We Love the Soaps has a sneak peek up of new As the World Turns characters Zac & Zoe, the twins who will be interacting with Luke & Noah. Rumor has had it for a long while that Zac will be a gay or bisexual character who will come between Luke & Noah.
I avoid spoilers, so I didn't even watch the sneak peek (though it's very tempting!), but the twins will be debuting on this Thursday's episode. Between Damian's return and the potential for Daytime's first all gay love triangle, things could definitely be heating up.
Meanwhile, sources are saying that Guiding Light, a soap which has been on the air since 1937 (it first aired on the radio and then moved to television in 1952) will likely be cancelled by September. GL has been the lowest rated soap for quite some time and cancellation rumors have become frequent, but this time it sounds like it could be the real thing.
It's a shame to think that a show that has been on since before some of my grandparents were born could be gone soon, but the sad truth is that all soaps will be headed in that direction if they don't start making the right sort of changes. Much of what these shows are doing to try and save themselves just makes things worse.
All it would take would be good writing for a multi-generational cast. Instead, we get the same sort of stories over and over again, each one less well written than the last, and shows keep ditching long running cast members who are over 40 in exchange for a bunch of young, inexperienced actors with pretty faces. This is their misguided attempt to appeal to the youth market, but what they don't realize is that their much coveted demographic could be just as interested in a compelling story about older characters. Look at the ongoing popularity of The Golden Girls in reruns! I know a few people who weren't even alive when the show was on the air who absolutely love it and I watched it all the time when I was growing up.
Yet these fools seem to think that all anyone wants from soaps is a bunch of hot young things 'acting' out increasingly awful stories. If that were true, Passions would not only still be on the air, it would be a ratings powerhouse!
Daytime should be about groundbreaking stories and well written drama, and it should be about growing up following familiar characters year after year, characters of all ages, races, and sexual orientations. I've always loved that I can turn on Days of Our Lives and still see characters I watched before I even started elementary school (though there are getting to be fewer and fewer of them now).
These shows have just lost their way and it sounds like Guiding Light will be the latest, but not likely the last, victim of just how out of touch the people in charge of soaps have become.
Sadly, if the show does get the ax, budding LGBT couple Olivia & Natalia would be lost along with it.
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