News
Tyra Banks Quits Her Own Show FABLife! She Says It's To Work On Cosmetics Line, But Was It Dissension Among The Ranks?
Photo Credit: Disney/ABC
More problems for ABC’s daytime programming block, which never helps out legacy series General Hospital, the only soap opera left on the network! Today, Tyra Banks announced she quit her own talk show, FABLife! After less than three months as the main host and executive producer, she parted ways with the ailing series.
In a statement Banks related, “That this is a very difficult decision, but necessary.” She went on to say: “I will be devoting more time to my new, growing cosmetics company, TYRA Beauty, which is expanding faster than anticipated, as well as overseeing my company’s other entertainment ventures. I will, however, continue to support the growth and success of FABLife and greatly admire my fellow co-hosts and the talented production team behind the show.” Banks will stay on as executive producer through December, and will remain on-air only a few times a week through the end of the year, and only make after that occasional other appearances! FABLife’s other hosts remain for now with: Chrissy Teigen, Joe Zee, Leah Ashley and Lauren Makk.
However, other sources have reported that there is major dissention behind the scenes of this latest syndicated series from Disney/ABC. TMZ related: “We’re told Tyra and one of the executive producers did not get along. We’re told she was particularly upset because she felt she had been double-crossed … she claimed show honchos promised to push her cosmetics line much harder than they did. We’re told there was a staff meeting a week ago where execs said the show would be moving in a different direction. But Tyra had been missing days on the show, and the handwriting was on the wall.”
PEOPLE offered up: “The show wasn’t what Tyra wanted. She was disappointed with the direction that the producers were taking. It wasn’t right for her. She hopes it will be successful for the other cast members but she has to move on.”
So here we go again, while All My Children was replaced with The Chew and that seems to have found enough a consistent audience for some staying power, nothing that has replaced One Life to Live ever took hold: The Revolution, Katie, and now FABLife.
What do you think is the real reason Tyra wanted out of her own show? Is this show about to just tank for good? How can ABC ever find a solution to this programming issue, and what should they do? Resurrect One Life to Live, if they have retained the rights? Do something bold and launch a new half hour soap? Come up with some other form of entertaining series other than these lifestyle shows which seem to all fizzle? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!
Great to see another One Life to Live replacement off the air! Tyra went from having two shows to none. I could only stand her on Top Model anyway.
Bring back One Life To Live, this talk show is a train wreck. Cancel Fablife, I watched this horrible talk show once and it put me too sleep. LOL. We need Viki Buchanan back and the whole gang. We need love in the afternoon back with One Life To Live.
One Life To Live will be stuck in that lawsuit with Prospect Park for years, and, sad to say, the longer it is off the air, the less likely they will ever reboot it because audiences have moved on. I do take delight, however, that everything they thought was going to be a sure fire replacement winner, has tanked. I wonder how much money they have spent chasing ratings over what they spent if they would have just kept OLTL on the air!?
What do you think the reason is? Boycott ABC across America works. Also stupid lifestyle show that no one cares about. They still don’t understand anything they put on except soaps will not make. How much more of this?
One thing’s for sure, OLTL is not coming back no matter how many failed shows succeeded in its stead, whether programmed by ABC itself or by its syndication subsidiary.
The Talk also had a sluggish start during its first year on air and it took some retooling, firings and a few new co-presenters to make itself viable for CBS (and still programmed by CBS Daytime).
But CBS didn’t sacrifice their soaps to make room for The Talk. Well, except for maybe As The World Turns, but The Talk’s ratings ARE higher.
That 80’s outfit she is wearing in the photo for this article does not do her any favors. Just sayin’.
ABC really screwed up when they cancelled two soaps at once. No one but ABC knows the economics, but if GH can be profitable, AMC or OLTL could be.
I don’t know what the status of the Prospect Park lawsuit is or when and if the rights would revert back to ABC, but if it were legally and economically feasible, ABC should just get OLTL back on the air.
