On Wednesday, a new microdrama company enters the space of the burgeoning world of verticals with the the release of vertTV, a mobile-first streaming app and production studio featuring an original development slate starring several actors with a soap opera past or present.

Vivica A. Fox (Stephanie Simmons, Y&R), John Brotherton (ex-Jared Banks, OLTL), Josh Henderson (ex-John Ross Ewing III, TNT’s Dallas), Barbara Crampton (ex-Leanna Love, Y&R), Jason-Shane Scott (ex-Will Rappaport, OLTL), Krista Allen (ex-Taylor Hayes, B&B), Brittany Underwood (ex-Langston Hughes, OLTL) and Jessica Morris (ex-Jennifer Rappaport, OLTL) and Russell Todd (ex-Jamie Frame, Another World) are all in new or upcoming microdramas for the company.

Hollywood vets Jeffrey Schenck, Barry Barnholtz, and Peter Sullivan launched vertTV (vertTV.com) as a premium filmmaker-led studio delivering high-stakes, cinematic genre television for mobile audiences. The app has been created for on-the-go viewing, and the subscription platform features snackable, fast-paced vertical episodes.

Photo: vertTV

vertTV Slate of Microdrama Premieres

In conjunction with the July 22 rollout, vertTV has unveiled an extensive development slate of original premieres and those in development including:

Finding Hope: Written and directed by multi-hyphenate Marla Sokoloff, this premium small-town drama reunites Fuller House stars Jodie Sweetin and John Brotherton, along with Richard Karn (Home Improvement). The series follows Emily Harper (Sweetin), a successful big-city doctor who returns home to save the family’s crumbling clinic after her father suffers a stroke, forcing her to navigate the local crisis alongside a skeptical hometown EMT (Brotherton) while choosing between her high-flying career and the community she left behind.

Wicked Wives: Executive produced by and starring Vivica A. Fox this glamorous, high-stakes ensemble murder-mystery centers on an NBA wife and ICU nurse who relocates to Atlanta’s most exclusive Black gated community and is quickly drawn into a world of secrets, infidelity, and murder led by a powerful circle of elite neighborhood wives.

Lone Star Hearts: Set in the cutthroat, wealthy world of Texas oil, this soapy romance and corporate thriller stars Josh Henderson as charismatic tycoon Cooper Vale and Hallmark Channel star Cindy Busby as his sharp-witted ex, Isabelle. The plot centers around the daughter of a businessman whose life was destroyed by Vale. When she infiltrates the powerful tycoon’s company to clear her father’s name, she unexpectedly falls for the man she came to destroy.

Bad Blood: Tailored for a Gen Z audience hungry for dark academia and supernatural suspense, this thriller centers around a scholarship student investigating the suspicious murder of her best friend at the prestigious Weddington University. Her search leads her to The Crimson Circle, a secret society hiding centuries-old vampire bloodlines, where she finds herself torn between a fellow student with secrets of his own and a magnetic insider whose connection to the society runs far deeper than she realizes. The series also features horror icons Barbara Crampton, and Russell Todd reuniting on the 40th Anniversary of their cult classic, Chopping Mall.

As Hollywood continues to embrace the 1-2 minute episode storytelling made for scrolling on your iPhone or Android devices, will you be jumping into the world of verticals especially now after seeing some of these names from the soaps and more, or is it a hard pass? Let us know via the comment section below.

On the latest edition of Soapy Hosted by Rebecca Budig and Greg Rikaart which dropped on Tuesday, July 21, Emily O’Brien is the featured guest. As soap fans know, Emily has worked with Rikaart both in her first soap role on The Young and the Restless as Jana Hawkes and now on Days of Our Lives in her current role of Gwen Rizczech.

While Emily continues on DAYS, she has very impressive list of credits in the other part of her career as a voice-over actress and one in motion-capture in some of the most popular video games in the world.

O’Brien was first seen on The Young and the Restless back in 2006. She recalled her landing the role which eventually paired her for her five year run with Greg Rikaart.

Photo: JPI

BEING CAST ON THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS

“The role was just a few days and she wasn’t even supposed to be English,” Emily recalled. “The role was originally called Jade. Karen Rae, the casting director of The Young and the Restless at the time said to me “Oh, you’re from England. Try it with the dialect.” I put it on and she said, ‘I’m going to bring you back at like 3 for s callback.’ So then they changed the role to Jana and they said she’s going to be a Brit. I was only supposed to be on for like five episodes and it turned into 5 years.”

In explaining why she loved crazy Jana, Emily shared, “Jana was sort of like the misanthrope. She was just was the odd one out and I loved it. I felt so comfortable playing that because she was just eclectic and weird and she loved playing with Ouija boards and she rode a motorbike. There was just so much color to bring to her. It was just such a great match to play with Greg (Kevin), and Christian LeBlanc (Michael) and Tracey Bregman (Lauren).

Photo: JPI

GWEN, DIMITRI AND LEO ON DAYS OF OUR LIVES

On Days of Our Lives, the Leo, Gwen, Dimitri dynamic is quite unique and been through many schemes and entanglements. Often Emily finds herself in repartee with her ex-lover, Dimitri, who turned out to be gay and then had a thing for her bestie, Leo (Greg Rikaart)!

During the conversation, Greg and Emily sang, Peter Porte’s praised with O’Brien expressing, “Peter is just ready to play. He comes on set prepared. I’ve never seen him with his script. From blocking and rehearsals, he doesn’t have it. He’s prepared. He’s a physical actor and he always trying to come up with something. I think he let me slap him. He let me kiss him. He let me throw a cheeseburger in his lap. He’s ready for anything for anything.”

