Nelson Branco's Soap Opera Uncensored: Issue 42
SOAP OPERA UNCENSORED
Volume 02, Issue 32 (No. 42)
BY NELSON BRANCO
Copyright 2012 Nelson Branco
INSIDE — Is Victoria Rowell Headed Back to Y&R? Did Missy Reeves Go Too Far? Inside Report! Plus: Reaction From the Daytime Community! Is A Y&R Spin-off In The Works? Exclusive: Inside the Sony/CBS Cast and Crew Meeting On Set This Past Week! Update on Hogan Sheffer’s Y&R Status! Eileen Davidson Back to Y&R? GH’s Kirsten Storms Speaks! Latest Deets on THE GROVE! New Contract Role on B&B! ABC Releases Quarterly Earnings Report! Last Week's Reviews, Unbelievable Blind Items, and Next Week's Cheat Sheet!
UNCENSORED MASTHEAD:
FOUNDER/EDITOR: Nelson Branco
EDITOR AT LARGE: Denette Wilford
Follow Soap Opera Uncensored at: @nelliebranco or @SoapUncensored
NOTE FROM EDITOR/FOUNDER:
You asked — and it’s happening. For more information on subscribing to daytime’s first weekly e-zine SOAP OPERA UNCENSORED, email soapuncensored@yahoo.com
1 Year: $24.99 (*normally $129.48)
*Based on $2.49 issue price
COMING SOON: VENICE — UNCENSORED
To pre-order your upcoming book VENICE THE SERIES: UNCENSORED for a special price email: soapuncensored@yahoo.com. The Sapphic tome, which will be out this summer, chronicles the web soap’s meteoric rise, punctuates and analyzes its relevance in serial storytelling and its groundbreaking achievements in the online and soap opera medium. With every single Crystal Chappell interview I’ve ever conducted in one e-book — and those of her VENICE co-stars/directors — this is one must-buy keepsake in addition to episode synopses and reviews, top ten lists, fearless predictions, translated quotes, humour, and exclusive season four previews. Plus: Tributes to GUIDING LIGHT’s Otalia and new interviews! Order your copy now!
UNCENSORED QUOTES OF THE WEEK:
“Chick-fil-a today!!!! Loved every bite of it;)!! Land of the free and home of the brave. Love that we all appreciate free speech, right?”
— DAYS star Missy Reeves on Twitter
Translation: Especially when you need to lie to your husband about your affairs on set!
“The writers would shoot an idea rather than a storyline.”
— Jeanne Cooper to On Air, On Soaps’s Michael Fairman regarding Maria Arena Bell’s Y&R tenure
Translation: They shot a lot of blanks — and I wanted to shoot myself.
“Josh Griffith is a lovely and talented man, and I don’t know if Jill will like me. I don’t know her. I don’t know if I will like her. I have nothing against her except if she doesn’t do a great job, she will go the way of everybody else.”
— Cooper on her new bosses, Josh Griffith and Jill Farren Phelps, in the same interview
Translation: Jill Farren Fuck-up won’t last long.
“So I would say what one should do is Genoa City adopts a sister city and the sister city is going to have a tremendous charity fundraiser. And the people going to the sister city climb on board a plane to head toward the sister city and it crashes. That way, you don’t have to explain how anybody died. (Laughs) There would be one big funeral.”
— Cooper on Y&R’s bloated cast
Translation: And this way, I can get yet another Emmy-worthy monologue as Kay speaks to her BFF, God. They were born in the same year!
"ABC studios is [sic] in New York. I felt very glamorous rubbing shoulders with people like Whoopi Goldberg who shot for my show.”
— Former ONE LIFE scene-stealer Shenaz Treasurywala in THE TIMES OF INDIA
Translation: And Barbara Walters head wrote our show. The cleaning lady, Robin Strasser, was a bitch, though.
"Jason and Elizabeth do have a connection and people know that. If the timing is right, they could be together.”
— GH heartthrob Steve Burton in SOAPS IN DEPTH
Translation: Like on our last episode.
