Soap Opera: Uncensored Read online

The Young and the Restless, CBS — Sony: 3 Y&R Actors: 0

  —Is all right with the world now that Melody Thomas Scott has returned to Y&R as Nikki? Well, for starters she has yet to start taping so that’s yet to be determined. After a highly publicized contract showdown with Sony this past summer, MTS finally recently signed a three-year contract deal with the number-one sudser. Good thing, too, because ratings have been freefalling since her departure. But I blame the writing — not MTS’s absence.

  So who caved in first? Melody Thomas Scott did, report my sources. After not hearing anything from Sony for months, Scott crawled back asking if their original offer was still on the table. It was. Memo to Y&R actors: Sony is not budging from its stance, so don’t attempt these contract ploys at home if you want to keep your cushy job. If Eric Braeden and MTS couldn’t get away with it, no one will. Well, maybe Yvonne Zima.

  —Early this August, John Driscoll filed for a restraining order against an obsessed fan and former neighbor (no, it’s not me) whom he claims is "clearly is not rational."

  The petition claimed the fan "pursued contact with me and my fiancée. She took it to extremes making accusations of sexual encounters and fathering her child which was proven false through a forced [$119] paternity test." He asked for protection for his fiancée, Beth, as well. The two recently announced their engagement.

  "She slandered my name and reputation to friends, family and more seriously my place of employment & employees regarding false accusations of fathering her child." The petition goes on to say Beth has been harassed as well causing her "great remorse and even health issues." Driscoll was due in court on September 13, but didn't show up so the judge tossed his petition.

  --Poor Eden Riegel! The Emmy winner was the last to know she had been let go as miscast Heather Stevens. What she doesn’t know is that my sources tell me the former AMC ingénue was about to be fired earlier this year… but then Riegel announced her pregnancy (astute Suds Report readers will remember I hinted at this in a blind item). Riegel is a happy mom… so it all worked out. My only gripe is Y&R couldn’t have fired her, even if she was pregnant, so she could’ve returned to reclaim what is rightfully hers during AMC’s finale. What. A. Waste. FYI: Riegel finished taping at Y&R last week.

  —Yep, Debbi Morgan is joining the show as Devon’s mom and Tucker’s ex-lover Yolanda, who now goes by the moniker Harmony. The Emmy winner first appears Oct. 7 as a reinvented waitress sans drug problem.

  —Is Emmy winner Genie Francis safe at GH now that her co-star Tristan Rogers has been shown the door (he wrapped his stint as Colin Sept. 20)? She is for now, say sources. “Genie doesn’t want to return to GH and wants desperately to stay at Y&R,” says a source. “She’ll do anything not to work for Brian Frons again.” And who can blame her?! Other insiders, however, claim Francis is not long for Genoa City.

  —How cute is this? Eileen Davidson threw her on-screen daughter Marcy Rylan a baby shower! Maybe Ashley should too, huh?

  —Canada let Michael Muhney into our country to meet his die-hard fans last weekend. Muhney first appeared in Ottawa at the Woman’s Show and then flew to Toronto where he met almost 70 fans in an intimate fan gathering at the Firken on King Street. Hosted by moi, the always animated Muhney answered his fans’ burning questions and signed autographs. He auctioned off two Y&R scripts for his pancreatic cancer charity for one thousand dollars each! When Muhney raffled off Y&R caps, T-shirts, and bags, one straight male fan got so excited he ripped off the shirt off his back in front of everyone to adorn the T-shirt he had just won. I have to give a shout-out to Muhney’s fans who were all so well-behaved, appreciative, smart, well-dressed and a pretty looking bunch! My fave moment was meeting @stitchlady from Twitter! Oh, and also hanging out with my girls Denette Wilford and Trish Morgan. Muhney encouraged fans to hang in there because “the show gets a lot better. We’re back to the Newmans and Abbotts. Just watch.” Easier said than done.

  —So who could this be? Y&R has issued out a casting call, which many believe could be a recast of Heather Stevens, last portrayed by Eden Riegel and Vail Bloom. Here’s the breakdown: Y&R is actively looking for an actress to fill the contract role of a character in her mid-20s, who is described as "quick witted and high spirited" with "a lot of heart". The casting call further explained that "while she is self assured, she is unaware of the dynamite affect she has on men." The role begins taping next month. One insider tells Uncensored that this could be a new role. Great – that’s all we need!

