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Will 'All My Children' and 'One Life to Live' Actors Be Hired by Other Soaps?
by Michael Maloney, posted Apr 27th 2011 7:45PM
According to Deadline, Sony Television, which partially owns surviving soaps 'The Young and the Restless' and 'Days of our Lives,' wants its soaps to snatch up available talent from 'All My Children' and 'One Life to Live,' which have recently -- and tragically -- been canceled by ABC.While that's likely to happen to some degree ('AMC' and 'OLTL' picked up actors from 'Guiding Light' and 'As the World Turns' after they were canceled a while back), shows need to be careful who they go after.
Veteran daytime talent manager Michael Bruno, who reps actors including Amelia Heinle and Stephen Nichols on 'Y&R' and Lauren Koslow on 'Days,' notes that there's a right and a wrong way to go about maximizing the genre's available talent. Read his comments after the jump.
TV Squad: Does it make sense for the remaining shows to go after the available talent from 'OLTL' and 'AMC'?
Michael Bruno: Yes. It makes sense on paper for producers to grab top stars and hope that people who are fans of the canceled soap operas will then watch their show. However, that works best when they rehire people who were already on their show.
What are examples of that?
When Crystal Chappell was on the market after 'GL' went off the air, she went back to playing Carly on 'Days.' Gina Tognoni and Kim Zimmer, also from 'GL,' went back to their roles as Kelly and Echo on 'OLTL.' You do that and you hope that their fans will come.
So, using this theory, who from 'AMC' and 'OLTL' might get picked up?
If I were doing it, I'd look into actors like Jacob Young, who plays JR on 'AMC' going back to 'The Bold and the Beautiful,' where he played Rick. Also, Bobbie Eakes, who plays Krystal on 'AMC,' going back to 'B&B' as Macy. Those are not bad ideas.
Do fans follow actors to other shows if they're playing brand new characters?
It's a fallacy to think that you can just start adding people from these defunct serials to your soap opera [and get viewers from the canceled show]. The reality is your existing viewer will get a bigger kick out of someone from the history of that soap opera coming back than they would over someone who's never been on it.
Deidre Hall [who left 'Days' in 2009 due to budget cutbacks] is far more important to 'Days' than Susan Lucci (Erica, 'AMC') is. It's more important for 'Days' to get Deidre back and for 'Y&R' to get Victoria Rowell (ex-Dru) back than it is for them to hire Susan Lucci and Debbi Morgan (Angie, 'AMC.') The remaining shows shouldn't be focusing on taking on new talent from the canceled shows. They should put their energy into writing for the casts that they already have.
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