“Baby Boomers were born in a narrow window of time but they represent 44% of the US population, and their buying power is considerable: they hold 70% of US disposable income, and buy 49% of total consumer-packaged goods. Despite the economic downturn, 63% still have at least one person in the household working full time. Baby Boomers make up 40% of the customers paying for wireless service, and 41% of those who purchase Apple computers. Boomers also represent one-third of all online and social media users, and nearly another third of them report they are heavy internet users, with more than 8 million boomers spending more than 20 hours a week online. Their use of social networking has nearly doubled in the last year to 42%, and 53% are on Facebook.”
— An article in MARKETCHINGCHARTS.COM regarding a recent BoomAgers/Nielsen study
Translation: Daytime TV committed suicide.
“A new era of YR has been fully realized & is waiting for review. May God & Bill Bell Sr. bless the proceedings. Nothing to do with my guarantee. I've been on a loooong paid summer vacation for many years.”
— Y&R’s Kristoff St. John on Twitter after new showrunners Josh Griffith and Jill Farren Phelps arrived on the CBS set yesterday
Translation: No more fat love interests for me! Backburner, here I come; oh, wait!
“Many hate on Lynn Latham, but I LOVED how she valued the Barber-Winters.”
— St. John in an earlier tweet regarding the showrunner whom preceded Maria Arena Bell
Translation: We got as many spit takes as we wanted back then!
“I wouldn’t miss a day of GH between now and September.”
—GH executive producer Frank Valentini to XFINITY’s Sara Bibel
Translation: After that, don’t bother.
“[Being offered Carly] was such a compliment, like, ‘Really? You think I can do this?’”
—GH’s Laura Wright celebrates her 21st daytime anniversary
Translation: After Gina Tognoni, Sarah Brown and Tamara Braun turned it down, of course.
Sudsy Newsstand
AMERICAN MEDIA INC. PURCHASES DIGEST INK
Whoohoo: Another win for the soap world — SOAP OPERA DIGEST has a new owner. American Media, Inc, which previously licensed the Source Interlink publication, is investing in the industry’s premiere bible with some mucho soapola.
According to a press release, Stephanie Sloane will continue as the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief and David Jackson will remain as Group Publisher.
David J. Pecker, Chairman, President and CEO of American Media, Inc. (AMI), announced the acquisition of 37-year-old journal, the authority for news and information for fans who are devoted to watching soap opera programming.
AMI has been operating SOAP OPERA DIGEST under a licensing agreement from Source Interlink Media. AMI closed the deal on July 20, 2012 with an ownership effective date of June 1, 2012. DIGEST is a weekly magazine that has a circulation of over 200,000 and reaches over 4 million readers per week.
DIGEST will be a part of the AMI Celebrity & Entertainment Group.
The magazine, which engaged me as a teen and single-handedly helped make me a soap expert/nerd, also continues to grow their fan base on the web and with social media, more than doubling in followers, fans and friends on both Twitter and Facebook over the past year.
“DIGEST is a very important strategic acquisition for AMI as it fits perfectly in the Celebrity & Entertainment Group,” said David J. Pecker.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Sloane deserves a lot of kudos for taking DIGEST into the future by thinking outside the box editorially during these uncertain times.
Along with Meredith Berlin and Lynn Leahey, Sloane will be remembered as o
ne of the iconic magazine’s best editors.
Who says youth can’t help reboot an institution? Are you listening, soaps?
Fall of the Mouse House
DISNEY’S EARNINGS REPORT
Life after AMC and ONE LIFE isn’t proving rosy for the alphabet network: Yesterday, The Mouse House released its quarterly earnings report as ABC Chairman Bob Iger took his third-quarter period conference call. I haven’t listened to the call yet, but I will in the coming days and I’ll report anything of note, especially if he fields questions over Disney’s broadcast division.
Overall, Disney did fine (thanks to the most successful movie off all time, THE AVENGERS), but many analysts are talking about Disney's revenue being lighter than estimated, and Disney stock was down a little in after-hours trading.
For our soap-related purposes my observation is: the margins are very tight in Media Networks Broadcasting Division, and I think this quote from the report tells the story for last quarter:
“Yesterday, Operating income at