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Mike Manning Shares, “Representation is Important” as ‘The Bay’s’ Coming Out and Hate Crime Story is Featured in Two Part Special Set In Italy

By Michael Fairman

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Photo: LANY Entertainment

The Bay will drop two very special episodes beginning on Tuesday December 26th and Wednesday December 27th on Popstar! TV (4pm ET /1pm PT ) with an encore presentation at 9pm ET and 9pm PT). They are entitled: The Bay: Veni, Vidi, Vici. 

The two episodes, shot entirely in Terracina, Italy, outside of Rome, takes viewers three years into the past and tells the story of what brought the characters of Caleb McKinnon (played by Emmy winner Mike Manning) and Adam Kenway (played by Emmy winner Kristos Andrews) to Bay City. But there’s more … the series will delve into Caleb’s coming out backstory and the hate crime that ensues, two very socially relevant topic of today.

In a statement, The Bay’s creator, director and writer, Gregori Martin previewed, “We tackle a very important topic in these episodes. Two characters are faced with a hate crime simply because of who they choose to love. I’m excited for viewers to see these episodes and hopefully the telling of this emotional journey will make a difference in someone’s life where they walk away from the story having a better understanding that love is love.” Martin added, “I was extremely proud of Mike as he delivered his performance so beautifully.”

Photo: LANY Entertainment

Mike Manning (Ex-Charlie, DAYS) expressed: “It meant a lot to me to be able to dive deeper into Caleb’s past. He’s a character I’ve grown to love and I’m grateful the team and I were able to infuse this storyline with so much heart and vulnerability, while also shining a light on the sometimes negative things people in the LGBT community go through when coming out. Representation is important.

Photo: JPI

The episodes are bilingual, spoken in both English and Italian with English subtitles. Several Italian guest stars appear within them including newcomer Marco Lo Chiatto as Luca, a secret lover from Caleb’s past, and Italian Golden Globe winning actress Nathalie Rapti Gomez as Giulia, a spy set out to uncover Adam Kenway’s secrets.

Photo: LANY Entertainment

If you can’t catch the two part special on Popstar! TV have no fear. You will have another opportunity to view it, on demand, in early 2024 via Tubi, and Amazon Video as part of The Bay’s season 8 VOD release.

So what do you think of The Bay telling us Caleb’s coming out story and portraying hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community? Will you be checking out the two part special? Let us know via the comment section. But first, check out this trailer for The Bay: Veni, Vidi, Vici below.

THE BAY SEASON 8 ITALY | Official Promo from LANY on Vimeo.

General Hospital

How ‘General Hospital’s’ Ned and Lois Love Story Moved Rosabel Kurth, Daughter of Wally Kurth and Rena Sofer, to Tears and Served as Inspiration

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In a case of life imitating art, literally, Rosabel Rosalind Kurth, the daughter of Wally Kurth (Ned, GH and Justin, DAYS) and Rena Sofer (Lois, GH) took to her Instagram over the weekend to share her emotional reaction to watching her now divorced parents real life love story play out on General Hospital; beginning in the early 90s when on-screen Ned and Lois were one of the “It’ couples of the show.

As Rosalind explained, it was the Lois and Ned’s love story that impacted her so much that it fueled one of her latest art projects. Here’s the backstory: Rena Sofer and Wally Kurth were married in 1995 after being in story on GH. They had Rosabel in 1996, before divorcing in 1997. The two had gone their separate ways for many years, and in 2023 resumed working together on-screen as exes Lois Cerullo and Ned Quartermaine on General Hospital.

Here’s what Rosabel shared in her post, “In 1993 Rena, my mom, was cast on General Hospital to play Lois Cerulo, a spunky band manager and romantic opposite to Eddie Maine (aka Ned Ashton) played by Wally, my dad. As Ned and Lois fell in love, so did Wally and Rena, following relationship milestones close behind the work of the script-writers. Until Wally and Rena got pregnant with Rosie, me, and the scriptwriters had to write in a new pregnancy and eventually a new character.”

Photo: WKurthIG

Rosabel continued the real-life back story, “My mom left the show to have me, and shortly after the love story stopped writing itself my parents divorced. For 27 years my mom and my dad had minimal contact at best, tense contact at worst… until 2023 when Rena was recast to return as Lois on General Hospital to help Eddie (Ned) with identity recall after a bout of amnesia.”

Next, Rosabel revealed the key scene between Lois and Eddie (Ned) in which she noticed it also seemed like a breakthrough moments for her parents, “Two years ago, at 27 years old, I turned on General Hospital to watch Lois and Eddie rehash the past, but what I really watched was Rena and Wally having a conversation, making eye contact and even smiling at each other in the same room at the same time. When I turned on this episode of GH I didn’t know that I’d get to see a flashback sequence encapsulating Lois and Ned’s entire love story in under 2 minutes and I certainly didn’t know it would move me to tears the way it did.”

The art project the talented Rosabel is working on she shared is called, “The Honeymoon Period.” It is the first part of what she imagines to be a years-long investigation of love and fantasy through the lens of my parents’ scripted romance.  Kurth added, “I’m still gathering the courage and figuring out what this body of work will look like, how it will affect my relationships, and how I will share it with you all in the end and in the meantime.”

Photo: JPI

As a proud mama, Rena Sofer jumped into the comment thread and expressed, “Awwwww my love!!! I love this journey for you both as an artist and a daughter!! You are so lucky to have all of this on tape to watch and experience for yourself!! And equally as lucky to have your mother and father here to guide you through any questions that may come up!! I am immensely proud of you!”  As soap fans know, Rena is also an artist having been making ceramics, pottery and the like.

You can watch the montage of Ned and Lois scenes below in Rosabel’s touching post below.

