A soap opera, daytime drama, or soap for short, is typically a long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers. The term was preceded by "horse opera", a derogatory term for low-budget Westerns.
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City. First broadcast on March 26, 1973, The Young and the Restless was originally broadcast as half-hour episodes, five times a week. The show expanded to one-hour episodes on February 4, 1980. In 2006, the series began airing previous episodes weeknights on SOAPnet until 2013, when it moved to TVGN. From July 1, 2013 until 2019, Pop aired previous episodes on weeknights. The series is also syndicated internationally.
As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light. With 13,763 hours of cumulative narrative, As the World Turns has the longest total running time of any television show. In terms of continuous run of production, As the World Turns at 54 years holds the fourth-longest run of any daytime network soap opera on American television, surpassed only by General Hospital, Guiding Light, and Days of Our Lives. As the World Turns was produced for its first 43 years in Manhattan and in Brooklyn from 2000 until 2010.
Tristan Rogers is an Australian-American actor. He is best known for playing Robert Scorpio on the ABC soap opera General Hospital and for voicing Jake in Walt Disney Pictures' The Rescuers Down Under. He is currently starring as Robert Scorpio on General Hospital.
Susan Seaforth Hayes is an American dramatic actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Julie Williams on the NBC drama Days of Our Lives, and her intermittent portrayal of Joanna Manning on the CBS daytime drama The Young and the Restless. She began playing the role of Julie on Days of Our Lives in 1968, and is the only actor to appear on the show for all seven decades it has been on the air. Seaforth Hayes still regularly appears on Days as Julie.
Charles David Tom is an American actor. He is best known for playing the roles of Billy Abbott on The Young and the Restless and Paul Cramer on One Life to Live (2004). He won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in 2000 for his work on The Young and the Restless.
Sharon Case is an American actress and former model. At the age of 17, Case began working as a model, relocating briefly to Japan, before pursuing an acting career. She is best known for her roles on daytime television soap operas, scoring parts in the serials General Hospital and As the World Turns during the early stages of her career. In 1994, she stepped into the role of Sharon Newman on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless, which she still plays. Case, who is considered a leading actress in the series, won the 1999 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance.
Andrea Lynn Evans was an American actress. She was most recognized for her portrayal of Tina Lord on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, a role she played from 1978 to 1981 and from 1985 to 1990, returning in 2008 and 2011. Evans also appeared on the soap operas The Young and the Restless as Patty Williams, The Bold and the Beautiful as Tawny Moore and Passions as Rebecca Hotchkiss.
Daniel Lester Gauthier is an American actor best known for his roles as Kevin Buchanan on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, Matt Liston on the sitcom Ellen, Brad Powell in the 1989 film Teen Witch and Lt. John McKay of the military drama series Tour of Duty.
Kathleen Noone is an American actress. She began her career as a singer in nightclubs and performed in musicals off-Broadway before making her television debut in the CBS daytime soap opera, As the World Turns (1975–1976).
Beth Ehlers is an American actress. She is known for playing Harley Cooper, between 1987 and 2008, on CBS's daytime drama Guiding Light.
Adolfo Larrue Martínez III, credited as A Martinez, is an American actor and singer. He had roles in the daytime soap operas Santa Barbara, General Hospital, One Life to Live, The Bold and the Beautiful, and Days of Our Lives, and the primetime dramas L.A. Law, Profiler, Longmire and Dark Winds. His feature films include The Cowboys (1972), Powwow Highway (1989), Curse of Chucky (2013), Ambulance (2022) and Far Haven (2023).
Ignacio Ariel Serricchio is an Argentine actor. He is known for his role as Diego Alcazar on General Hospital and as Alejandro "Alex" Chavez on The Young and the Restless. Other roles include Lifetime's Witches of East End, seasons 9-12 of Bones, and the Netflix reboot of Lost in Space.
Richard Paull Goldin is an American actor, producer, director and television personality. He is best known for his roles in daytime drama as Dean Frame on NBC's Another World, Gus Aitoro on CBS' Guiding Light, and Jake Martin on ABC's All My Children. In May 2013, Goldin joined the cast of the CBS' The Bold and the Beautiful. Goldin also hosts the HGTV series Spontaneous Construction, which premiered on the network on February 15, 2013.
Susan Walters is an American actress and former model, best known for her roles as Lorna Forbes on the ABC daytime soap opera Loving from 1983 to late 1986 and as Diane Jenkins on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless from 2001 to 2004, again briefly in 2010, and once more starting in March 2022. Walters had recurring roles as Principal Rimkus on The CW's One Tree Hill, as Carol Lockwood on The CW's The Vampire Diaries and as Natalie Martin on the MTV series Teen Wolf.
Richard William Burgi is an American film and television actor best known for the roles of Det. Jim Ellison on The Sentinel and as Karl Mayer on Desperate Housewives. He also portrayed Paul Hornsby in the ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital, and Ashland Locke in the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless. He is of Swiss descent.
Noah Newman is a fictional character from The Young and the Restless, an American soap opera on the CBS network. He is the only son of Nicholas Newman and Sharon Collins. Introduced in 1997, the character was first portrayed by several child actors before being rapidly aged. Kevin Schmidt was the first actor to play Noah after being aged, appearing from 2008 to September 2010, when the role was recast with Luke Kleintank before being let go in April 2011 with Schmidt being rehired. Schmidt was again let go in 2012 and replaced by Robert Adamson, who held the role until his departure in 2018; he reprised the role twice in 2020. Rory Gibson debuted in the role in 2021.
Elaine Princi is a contemporary American actress. She played roles on several soap operas, including Dr. Dorian Lord on the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live from January 12, 1990, to February 18, 1993.
Zachary Atticus Tinker is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Fenmore Baldwin in the CBS Daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless. In 2019, Tinker was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for his portrayal as the character. Tinker has also appeared in Law & Order True Crime, American Horror Story, NCIS: Los Angeles and Why Women Kill. In 2021, Tinker was cast as Sonny Kiriakis in the television miniseries Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem, a spinoff of the long-running NBC soap Days of Our Lives. In 2022, Tinker stepped into the role on the main series.