  —Casting Couch: With two new superstar parents (Debbi Morgan, Stephen Nichols) it’s time for Y&R to recast the lackluster Bryton James (yes, I know he has one Emmy and one million nominations) with someone of Cornelius Smith Jr.’s talent and stature (it would also reunite Smith with his AMC mama, Morgan). And hey – I’m hearing that could be in the realm of possibility!

  As for whether or not Morgan will be reunited with her AMC love interest and fellow Emmy winner Peter Bergman, Morgan tells Michael Logan of TV Guide: “Who knows? [Laughs] Maybe Harmony will turn out to be the black Erica Kane! People have already been connecting the dots and are assuming that Harmony will wind up with Neil. It'd be really great if we went somewhere unexpected. That was such a thing with Peter back in the day! AMC was getting all that hate mail and we knew they'd have to break up Cliff and Angie and that one of us would be out of a job. I just assumed it would be me, but it was Peter! He had just bought an apartment in New York. His wife was pregnant. I was so shocked they did that to him. But then one day Peter calls me from Los Angeles and says he's going to an audition to be Terry Lester's replacement on Y&R and I said, "Peter, do not walk to that audition. F--king run! It will be the role of a lifetime!" [Laughs] He tells that story to this day!”

  —Did you know that Christel Khalil has divorced her hubby Stephen Hensley? Her ex-husband has been very vocal on Twitter about his former wife’s decision to end their marriage on Twitter. Hey, Christian’s get divorced too, damn it. Team Khalil, here!

  FAN CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR:

  Got your soap coupon?

  If you haven’t filled out your soap opera coupon for a 24-7 sudsy channel… click here — and let your voice be heard!

  https://sudz.tv/

  Here’s what you need to know:

  Explanation of Coupon Campaign

  Answers to Your Questions about Coupon Campaign to Save Soaps

  By: Spin's Vixenella

   

  First, I have been working with several groups involved in the Save Soaps Campaign, including Soap Fans United and Sudz.TV Leadership Council. Here's some background information on the Coupon Campaign, and an explanation of how to participate.

   

  1. According to social media experts, only 5-10% of soap fans are actively engaged in obtaining soap-related information on the Internet. Realizing over 80-90% of the soap audience is off-line, we had to come up with a method to reach off-line soap fans. One way to do that was to create a campaign online fans could actually share with off-line fans through the distribution of these coupons to their family, friends, and within their community. When Globe magazine offered to help us reach off-liners, we were thrilled. Now, Soaps in Depth ABC & CBS have offered to print the coupons as well, and we will reach even more off-line soap fans.

   

  2. Why coupons? We wanted something easy and inexpensive so everyone could participate. We are aware Disney, ABC, Sony, advertisers and many others have had much 'Save Soaps' mail sent directly to them; however, we have no way to assess how much. We needed something fans could literally control such as these coupons. We can count them ourselves. We can show them to media, advertisers, cable/satellite providers, Sony, and ABC. We can prove unequivocally a certain number of people still want AMC, GH, OLTL, and the other soaps.

   

  3. With SOAPnet going off the air, we decided to focus the campaign on cable/satellite providers to ask them for a NEW soap channel. We spoke to cable/satellite executives who told us if
we could demonstrate "demand" from 500,000 people, they could guarantee someone would step up to provide a soap channel. Bear in mind, one of the reasons cable/satellite companies have been reluctant to let Disney turn SOAPnet into Disney Jr. is cable/satellite providers actually like the numbers and demographics SOAPnet provides. Despite the past few years, when Disney has literally tried to run SOAPnet into the ground...even at that, cable & satellite provide are interested in the sure-fire predominately female, 18-49 demo SOAPnet has consistently provided.

   

  4. Any production company, including Sony, who might be interested in buying or LICENSING our soaps from ABC will need a place to air them. That makes a new soap channel even more important. We need to provide the venue or place for our soaps to air as soon as possible, so the need for a new soap channel carried in as many households as possible is urgent, if we want All My Children and One Life to Live to continue with as little disruption as possible.

