A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction presented in serial format on television, radio, or other media.
Soap opera may also refer to:
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 a fictionalized version of Genoa City, Wisconsin. 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. As of July 1, 2013, Pop still airs previous episodes on weeknights. The series is also syndicated internationally.
Susan Victoria Lucci is an American actress, television host, author and entrepreneur, best known for portraying Erica Kane on the ABC daytime drama All My Children during that show's entire network run from 1970 to 2011. The character is considered an icon, and Lucci was called "Daytime's Leading Lady" by TV Guide, with The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times citing her as the highest-paid actor in daytime television. As early as 1991, her salary had been reported as over $1 million a year. During her run on All My Children, she was nominated twenty-one times for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She won only once, in 1999, after the 19th nomination; beginning in the late 1980s her status as a perpetual nominee for the award attracted significant media attention.
Alison Ann Sweeney is an American actress, reality show host, director and author. Sweeney is best known for her portrayal of Samantha "Sami" Brady on the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives, a role she played under contract with the show from January 6, 1993 to October 30, 2014. In this role, she has earned a Daytime Emmy Award nomination, four Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Fan Voted Daytime Emmy Award. After making sporadic appearances since then, she return as series regular in 2021 in the series. In 2007, she became the host of The Biggest Loser in its fourth season, and left the series at the end of the sixteenth season in 2015.
Eileen Marie Davidson is an American actress, author, television personality and former model. Davidson is best known for her roles in soap operas as Kristen DiMera on NBC's Days of Our Lives, as well as Ashley Abbott on CBS's The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful.
Cady McClain is an American actress, singer, and author.
General Hospital is an American daytime television soap opera. It is listed in Guinness World Records as the longest-running American soap opera in production, and the second in American history after Guiding Light. Concurrently, it is the world's third longest-running scripted drama series in production after British serials The Archers and Coronation Street, as well as the world's second-longest-running televised soap opera still in production. General Hospital premiered on the ABC television network on April 1, 1963. General Hospital is the longest-running serial produced in Hollywood, and the longest-running entertainment program in ABC television history. It holds the record for most Daytime Emmy Awards for Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, with 14 wins.
Soap Opera Digest is a weekly magazine covering American daytime soap operas. It features onscreen and offscreen news about the series, interviews with and articles about performers, storyline summaries and analysis, and related promotional information. Founded in 1975, the magazine has historically included certain prime time soap operas in its coverage as well.
Eric Braeden is a German-born American film and television actor, known for his roles as Victor Newman on the soap opera The Young and the Restless, as Hans Dietrich in the 1960s TV series The Rat Patrol, Dr. Charles Forbin in Colossus: The Forbin Project, and as John Jacob Astor IV in the 1997 film Titanic. He won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1998 for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the role of Victor Newman.
Katherine Kelly Lang is an American actress. She is best known for playing Brooke Logan in the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful for the CBS Daytime programming block.
Rebecca Jo Budig is an American actress and television presenter. Her career began in 1993, and in 1995, she was cast in the role of Michelle Bauer on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light. In 1999, she was cast as Greenlee Smythe on the ABC soap opera All My Children; she held the role off-and-on until the network series finale in 2011. In 2015, she was cast in the role of Hayden Barnes on General Hospital. In 2019, Budig was cast on L.A.'s Finest, as Carlene Hart, the drug trafficking-soccer mom of two young school-age children, a boy and a girl.
Michelle Stafford is an American actress, screenwriter and producer. She currently plays Phyllis Summers on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless, for which she has won two Daytime Emmy Awards. In 2013, Stafford created and starred in her own comedy web series, The Stafford Project. She also played Nina Reeves on the ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital.
Rebecca Ann Herbst is an American actress, known for playing nurse Elizabeth Webber on the ABC Daytime drama General Hospital, a role she originated on August 1, 1997, and Suzee, an alien, on the Nickelodeon show, Space Cases.
Carlos Ponce is a Puerto Rican actor, singer, composer and television personality. Ponce began his acting career by participating in Spanish language soap operas for Televisa and Telemundo. Ponce continued to expand his acting career by participating in various American television series. He did not limit himself solely to a career in television. Ponce, who is also a singer, is also active in the American movie industry as a character actor. In film, he played Salvadore in Couples Retreat, Matthew Wright in Spy and Rodrigo in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. In television, he played Felix Gonzalez in Cristela, Max Duran in Hollywood Heights, as well as voicing Santiago Santos in Maya & Miguel.
Natalia Marisa Oreiro Iglesias is an Uruguayan singer, actress, and fashion designer. Oreiro began her career in telenovelas. Since 2008 she has switched to work primarily in films. Oreiro has worked on social awareness shows and events for organizations like Greenpeace and UNICEF, the latter of which designated her as ambassador for Argentina and Uruguay in September 2011. She has been included in Esquire magazine's "The Sexiest Woman Alive Atlas" list.
Cameron Arthur Mathison is a Canadian-American actor and television host. From 1997 to 2011, he played the role of Ryan Lavery on All My Children.
Ashley Tesoro is an American actress, model, and singer. She is known for her starring roles in NBC's Saved by the Bell: The New Class and CBS's The Bold and the Beautiful. In 2007 she released a self-titled country music EP. In 2010 she released a country gospel EP titled Oh You Angel. In 2012 she released a gospel EP titled Simply Worship.
Jacqueline MacInnes Wood is a Canadian actress, musician and television personality. Since 2008, she has played fashion executive and heiress Steffy Forrester in the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, which won her two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2019 and 2021. She also starred as Olivia Castle in the 2011 horror film Final Destination 5 and hosted the E! series Party On from 2013 to 2014.
A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines tele and novela. Similar genres around the world include teleserye (Philippines), téléroman, or simply dramas.
Jennifer Lilley is an American actress and singer. Lilley played a supporting role in the 2011 film The Artist, temporarily portrayed Maxie Jones on the ABC soap opera General Hospital from September 2011 to August 2012, and has played the character of Theresa Donovan on NBC's soap opera Days of Our Lives from July 2013 to November 2016 and again from May to July 2018. She has also starred in several television films from Hallmark Channel.
Days of Our Lives is an American television daytime soap opera broadcast on NBC. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday since November 8, 1965. A co-production of Corday Productions and Sony Pictures Television, the series was created by husband-and-wife team Ted Corday and Betty Corday. During Days of Our Lives' early years, Irna Phillips served as a story editor for the program and many of the show's earliest storylines were written by William J. Bell, who would depart the series in 1975 to focus full-time on The Young and the Restless, which he created for CBS in 1973. Following the 2007 cancellation of Passions, Days of Our Lives remains the only soap opera airing on NBC.