You can catch the full episode of ‘Soapy; featuring Emily O’Brien below where the actress also talks about replacing Jen Lilley as Theresa Donovan after being let go as Gwen; and being paired again with Greg Rikaart on the Peacock streaming soap opera this time as best friends and more.

So, were you a big Jana Hawkes and Kevin Fisher fan on Y&R? Did you like them as a couple? Do you like the dynamic between Emily and Peter Porte and Greg Rikaart on DAYS? Weigh-in via the comment section below.

Sunday is the highly-anticipated finals of the FIFA World Cup between Spain and the defending World Cup champions, Argentina. Ahead of the big game, The Young and the Restless star Eric Braeden (Victor Newman) sat down on the Rich Eisen Show for a guest appearance on Friday, July 17.

Braeden, who has played competitive soccer, weighed-in on who he thinks will be taking home the FIFA World Cup when all is said and done. Will it be Spain with their young star Lamine Yamal, or Argentina with the GOAT, Lionel Messi, who at 39, this will mark his final game in World Cup competition.

Earlier this week, Braeden received the news he received a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor at the upcoming 53rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards. Eric had previously won once in the category back in 1998.

Photo: FIFA

Here’s what the Y&R icon shared below as his prediction for the Word Cup Finals, what he thought of the U.S. Men’s Soccer team’s loss to Belgium after the controversy surrounding the red card given to U.S. star Folarin Balogun where instead of Balogun sitting out the Belgium game, he was reinstated seemingly after United States President, Donald Trump asked FIFA president Gianni Infantino to look into the referee’s call.

FIFA WORLD CUP FINALS PREDICTION

Braeden made his bold prediction in the hotly-contested finals: “I respect both teams enormously, and part of me wishes that Messi will win it one more time, because it’s the last time we see him in a World Cup. On the other hand, Spain is a fantastic team. Spain is the most disciplined team I’ve seen play. The point is that Spain is a team. They attack as a team. They defend as a team. When one of their players lose the ball, three or four, come right away. I think Spain will win. But with Messi, you don’t know.”

Clarifying the threat Lionel Messi can be to the opposing team, Braeden shared how England lost in the semi-finals to Argentina: “You don’t leave a guy like Messi alone ever. When I coached and played, you always made sure that the best player on the other team, you covered him with one of your worst players, but who was well-conditioned. You stay with him for the entire 90 minutes or 115 minutes or whatever. But you stay with him and nothing but that. It drives those players nuts. The brilliant players, even Messi, doesn’t like it at all. You stay with him. Wherever he goes, stay with him. They didn’t do that.  I must say for the first time, I kind of felt for the Brits and I’m from Germany. We have a known, not very warm feelings for each other. But, in this case, I felt for them.”

Courtesy/Disney

ERIC BRAEDEN’S SOCCER PLAYING PAST

Eisen pulled out a photo of Braeden with the soccer championship, where Eric explained, “I’ve been here in the United States for over 60 years and have been involved in soccer, and won the U.S. National Soccer Championship (the National Challenge Cup Open) in 1973. I played for a team called the Maccabees and I was the token German on a Jewish team. I was a right fullback. ”

Sadly, Eric explained that he no longer had the soccer trophy in his possession, due to the January 2025 Pacific Palisades fire. Braeden explained, “I only have it in the picture, everything burned down in the Palisades Fire when I lost home.”

Photo: USMST

U.S. SOCCER TEAM AND FOLARIN BALOGUN CONTROVERSIAL RED CARD

Eric gave his thoughts on how well the United States Men’s National Soccer team played in the FIFA World Cup tournament until the Folorin Balogun red card controversy took hold and they eventually faced Belgium in the knockout round and lost and were out of the competition.

“I thought they were very good this year. I thought they had a chance. And I personally will tell you, as a player, they’re all very bright. They knew when that call came in from a certain gentleman to another gentleman to reverse the red card for Folarin Balogun. The players knew had they won that game, they would have forever been attached to the moniker of having rigged the game. The leader of the country rigged the game for them.  I swear to you, they may not have said anything, but that influenced them very negatively.”

Braeden continued that the referee’s call on Balogun was wrong in the first place. “It would have been a different result, by the way, that was not a red card. Under no circumstances was that a red card,” insisted the Y&R star to Rich Eisen.

“Any player knows that immediately. There was no intentionality. It happened. But then the call (referring to President Trump) afterwards, I mean, obviously that smacks of interference on the highest level. Every player knows that. So you go into the game and say, ‘Oh, man, why am I doing this?’ As far as I’m concerned that is the reason that the American team lost as they lost.”

HOW TO WATCH THE FIFA WORLD CUP FINALS

The FIFA World Cup Finals air Sunday, July 19 on FOX beginning at 3pm ET/noon PT. EGOT winner and daytime talk show host, Jennifer Hudson is set to sing the U.S. National Anthem, with Justin Bieber, Madonna, Sharika and BTS performing at the halftime show. The finals will be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

You can tune-in to the Emmy-nominated Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from Noon to 3PM ET on Disney+, ESPN+, ESPN Radio, and streaming on SiriusXM channel 80.

So, do you agree with Eric Braeden’s prediction? Will Spain win the FIFA World Cup, or will Argentina repeat as the champions? Make your picks and let us know via the comment section below. For the full enlightening conversation with Eric on the Rich Eisen Show, you can check it out his segment in full below.