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Soap News: Casting Bloodbath

Soaps in Depth confirmed yesterday, what was first reported by Daytime Confidential, that General Hospital has fired Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth). According to ABC, “Storyline dictates the exit of Elizabeth Webber this spring. The next few months promise to be a ‘not to miss’ story for the character. We at ABC and GH wish Rebecca Herbst nothing but the best in her future endeavours. The actress joined the soap in 1997 and quickly became a fan favourite, especially with the Liz & Lucky pairing.

So what was the point of bringing Jonathan Jackson back as Lucky if they aren’t going to reunite L&L2? Fans are already speculating that head writer Bob Guza will probably kill off the heroine since nobody every leaves Port Charles alive…especially if they are young women (see Georgie Jones and Emily Quartermaine).

Check out General Hospital Wub Tub’s must-read article on why Liz Webber matters here.

— ABC continues to twist the knife…they’ve confirmed that Erin Chambers has signed a contract with GH as Siobhan.

Shelley Hennig (Stephanie) and Jay Kenneth Johnson (Philip) have quit Days of our Lives. Hennig told Soap Opera Digest that “It just feels right. I have been preparing for this for awhile.” As for Johnson, he told the magazine that “It feels perfect. The story ended and there’s a lot of stuff going on out there. I thought about it a lot; it just felt like the right time. I want to thank the fans for continuing to watch and following me from the first stint to the other shows I’ve done and back to here. I hope they keep an eye out for me in the future.”

Their exits come weeks after it was announced that Mark Hapka would be leaving after he expressed his frustration with the storylines (or lack thereof). I know many fans are upset by these departures (Philip’s more so that Stephanie’s), but it’s such a shame. Both characters still had potential (as did Nathan) – much more potential than the overused Melanie.

TV Guide Canada broke the news that CBS VP of Daytime, Barbara Bloom had been fired yesterday afternoon. Sources told Daytime Confidential that it was Julie Chen (host of The Talk and wife of CBS head honcho Les Moonves) who wanted her out. Many fans blame Bloom for the deaths of both Guiding Light and As the World Turns as well as the disastrous reign of Lynn Marie Lantham on The Young and the Restless from 2006-2007.

Updated: Friday, January 21, 2011 at 10:00 a.m.

ABC daytime is also confirming that One Life to Live’s Brittany Underwood (Langston) will be leaving the soap this spring. This exit is also “storyline-dictated.” Underwood joined the soap in 2006.

Melissa Claire Egan has announced that she’s leaving All My Children where she’s played Annie since 2006. Although it seems that it was the actresses choice to exit, but do you think it was a forced exit? All three ABC soaps have announced big exits this week. To read Egan’s statement to her fans, click here

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2 Comments

  • Kelly
    Kelly
    January 20, 2011 at 10:42 am

    GH has chosen to let Rebecca Herbst go thus I have chosen to let GH go.

    Reply
  • cat
    cat
    January 20, 2011 at 1:59 pm

    ABC continues to twist the nice by mentioning her popular Lucky pairing which by now means is as popular as her with Jason! Her exit storyline is if no interest to me or any fan of Becky… no more GH for me as of the day of the announcement. I suspect many more feel the same. Its clear ABC has no interest in their fans.. its a clearly agenda driven network…

    Reply

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