If it was legally feasible, it ain’t economically feasible. Soaps in their current format cost to much to produce. If they get the rights back from prospect park, ABC can merge both shows and start a new story bible.
If they went back to the model they followed for years, i.e. soaps made all the money for the network, it could work. The problem was soaps became big business in the 80s so each show spent more and more money to outdo each other and salaries became astronomical! Wasn’t Susan Lucci making a million a year at one point? Most soap actors start out at $150,000 a year or so and if they could go back to that model, producing it low cost, it could make money again. One Life To Live was costing $50 million a year when it was cancelled, which isn’t much compared to budgets of nighttime shows and, of course, film, but it was becoming too cost-prohibitive for the network. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind two characters sitting at a table having coffee talking, which was how soaps started. At least they would go back to being realistic instead of the absurd plot messes they are now.
Karma’s a “beotch”…..house of mickey!!!!
So true!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hmm didn’t even know she existed ..
I watch zero daytime tv, zero..
I watch my soaps at night via internet..
0hh oh! when home sick or whatever I watched Judge Judy, that’s it..
ABC deserves all the crap shows, the cancellations and most of all low ratings. They could have had great daytime had they not canceled AMC and OLTL.
Something bold as the article suggests: A completely new soap opera.
Can we get a new soap opera with a different production model in that time slot? Or do the affiliates still own that time slot?
I would like to see a talk show devoted to soaps past and present. Ideally it would regard the genre with respect and not focus on the often sensationalized aspects such as multiple marriages and back-from-the-dead stories. I would like to see the actors interviewed in an Actor’s Studio format, focusing on the craft of soap acting and the historical significance of the genre. Actors could discuss their soap characters, story lines, fellow actors and favorite memories. There would be room for lighthearted discourse as well of course, but daytime drama and its artists should be regarded with the dignity and respect they deserve. There are enough actors, both past and present, to sustain the show. Finally, they should be interviewed by someone with a deep knowledge and respect for the medium. I would watch every single day. The show would be cheap to produce and could help fill the void left by the foolishly cancelled ABC soaps.
This is a great idea. I hope “someone” takes notice. 🙂
Ah, that was called the “Soap Opera Network” and sadly, it failed.
You’re right of course, but the difference is that this would be integrated into the daytime line-up where the soap watchers are a built in audience.
Nothing can replace One Life to Live!!!!!!!!!!! I think the only solution to the programming problem is to put One Life to Live back on the air and integrate some All My Children characters into the show. The shows share a common creator, Agnes Nixon, and take place in the same area of the country. There have been crossovers between them in the past. If there is a functioning brain cell anywhere among the alphabet network executives, that’s what they will do.
Agree. 100%. They could bring it back with much fanfare and do it right. Look at what Days of Our Lives is doing with it’s 50th anniversary–THAT is how they should bring back OLTL.
The problem is, launching a soap, in this day and age, would be astronomical in terms of costs. Even launching a reboot of AMC and OLTL is not worth it to the networks. They would have been smart to just leave them on the air but of course, they had to go mess with their formula, which worked beautifully for years. Remember the days when ABC was LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON and you could watch soaps straight through from 12:30-4:30?
Bringing back OLTL and AMC will solve ABC Daytime’s programming mess. After the lawsuit is settled, perhaps a “super-soap” blending Pine Valley and Llanview characters/story lines. Former loyal ABC daytime fans will not watch anything that replaces OLTL.
I’m sure Tyra saw the writing on the wall for this show, and it’s probably headed for cancellation. I can’t say I’m surprised. There are just way too many talk/lifestyle shows on daytime TV, and this one is a carbon copy of the failed Revolution, only with different hosts. If that show did not work, what made Disney/ABC executives think that this one would? I have no clue what they were thinking. I know they’re cheaper to produce, but you do have to think that all this $$$ being thrown out by the company producing and promoting one failed talk show after another could have been spent to keep OLTL alive. It’s a real shame in that regard.