Now let us know, was Lois and Ned’s love story one of your all-time favorites on General Hospital? Are you glad that Rena and Wally got some closure from their 2023 reunion on-screen? What do you think of the artistic talents of Rosabel Rosalind? Let us know via the comment section below.

 

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Beyond the Gates

‘Beyond the Gates’ Nicole Plays the Field: Who Is Her Ultimate Love Match?

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Who would have thought that more uptight of the Beyond the Gates Dupree sisters, Dr. Nicole Dupree Richardson (Daphnee Duplaix), would be the one cavorting around with a few different suitors at one time and living it up!  Such as the case of the psychiatrist at Garland Memorial Medical Center.

In story, after her decades-long marriage went bust with Dr. Ted Richardson (thanks to the bombshell by Leslie that Ted and her had an affair the result of which was her having his daughter, Eva), Nicole divorced the renowned plastic surgeon and since that time has two men actively vying her attention, newcomer in town, Dr. Kial Robbins (Greg Vaughan) and Ted’s plastic surgeon partner, Dr. Carlton Fitzgerald (Michael Christopher Riley).

What’s refreshing for daytime is, this is a woman taking control of her personal life, and not making excuses that she is not being mutually-exclusive, She has even explained to both Kial and Carlton that after the stormy ending and the betrayal of her marriage to Ted (Keith D. Robinson), she’s not rushing into anything with any sort of short or long term commitment. So, everyone knows what they are getting themselves into.

For Nicole, let the fun begin and this week on all new episodes of Beyond the Gates come the Friday, May 8 episode while with Carlton, Nicole runs into Food Network Chef, Sunny Anderson who is also a regular contributor and official “Drew Crew” member on The Drew Barrymore Show. Meanwhile, Ted is thinking about another woman who Shanice thinks is Leslie, but doesn’t he just love Nicole and wants her back, try as he might to move on with anyone that isn’t her? Stay tuned.

This week, in the latest promo for Beyond the Gates, things are getting hot and heavy in the bedroom between Nicole and Carlton, while previous she had quite the time with Kial.

Check out the latest video teaser for episodes airing May 4-8 below.

So, who do you think will be the ultimate love match for Nicole? Will she wind up back with Ted, choose to be exclusive with Kial or Carlton, or will no one get Nicole, and she will just continue to be single and happy for the rest of her life? Let us know your picks via the comment section.

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General Hospital

RATINGS: ‘The Young and the Restless’ Outdistances ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ in Total Viewers, ‘GH’ Most Audience Gains Year-Over-Year

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The ratings report is out for the week of April 13-17, 2026, and the top-rated The Young and the Restless, pulled further ahead than in recent weeks of its top competitor and sister soap, The Bold and the Beautiful in total viewers.

According to the latest ratings report from Soap Opera Network, for the four network broadcast soap operas, on the strength of several key storylines, Y&R came in averaging 3,126,000 total viewers while B&B had 2,759,000. Total viewers data was not available for the previous week.

In story, The Young and the Restless delivered the fallout from Holden (Nathan Owens) learning he’s Malcolm Winters (Shemar Moore) biological son, Stephanie (Vivica A. Fox) hoping her son would be be a donor match to save Malcolm’s life, and Holden letting Lily (Christel Khalil) know he is her half-brother. In other arcs, Sally (Courtney Hope) learned she is pregnant with Billy’s (Jason Thompson) child, while Adam (Mark Grossman) headed to Vegas to help his brother Nick (Joshua Morrow) takedown his nemesis Matt Clark (Roger Howarth).

Photo: JPI

Adam reunited with Riza (Tina Casciani) with whom he was known as Spyder. He is concerned that Nick has developed a drug addiction. Adam gets knocked out by Matt Clark after finding Nick in a storage room and the two are taken hostage. Eventually, Adam gets Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan) to save them while Nick finds a stash of pills and pockets them. Matt prepares to take Sharon (Sharon Case) and Noah (Lucas Adams) hostage.

Over at The Bold and the Beautiful, the truth was finally exposed and thanks to a tip off from Daphne (Murielle Hilaire), Electra (Laneya Grace) leaned that Ivy (Ashleigh Brewer) was the perpetrator who took the letter meant for Will (Crew Morrow), where she professed her love for him and wanting to be back together with him.

Ivy, went so far as to continue saying she was doing it for her niece’s own good. Elsewhere, Katie (Heather Tom) and Brooke’s (Katherine Kelly Lang) riff as over their warring fashion houses Forrester Creations and Logan heated up, while Dylan (Sydney Bullock) and R.J. (Brayan Nicoletti) both were figuring what, if any, future she had with Will, and he had with Electra.

MORE VIEWERS TUNING IN THAN 2025

It should be noted that year-over-year all four soaps were up in 2026 in total viewers for the ratings period. Y&R was up +75,000, B&B +202,000, Beyond the Gates +117,000, who for this ratings period had 1,661,000 tuning-in, and General Hospital which came in at under 2 million viewers for the week, but did see the largest jump in total viewers compared to 2025 with +211,000.

In story at General Hospital for the week, Ethan Lovett (Nathan Dean) returned to Port Charles, Curtis (Donnell Turner) was worried about Jordan’s (Tanisha Harper) medical issues following the car crash, Danny (Asher Antonyzyn) developed an interest to join the mob, Willow (Katelyn MacMullen) confronted Jacinda (Paige Herschell), and Nina (Cynthia Watros) learned her daughter shot Drew (Cameron Mathison), and has been drugging him into a locked-in state unable to speak or move.

The ratings discussed above are from Nielsen and their Live+Same Day data for the week of April 13-17, 2026.

So, what do you think of the latest total viewer ratings picture? Which daytime drama is floating your boat? Which are you interested in least? Let us know via the comment section below.

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