   

  5. The coupon itself requires the name of the cable/satellite subscriber, i.e. whose name is on the account, the address of the subscriber, and the actual cable/satellite provider they use. It is minimal personal information, but we needed enough so that anyone interested in verifying the legitimacy of the results of the coupon campaign could do so. We need a coupon for every soap fan. For example, if you have both cable and satellite in your home, you can fill out 2 coupons...one for your cable provider and one for your satellite provider. If you do not have cable or satellite, but would be interested in acquiring service if a soap channel were provided, we need you to fill out a coupon listing: your name, address, and whatever cable/satellite provider in your area you might subscribe to for a soap channel. Then we need those folks to put a note on their coupon saying "I do not currently have service, but I would consider subscribing for a soap channel." (In many areas, cable/satellite services are so competitive for new customers, it is as important to get coupons from those who currently do not have cable/satellite as from those who do.)

   

  6. When completed, please mail the coupon(s) to the address indicated on the bottom of the coupon:  New Home for Soaps c/o Cassandra Crisp. Cassandra is a member of the Sudz.TV leadership council, and she opened a P.O. Box specifically for purposes of this campaign. Each day Cassandra collects the coupons and catalogs them on an Excel spreadsheet. The coupons are collated first by Cable/Satellite Provider listed, and then by State, then by City. At the conclusion of the campaign, we will deliver the actual coupons to all cable/satellite providers from areas where we have coupons.

   

  7. We have commitments from some media already to cover the Coupon Campaign as soon as we reach a certain number of coupons. For example, when we hit the 10,000-coupon mark, media like Globe and others will start to take pictures of the actual coupons and do stories about the campaign. That means more publicity about saving our soaps and more coupons will be mailed in. Disney, advertisers, cable/satellite providers, production companies, and potential investors will be watching as the media attention continues to roll out. When we get a large concentration of coupons from a certain area, print and TV media in that area will be contacted with press releases and given an opportunity to do stories about the demand for soaps in that particular area. For example, if we get a few thousand coupons from Pittsburgh, we start contacting Pittsburgh area media to cover the story. It is a process designed to build on itself as it gains momentum.

   

  8. The initial plan is for the campaign to continue for 6-8 weeks or until we reach enough coupons to demonstrate what Disney has told advertisers and media about 'no demand for soaps' is untrue. We are determined to prove in full view of the media the demand for scripted soap opera is still strong, and soap fans have not been properly counted by the antiquated Nielsen system. The rule of thumb is every piece of mail represents about 1,000 viewers. If we start getting thousands of coupons, and we are already on our way, then that will literally represent millions of soap viewers who have been overlooked by the Nielsen's, Disney, and advertisers. We are not going about this quietly, and there will be rumors and agendas thrown in our paths every step of the way to thwart the efforts. For example, on the day before the Emmys last week, 'Save Our Soaps' was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal weekend edition. One day later a very damaging rumor came out designed to discourage soap fans from continuing by alleging Disney was refusing to sell the soaps. To anyone who knows how business is conducted, there are so many holes and outrageous speculation in that rumor it is ridiculous, but those who do not want to see soaps saved, can always find a well-meaning blogger to do their bidding, and then the internet erupts with rumors, disheartening soap fans at a time when we should be excited. For the first time in a measurable way, we can unite online & offline fans in a simple, inexpensive positive way to save our soaps.

   

  9. There are many websites with excellent ideas about how to get involved in the Coupon Campaign and how to get word out about it. Here are a couple places with good solid ideas and information:  Sudz.TV; Soap Fans United; and the Facebook Group Fight 4 Our ABC Soaps Movement. This Facebook group has a whole section devoted to ideas for distributing the coupons, and they are even completing and mailing coupons for those who are not able to complete and mail their own coupons. Just let them know if you need help or if you know someone who needs help.

   

  10. We are aware of the Canadian Postal Service Strike and the problems Canadian viewers may have sending in coupons. We are aware you have never had SOAPnet, and we want to find a way to help Canadian viewers get whatever new soap channel we have in the U.S. We want a new soap channel to air in Canada as well. We will tally the Canadian Coupons, and distribute them to the Canadian Cable/Satellite providers the same as we are doing here in the States.

   

  I'm going to leave you with a quote from Robin Strasser's (Dorian, OLTL) Twitter, "Don't Quit Before the Miracle!" Please send in your coupons, and be a part of the miracle!