That said, to keep blaming these ABC station lead-ins as the primary reason for any low ratings for GH is just wrong and too easy an excuse. Remember, in the final months of OLTL’s run in late 2011 when its ratings spiked, GH was completely tanking and was thisclose to being axed. GH has aired in the same time slot for the overwhelming majority of its 52 years on the air. By now, fans of GH know what time the show airs. They’ll keep tuning in if its good. If not they won’t, plain and simple. Let’s hope hard that the former will continue.
The fans of the canceled soap need to look in their own back yard..
Both soaps were abandoned by their fans, leaving them to die.
The fans moved on, had little interest to hang on for dear life until the soaps could be turned to entice viewers.
Not everybody will dedicate 30-40-50 years of their lives watching a soap 5 days a week, they do tire of it and life changes and moves on..
ABC canceled the soaps because of low numbers because millions of fans stopped watching.
ABC is about money/profits not emotions.
The soaps were not making profits as they once did due to the fans tuning out.
Not all the blame is held by ABC it is also held by the fans who stopped watching.
There will never be a ”new” soap nor the canceled soaps returning.
Daytime TV is Junk TV ..
daytime now airs anything that does not cost millions to produce/ cheap junk to fill slots…
Look, I’ve got to believe that even if soaps are now niche viewing, there is something valuable to advertisers and the network about having hundreds of thousands of viewers loyally watching a show every day, year after year. The real problem, as I see it, is that soaps are not adding younger generations of viewers and so it’s only a matter of time before there are no viewers at all. The soap style of story telling is profuse among prime time and online shows, so how do we get fans of these shows to tune into soaps?
hi Melissa,,
there never will be new and younger..
The soaps are still in the 20th century..
Look at ”now” TV, cable, movies etc.. they are not couples based, no long drawn out couples and their problems to break-ups.
younger people do not get into that..
All, the Netflix series have very little to none love couples.
The movies have no involved love couples to even care about, it is not popular
TV shows
Empire has no couples as in soap couples, Cookie and Lucious are not romantic but a couple millions love.
even how to get away with murder, has no romantic couples, no series do, and millions tune in for the – suspense, action,hard hitting story, and the soaps will never attract new viewers with love couples kissing and romance that media generation died out loooong ago.
Really, look at the movies, tv, cable series that is what younger people watch then compare them to the soaps, and you will have the answer..
It is said among; soaps are grandma’s stories ..
don’t jump on me, just telling it not saying it..
Your exactly right Melissa. Kids dont even watch TV anymore! Everything is on their phone or pad. Imagine if Taylor Swift released her music only on a album? She wouldnt reach a tenth of her fans. Her fans would latch on to something else. Soaps have to adjust to technology. The soap stories have to move quicker. There is too much stimulation out there to sit and drag a story out over a year! Kids live in a world where everything to them is a appetizer, no more entrees!
Timmm..
the now gen do not have or take the time to sit and watch a show, they binge watch when they get bored with whatever, binge watching is in and nobody even tunes in once a week, any longer to watch their favorite show.. they binge it..
Also, they live fast.. everything has to move on fast..
they would never take the time to invest in a soap..
it takes a long time to get to know the characters, not to mention backstories, and 3 months to even know what is going on, and it’s PG rated..
None from the now gen, the ones needed would ever take the time to watch a soap..
Only hope is– people retiring and bored would tune in and that is ify ..
Great post, fans by the millions quit watching and the audience left was unattractive to advertisers. Times changed, so do audiences.
I don’t see the connection to the OLTL cancelation and the Tyra show. In my city Tyra airs on a Fox station at ten am. It has nothing to do with soaps. It is a syndicated talk show.
GH has a decent lead in, the Chew gets better ratings than the sorry soap it replaced with better demographics.
I watched a couple soaps back in the day but really the shows were pretty bad the last ten or fifteen years.
ABC is basically screwed, and they did it to themselves. When they gave the 2:00PM (CST) hour back to their affiliates to accommodate the pricey ‘Katie’, which promptly flopped, there was no way in hell the affiliates were going to give that hour back. History could have told them that. Without a full network of stations, there is no real possibility of a new soap being launched. ABC News has been itching to expand GMA, and the only way for that to happen is for either GH or The View to go.
