CBS Soaps Watch

Since November is almost over, I will give my opinion on November Sweeps for Guiding Light, The Bold & the Beautiful, and The Young & the Restless.

This November Guiding Light bought back some old favorites by bringing back the characters of Edmund and Bill Lewis. Some of the storylines have been fairly interesting. Like that Harley might possibly be attracted to Cyrus, while he is dating her niece Marina, Reva and Jeffrey, and why are Edmund and Bill back in town. I am still not feeling Rev. Josh and his new bride Cassie, and I probably never will. All in all this November for Guiding Light has been o.k., but not great.

The Bold & the Beautiful has ended the sweeps month with a mystery. The big mystery is who shot Stephanie. Since Stephanie has many enemies this mystery could take a while to solve. They also have the story about Brooke being the mother of Taylor’s new born son. This story is kind of crazy but, The Bold & the Beautiful are known for doing crazy storylines, so why should this one be any different. At least now it seems that B&B is using more of their cast instead of just two or three characters. Though there is still things that The Bold & the Beautiful could improve on, this November they seem to be headed in the right direction.

On The Young & the Restless the main storyline for November sweeps has been the aftermath of the Out of the Ashes saga. Victoria has been in a coma for the whole month and her family has been fighting to save her life or her unborn babies life. Phyllis is now free from jail, Jack is once again feeling the heat, and Gloria is up to her old tricks. I have to say that for the most part The Young & the Restless has been boring and that is not good for a sweep months or any other month. The most interesting thing is the possible romance between Cane and Lily. Lets hope that Y&R can get back on track and start living up to its number one rating again.

Since the writer’s strike there have been many rumours on the Internet and in some soap magazines that the head writer and executive producer of The Young & the Restless, Lynn Marie Latham may be on her way out. Latham decided to honor the strike even though she is also the executive producer of the show. Word is that her assistant was already let go and that a Sony executive is taking Latham’s place right now. My personal opinion is though I like Latham when she was writing for prime-time shows like Knots Landing and Homefront, I just don’t think her style works for daytime. Since Latham took over, The Young & the Restless just has not been as good as it use to be in the past. Also I have read that when Latham was hired at Y&R, she admitted that she had never even watch the show. You would think the powers that be would have least hire someone who knew some of the history of the show and it characters. If Y&R does plan on hiring a new head writer that should be mandatory. As of right now this is still a rumour, but I am sure after the strike is over we will get more information.

Tom Pelphrey who played Jonathan Randall on Guiding Light is said to be returning to the role sometime in 2008. Right now the show is staying tight lip about when Pelphrey will return and how long his stay will be. During the summer Pelphrey made a brief return for 3 episodes. Hopefully this time around he will stay even longer because Pelphrey definitely added something to Guiding Light and he has been missed since he has been gone.

This classic clip shows why Pelphrey is an Emmy winner actor.

Real-life husband and wife Thad Luckinbill (J.T.) and Amelia Heinle (Victoria) of The Young & the Restless welcome a baby boy earlier this month. The baby is name Thaddeus Rowe Luckinbill. This is Heinle second child and the first for Luckinbill. Congratulations to the happy couple.

Here is a sneak peak at what is coming up on The Young & the Restless, The Bold & the Beautiful, and Guiding Light for the week of November 26.

On The Young & the Restless, Nikki and Victor will head to court to resolve their issues over Victoria. Brad wants to be considered the guardian to Victoria’s unborn baby. Gloria and Kevin discover Jack’s secret.

On The Bold & the Beautiful, Stephanie tells Eric and the police that Donna is the one who shot her.

On Guiding Light Cassie starts to see Will’s dark side, Jeffrey kidnaps Edmund, and this weeks’ Inside Light will be about Olivia.

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday there will be no soap operas on CBS Thursday November 22, 2007. Instead there will be football and other special programs during that time. Also on Friday November 23, 2007 there will also be no soaps on CBS, except an encore episode of The Young & the Restless. I believe they may be showing highlights of the recent Out of the Ashes story. So, take the next few days and enjoy them with your family and friends. The soaps will be returning with new episodes on Monday. Have a great holiday.

