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LISTEN TO THE REPLAY: Soap Nation Live! With Laura Wright, Jason Thompson, Michael Easton, Maurice Benard, Stacy Haiduk & Kim Zimmer
If you missed Thursday night’s season premiere of Soap Nation Live! with Michael Fairman it was a broadcast full of surprises, fun, and intriguing intel as some of the biggest names in the soap opera genre helped kick-off the series 2018 run of episodes.
Joining Michael in-studio as guest co-host was General Hospital’s Laura Wright (Carly Corinthos). The show began with a guest call-in to surprise Laura, which was revealed to be daytime drama icon, and four-time Daytime Emmy winner, Kim Zimmer (Ex-Reva) of Guiding Light. Laura and Kim worked together on the beloved CBS soap where they played sisters. Kim expressed how much she enjoys checking out General Hospital and the actors performances she has loved watching which included: Max Gail (Mike), and the recently exited Nelle (Chloe Lanier), among others. Michael, Laura, and Kim bantered on the actresses time on GL and more.
Next, GH’s Michael Easton (Finn) joined the show where he discussed the release of his upcoming 20th anniversary edition of his book 18 Straight Whiskeys, working on GH opposite Finola Hughes (Anna) and Jessica Tuck (Cassandra). During his segment, Michael Fairman asked Easton to play a game show segment he prepared for him, which was called, “Michael, Who Said That?” In it, Michael Easton had to guess which one of his many soap characters was he portraying in the scene in the audio clip, and it made for one of the highlights of the night.
Calling in from New York City was Stacy Haiduk, who is about to make her debut this week on the August 21st of Days of our Lives as Susan Banks, replacing Eileen Davidson in the role. Susan is back on the canvas just as John and Marlena’s wedding is about to begin. The question is: Will more of Davidson’s roles be played by Haiduk during her upcoming rum on the show? We chatted with Stacy about working on DAYS, and taking over the one-of-a-kind role of Susan made soap-famous by Emmy winner, Davidson.
Then, The Young and the Restless, Jason Thompson (Billy Abbott) was our special guest in the studio. Jason talked about Billy’s latest stumble back into his gambling addiction, Phyllis’ fling with Nick, and if Billy will be able to resist the seduction attempts by Phyllis’ daughter, Summer on upcoming episodes. Jason fielded several questions from fans who called-in to chat with him during his segment. As well, throughout the broadcast, several listeners were able to get through the busy phone lines to pose a question to our guests.
Michael surprised the listeners with none other than Maurice Benard (Sonny) of General Hospital as the last guest on the show. Maurice was celebrating his 25th anniversary as Sonny on the ABC daytime drama series. With Maurice, some of the funniest moments of the night occurred when Jason and Laura recounted what happened the first time they met him. Maurice also expressed that this past week, he taped some of his most favorite scenes of all-time, and Laura said they have been very emotional. As announced, look for a special Sonny-centric episode in September in honor of Benard’s 25 years as Port Charles’ top mobster.
Finally, one lucky caller won a pair of tickets to the GH Fantasy Event in Atlanta, Georgia, during our game show trivia segment, when he had the correct answers (with an assist from Jason Thompson) to the questions.
Now, click on the play button at the top left of the player at the top of this post, and hear the replay of the Soap Nation Live! Season Premiere with Laura Wright, Kim Zimmer, Michael Easton, Stacy Haiduk, Jason Thompson, and Maurice Benard.
If you want to hear past episodes of the show, click here.
Let us know in the comment section below what was your favorite part of the season premiere.

6 Leave a Reply
I hope the Sonny-centric episode shows A LOT of flashbacks from the early 90’s with Brenda, Stone, “Clink-Boom,” etc. When General Hospital was “must-see” and watchable, IMO.
Me too would love watching the flashbacks
Loved the season premiere. Thanks. Michael Easton was so genuine. Loved Kim Zimmer. I used to watch Guiding Light in High School (before the show’s budget cuts). Loved Jason Thompson. I knew all of the answers to the “Sonny” questions! It was fun listening.
Yes, so great to hear Kim Zimmer “Reva” again!
So glad you had Kim Zimmer on! Especially to talk about Guiding Light. They were perfect as sisters Reva and Cassie.
Happy you had Stacy Haiduk on also. Stacy is really killing it as Susan Banks! She fit in as Susan and with the cast from the get go! She has the look, speech and mannerism of Eileen’s Susan, it’s remarkable. She’s brought much more life to Days, along with Ron C.’s great writing and storytelling.
Where can this be seen?
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Looks Like Denise Richards will be pulling double duty! After recently joining the new season of Bravo’s hit reality show franchise, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, the actress has also joined CBS Daytime’s The Bold and the Beautiful.
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As of Tuesday, the production of Fox’s hit series, Empire has slashed Jussie Smollett’s upcoming scenes following reports that the suspicion is now on him for allegedly staging the “hate” attack he reported to the Chicago PD back on January 29th.
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On today’s broadcast of the CBS afternoon series, The Talk, the ladies welcome Y&R icon, Melody Thomas Scott, who this week celebrates her incredible 40th anniversary with the show as Nikki Newman.
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During the segment Melody fills the ladies in on the “All About Nikki” episode, as she relates: “I was so thrilled that they did this. It’s truly, really the life of Nikki in the entirety of the episode. It’s all about Nikki. And she’s in jail. She’s writing a letter to her grandchildren so that she can explain who she really is, how she got to where she is. I have to narrate it, I’ve got a voice-over, a long voice-over. And then, as I’m thinking about all these different times in my life, I can’t believe I’m referring to me as her, her life, then we see the flashbacks. And for the longtime viewers, even current viewers, it is such a trip down memory lane. I mean, you are on that train and you’re not getting off…all of the clips have not been seen since they were first aired.”

Photo: CBS
In addition, Melody addresses the passing of her longtime co-star and friend, Kristoff St. John relating: “I adored him. We all adored him. There was something very unique and magical about him. He would just draw you into his wonderful world. And all of his bear hugs, I can’t believe I’ll never get a bear hug. Going to any kind of event, any party, the first thing I said when I got there was ‘Where’s Kristoff?’ I want to find Kristoff, I want to be with him, I want to be in his air space. Because that’s the kind of guy he was, and I think that came through on camera. I think everybody sensed that, I mean everybody adored him.”
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