Oprah was the last of her kind on daytime. Talk shows like hers will NEVER excel again!
Love to see the karma continue of ‘programs’ the network thought would be so great when they cancelled the ABC soaps, especially OLTL!!
We had to endure the pain of the Daytime Emmys this year which turned out to be one long commercial for things Tyra including this not-a-surprise-trainwreck!! And not to mention her dreadful fashions she subjected to us!
I always feel bad for the behind the scenes professionals on these shows when they are out of a job because of cancellations, but they are far more talented than Tyra and will be picked up elsewhere.
FABlife is dreadful. Derivative and empty of meaningful content. And the hosts just do nto engage. It all seems forced. Am not sure why the webs think this is what we want. I prefer daytime dramas and am sad that a few decided they were out of fashion. Y&R scores 5M viewers, more than eye some primetime network fare!
PLEASE bring back One Life to Live!!! I want to see Viki Buchanan & the rest of the gang on my tv!
What a dreadful show. I hope i tgets cancelled. The Chew should be the lead in to GH since that’s been the only successful talk/lifestyle show ABC has been able to muster.
The network has two black eyes already. They don’t learn. They won’t put another soap back on the air and their attempts to create ratings keep hitting them in the face.
I say just leave the time OFF AIR. I would rather watch an OFF AIR station then any of the crap they have had on for the last few years.
Just put on “Bewitched” and “I Dream of Genie!”
I’d that that!
I think everyone needs to give up this pipe dream of OLTL and AMC coming back, as much as we all would like that. The legal wranglings between ABC and Prospect Park have killed that chance. Regarding these cheesy lifestyle/talk shows…the majority of viewers are middle class working people. Even the name FABLife, just has connotations of wealth, and grandeur, and arrogance. Middle America cannot relate to haughty notions like that, and have no desire to. People are busy working, raising families, putting food on the table, and haven’t the time or the inclination to watch celebrity vanity and excess on display, telling them how to live. Regarding a new soap(s), I think that is completely feasible, albeit with a DRASTICALLY altered production model. There could be no more bloated casts of 30-50. If they took a more primetime approach, with tight casts of 10-15, that would be great!! They could no longer hire the same recycled writers who have been writing for soaps since the 1970’s. They need to hire young writers who are full of fresh ideas, along with maybe a few who are seasoned in the demands of daytime writing. Also, they should not air the show(s) five days a week. People don’t have the time to commit to that anymore. If they aired, say Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and were made really must see-TV, people would watch and tune in. It would also limit the amount of creative material that soaps churn through. Also, the writing would have to lay off the things that have unintentionally but ultimately made soaps self-parodying laughing stocks…..ludicrous back from the dead plots, constant who’s the daddy baby stories, characters divorcing and remarrying 14 times, always interrupted weddings, rapid aging of children, absurd doppelgangers, evil villains ALWAYS coming out on top, etc etc etc. I get that these are the things that many love about soaps, but they have also contributed to the near extinction of the genre. Classic soaps, based on family and love as we knew them, are dead. Days of Our Lives, currently, comes the closest to what could be considered a classic soap, comparable to those of yesteryear. The new shows I am envisioning would be more The Gilmore Girls, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, or even comedic shows with continuing soap elements, like Friends or That 70’s Show. There are no rules and no limits (only of good taste) as to what these scripted shows would be or could be. They don’t have to fit into a labelled genre (such as SOAP, or SITCOM, or DRAMA). It would just be something new in Daytime Television that if done correctly, could coin its own name in time, based on what is airing, or how people are responding. Soaps were not called soap operas right out of the starting gate. That name was applied and developed over time before it stuck and became a part of pop culture. If my research is correct, the name was almost a mocking joke at first, as the major sponsors of the shows were soap companies selling detergent to housewives at home watching. The term sitcom was not around back in the days of I Love Lucy. They were called half hour comedies at first. Then comedies, then the term situation comedies took over, which was shortened to sitcom. The possibilities for what could be done with scripted shows in daytime are endless! It will take a lot of strategic planning, a LOT of thinking outside the box, and a lot of creativity. But when hasn’t the medium of television NOT been pioneering. Every few years, or decade at least, something new comes along on t.v. that seems new and fresh. Like they say, there are no new stories, but there are many new ways and formats in which to tell them.
