move forward with the shows and resulted in a postponement that was announced in November 2011. In a statement at the time, AFTRA (prior to its merger with SAG) said that they were “deeply disappointed to read that the executives at Prospect Park have decided to suspend their efforts to produce the long-running and popular daytime serials.” Additionally, the union had said that they “remain hopeful that an opportunity to revive these two popular series will emerge in the future, and remain ready to resume discussions should that opportunity arise.” The future took more than a year, but it appears to have finally emerged. However, although a representative from SAG-AFTRA confirmed that an agreement with Prospect Park had been made when pressed for comment from Soap Opera Network early last week, it remains unclear if said agreement had actually been signed. “Not absolutely certain it had been signed but can check that for you,” said the rep. Due to the holidays, we don’t expect a response on that little detail until at least tomorrow, January 2.
Kamar de los Reyes left ABC’s “One Life to Live” in 2009 after portraying the uber popular role of Antonio Vega off and on for nearly 14 years. When he joined the soap in 1995, the character was introduced as a former gang member recently released from prison after serving time for killing a man. As the eldest son of Carlotta Vega, Antonio was able to prove the crime was in fact an act of self defense with help from Nora Buchanan. In “Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” which was released in November 2012, de los Reyes portrays Raul Menendez the terrorist behind a new world at war that is set in the year 2025. The game, also starring some of Hollywood’s biggest stars including Sam Worthington, Michelle Rodriguez and Michael Keaton with appearances by former soap stars Eden Riegel (“All My Children”) and Brianna Brown (“General Hospital”), grossed over $500 million on its first day of release. The team at Treyarch Invention made the game so real-life like that de los Reyes is now immortalized as a very recognizable video game character, despite the evil things the character induces.
After a brief downtime, the SON Community Message Boards are back online. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
CBS’ “The Bold and the Beautiful” has cast former “Guiding Light” stars Karla Mosley and Lawrence Saint-Victor in the contract roles of Maya Avant and Carter Walton, respectively. Their casting was announced by “B&B” executive producer and head writer Bradley P. Bell.
Maria Arena Bell, who was let go as Executive Producer and Head Writer of CBS’ “The Young and the Restless” earlier this year, was honored on Wednesday, December 12 with a Humanitarian Award for her dedication to arts advocacy during the 14th Annual Women’s Image Network (WIN) Awards, which recognizes and honors exemplary men and women in the entertainment industry including those from the television, film and advertising worlds.
Scott Reeves, who has portrayed Dr. Steven Lars Webber on “General Hospital” since 2009, has announced via his Twitter account that the ABC series has released him from his contract and that he will last air on the soap sometime in February.
“Hey guys, u know how much u mean 2 me and I wanted u 2 hear it from me. I was let go from GH today and my last day should b in Feb sometime,” said Reeves in a Twitter posting shortly after 9:00 PM PST on Wednesday, December 12.
According to a tweet by Robert Adamson, who portrays Noah Newman on CBS’ “The Young and the Restless,” daytime newcomer Jhoanna Flores has joined the cast in an as yet to be determined role. “@ jhoannamarissa welcome to #YR.. I’ll keep it under wraps for now who she’s playing. But she’s doing a great job!” read Adamson’s tweet.
In yet another holiday film from Lifetime starring former soap stars, actors Claire Coffee (ex-Nadine Crowell, “General Hospital”) and Ryan McPartlin (ex-Hank Bennett, “Passions”) are headlining “Holly’s Holiday.” In the film, Coffee portrays Holly Maddux, a New York advertising executive who can’t help notice the window display she passes by on her way to work every day, the one with the perfect, hunky mannequin. When Holly slips one day on the ice in front of the store and hits her head, she wakes up to find a perfect gentleman by her side, helping her up. That gentleman is portrayed by McPartlin in the role of Bo. As Holly and Bo hit it off almost perfectly, Holly soon realizes that the pressure to be perfect all the time is not all that it’s cracked up to be as she has to make a choice between the perfect life she’s always dreamed of… and the real love that’s been waiting for her all along. The fim also stars Jeff Ward (“Body of Proof”) in the role of Milo Ames.
In a Twitter posting just after midnight on Tuesday, December 4 (on the east coast), Maurice Benard revealed that he signed a new contract with ABC’s “General Hospital,” which will keep him in the role of Sonny Corinthos for the foreseeable future. In his posting the actor said, “I just signed my contract for ‘General Hospital.’ It makes me feel good that I’m not leaving my family.”
For the 60 million television households still lucky enough to receive SOAPnet via their cable or satellite provider you’ll be happy to know (or not) that the network is presenting a nine-hour marathon of party-themed episodes from “Veronica Mars,” “One Tree Hill” and “Beverly Hills, 90210” in honor of New Year’s Day 2013 (January 1, 2013).
According to a report by the New York Post, ABC is developing a real-life version of its popular daytime soap “General Hospital.” A network spokesperson confirmed the Post’s report and said that the possible series, which recently began taping at UCLA Medical Center, is in its “earliest, pilot stages,” and is intended “either for syndication or maybe cable.” Of course, the news has put soap opera fans into a tizzy as they are now worried about the fate of “GH” when they really shouldn’t be – yet.
“The Bold and the Beautiful” and CBS have joined together in an effort to raise money for the American Red Cross Hurricane Sandy relief fund.
In the latest issue of Soap Opera Digest, which just happens to be the mags annual Best & Worst issue, columnist Carolyn Hinsey (“It’s Only My Opinion”) shared her views of the best and worst of 2012 in the world of daytime soaps. While you can read her input by picking up your own copy, it is her statement that “OLTL will be back” that peaked our curiosity.