I think most people consider it a step down because it is more work for less pay.

Considering a job on the soaps as a "step down" would be completely WRONG. Typically, a prime time actor needs to learn perhaps 1 or 2 pages of dialogue daily while a soap actor needs to learn 35-60 pages daily. So only the best can really survive in daytime, while any idiot can survive in prime time or films.

If Patrick Duffy "makes it" on daytime, it will be proof of his talents, not a sincecure for his old age!

Don't be such an unbelievable snob!

This is the second major '80s prime-time star that's taken a regular soaps role that I know of; Corbin Bernsen's a regular on General Hospital now, I think.

I say: good for them. Soap acting is a fairly challenging gig (think about it: you have to memorize a new set of lines every single day and pretty much get them down in one or two takes... that's why you hear a lot more stumbling in soap dialogue than in prime-time dialogue) and it's regular. It may seem like a step down, but to them, it's a regular paycheck and fairly decent job security. Not a bad way to spend your "later" years...