Your right, AMC and OLTL at this point is a pipe dream! I would put a new soap on ABC, 5 days a week, a half hour show. I would hire former cast member’s from the above mentioned soaps. I also dont mind all the typical soap scenarios you listed. Its what makes a soap a soap! However, the problem seems to be the name “Soap.” It seems to turn people off, these days. When Don Johnson was out promoting “Blood and Oil” he cringed when they called his new show a soap and or compared it to Dallas.
There is a parallel between soaps and comic books. Each have been around forever, take suspension of belief to enjoy, and deal with recycled plots. But comics have experience a resurgence with online accessibility, and superheros online, in film, and all over tv. I am hoping for the same with soaps (well maybe not the film part).
I agree that many of these plots have been recycled to death. When you can guess what’s coming weeks or months away that means the writing has has gotten really tired. (I know this has become the case for GH, even under the new head writers.) I entirely agree that we need a re-imagination of the genre. That’s what makes the Prospect Park experiment such a tragedy. They were at least trying to play with the format, but ended up setting back the genre further.
The only thing that would get me to watch ABC is to bring back All My Children. A new soap which had actors from AMC might also work for me. I love to see ABC struggling with these stupid talk shows!
Now will TPTB at ABC/D finally admit that idiot Brian Frons was wrong. The soap fans “can’t be trained like dogs to watch his vision of daytime”. Every OLTL replacement show has failed and I don’t know anyone who watches the Spew. I’ll bet if ABC ran repeats of OLTL from the very beginning ratings would soar! Bring back Love In The Afternoon!!
ABC screwed themselves when they cancelled those two soaps. I wonder what they think of Brian Frons (sp) now! I would want OLTL back on the air but I don’t see it happening. When ABC realized the uproar with the news of cancellation, it should have reversed the decision immediately. Every show in OLTL timeslot has failed and I, for one, will not watch any show they broadcast at that time along with The Chew in AMC’s timeslot.
Brian Frons did what his bosses wanted, he got rid of two soaps that got mediocre ratings and were expensive to produce. The Chew does well and makes more money than any soap. Advertisers do not want to invest in soaps, the audience is too old.
There is NO loyalty in show business. After all, its called show BUSINESS! None of the networks care about the fans. If it isnt making money, its off the air! Okay, BUT, how is that working where all these shows have failed after you screwed AMC and OLTL: fans? And GH, they continue to stay profitable. Why cant you see that if GH is still chugging, at least ONE other soap could do that again? As for Tyra, if EP’s lied to her and she is fed up okay, BUT I think she knows the show sucks and she is getting out NOW before it is cancelled so it wont be a black mark against her cosmetics line. She is a quitter! Everyone on that show who is counting on her she just said F off I’m going onto something else, screw you guys! No loyalty, its all about the money!
OH, Lord! Good riddance! We have abc on at work and it was nice to not hear her yapping barking the last few shows. I understand the show is being cancelled anyways, so who cares? Nothing will ever replace OLTL. (Maybe Helena put a curse on any show that takes over OLTL’s time slot. Hmmm.)
As a fan of AMC and OLTL, the “easy” answer from fans is to resurrect both soaps, as a half hour each, and fill the 2pm hour that way. But we don’t have to justify the expenses of that undertaking, we just want the dream to come true, going on four years later after losing these soaps.
The risky answer is to create a new half hour soap featuring actors that are familiar to daytime audiences, with some type of altered, modernized, more relevant subject matter making it the soap of today’s viewer. Is it likely? No, but would it garner attention and eyeballs? At least at first. Soaps and their viability are such a hot button issue that people would tune in to see how it would start, but the question is whether the viewers would stay, or the quality would make them stay.