Watching The Young & the Restless the last few days, it made me think, what kind of mother is willing to let their daughter die to try to save the daughter’s unborn child. This is the predicament that Nikki has found herself in. While Victor wants Victoria who has been in a coma the last few weeks to have a C-Section right away to save her life, Nikki on the other hand thinks that they should wait another few weeks until the baby may be strong enough to survive living outside the womb. Ideally it would be great if both Victoria and her baby could live, but I just don’t see many mothers, who are in Nikki’s situation who would be willing to let their grown daughter die to save the life of the unborn baby. Fortunately I have never been in this situation, but I am interested in hearing what others opinions are of Nikki Newman situation.

Shemar Moore has been named one of People Magazine Sexiest stars. Moore joins a list that includes Matt Damon, who was voted The Sexiest Man Alive, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and several other celebrities. I for one, absolutely believe Moore should be on this list and still miss him gracing my screen on a daily basis on The Young & the Restless. You can now catch Moore on primetime on the hit CBS show Criminal Minds.

In an earlier blog I mention how The Bold & the Beautiful was the only CBS soap that did not air same day episodes online at CBS.com. Well, since November 12, The Bold & the Beautiful is now also airing same day episodes online at CBS.com. This is great for people who cannot watch the show doing the day. CBS.com usually will leave an episode up for about a week.

For all of you who enjoy soap operas there are several sites on the web you may be interested in checking out.
One of the better websites is soapcentral.com. Soap Central has recaps of all the soaps, spoilers, message boards, and an archive section on characters and old storylines. Soaps.com is also a pretty good site. They basically offer the same thing as Soap Central, but it still worth checking out. Soapnet’s website offers the same thing as the other two sites but they also offer video clips. Since this blog is dedicated to CBS soaps, a good site to check out would be cbs.com/daytime. Soaps fans these are definitely sites you check out.

According to Variety, some soap writers may cross the line and continue writing for their soaps. There are also some soap writers who refuse to cross the line. I guess we will see in the up coming weeks if our soaps will continue to air if the writer’s strike is still going on. Also if the soaps decide to use scab writers, we will have to see how this will effect up coming storylines. These next few months could get very interesting.

Daniel Cosgrove who a few years back played the role of Bill Lewis, the son of Billy Lewis and Vanessa Reardon will be returning to the role this week. Bill has been MIA the last few years, but there should be plenty of things he can get into when he makes his return. His sister Dinah has been having mental problems, his father Billy has been drinking again, his mother Vanessa has been having problems with her marriage to Matt, and his ex Olivia is always getting into something. Cosgrove most recent role was in the new show Dirty Sexy Money.

Mykel Shannon Jenkins, the first winner of Soapnet’s reality show I Wanna Be Soap Star will be joining the cast of The Bold & the Beautiful. Jenkins will play the role of detective Charlie Baker, son of police detective Lt. Baker. After winning Soap Star in 2005, Jenkins had a recurring role on General Hospital. Since then, Jenkins has had guest roles on CSI and Ugly Betty. Jenkins role should bring some much needed diversity to The Bold & the Beautiful.

How will writer’s strike effect our favorite daytime dramas. Soap operas usually tape 4 to 6 weeks in advance, so it will be at least a month before soaps will be effected. If the writer’s strike is still going on after that time period, it may mean that we will not be seeing our soap operas for awhile. With soap opera ratings already being pretty low, they cannot afford to be off the air for too long. We saw the effects that the O.J. Simpson case had on soap operas had back in the 90s. Back then, with the soap operas being off the air for months, viewers found other things to do with their time, and quite a few of them did not return to viewing their soaps when they return from hiatus. There is a good chance that could happen again with this writer’s strike. Here is hoping that the writers and the studios are able to work out their differences.

Last week on Guiding Light Olivia’s daughter Emma celebrated her 7th birthday. That is all well and good, but later in the show they show Emma’s brother James who is suppose to be older than her, who basically look like he was 4 years old. How can Emma be older than her older brother. This is not the first time Guiding Light has pulled this stunt. When Rick and Mel’s daughter Leah came back from boarding school as a teenager, her older brothers were still little kids. Hey I know that soap operas are known for aging kids overnight, but if you are going to age siblings, at least make sure that the older sibling does not end up younger than their little brother or sister. Doing this is basically an insult to the viewers intelligence.