My proposed solution would be to craft limited series, telenovelas for American TV, with 3 months of story, that might end on a cliffhanger. Rotate in a second telenovela with a different story and cast, and do so twice more in a year, “testing out” four potential soaps over the course of one year. If one or two prove successful, they would come back in the rotation the following year, the two underperformers being replaced with two new ideas.
The time commitment from the viewer would be less, easier to binge watch to catch up, knowing the ending date and the half hour runtime would hopefully encourage viewers to give the new shows a chance… and it’s a way to reinvigorate the genre without trying to entirely reinvent the wheel. The time off between seasons of each returning telenovela would allow the production teams to work on strong story arcs and character development in their off-air months to ensure the quality of what returns to the air for season two.
THAT might be enough of the old and enough of the new to make the timeslot work. And it could be a way to identify new talent for the network, whether behind the camera (writers, producers, directors) or in front (actors).
AMC and OLTL would never be near the same..
Many of their actors have moved on others have aged and some simply might be not interested..
Both soaps would mainly be new actors or characters.
And the millions to produce not 1 but 3 soaps, well ABC would never do that, never, and I do not blame them .. Never going to happen.
There will be no soaps created and canceled soaps are not coming back. Scripted drama is very expensive to produce and the daytime audience is unattractive to advertisers.
Ah, Rapids, what goes around comes around and what is old is new again. SOME day they will be back. SOME day they will seem like a great idea and seem new again. Hollywood is out of ideas so it is only a matter of time.
There is some bittersweet justice that ABC cannot get a successful replacer for our beloved OLTL! In 6 weeks it will be 4 years!
Shame on ABC
Bring back a 30 minute version of OLTL. The head writer is available as will be many of the actors. Evening soaps are burning it up!
I saw George Lucas on CBS Morning News on Friday. Charlie Rose did an interview about the upcoming Star Wars blockbuster and the fact that since Disney took over Lucas didn’t want to be involved. This brilliant creator of Star Wars said that it was a SOAP OPERA and that all Disney was really interested in was a laser show. He said it was the multi-generational storytelling of this SOAP OPERA that made it the great success it is today and that without that he wanted no part of it.
The genre isn’t dead. You just need those with the creative vision to carry it out. The masses will love it and embrace it. Storytelling is the thing.
General Hospital
‘General Hospital’s’ Dominic Zamprogna Shares He Was ‘Happy to Hear’ of The Triangle Storyline Developing Between Dante/Elizabeth/Ric
General Hospital’s Dominic Zamprogna (Dante Falconeri) opened up about the burgeoning love triangle forming between his Port Charles alter-go, Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst) and Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst) after recently aired scenes, plus his hopes for the future of a Dante and Liz pairing, during his appearance on the Sunday, April 23 edition of the That’s Awesome podcast with Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) and Bradford Anderson (Spinelli).
On last week’s episodes of GH, Ric has made the decision that he wanted to propose to his ex-wife, only when he showed up at Elizabeth’s front door, he misread the scenario he walked in with Liz tending to Dante’s injured leg from the softball game. From there, the legal eagle’s jealous streak is reemerging which may cause him to act out and do something unforgivable, or will he take the high road? Stay tuned.
Speaking with Steve Burton and Bradford Anderson about where Elizabeth stands in the annals of the long-running soap, Zamprogna said, “She’s up there with Steve and Maurice (Maurice Benard) as one of the most legacy-filled people on the show.”
Courtesy/ABC
HOW DANTE AND ELIZABETH CAME ABOUT
Dominic jokes it’s a far cry for where Dante and Elizabeth previously, recalling, “We had some scenes together years ago and we were both laughing. Becky’s like, ‘Well, I guess we’re not going be paired up anytime soon.’ I remember we laughed immediately after they yelled ‘cut,”‘and said to each other, ‘Well, so much for that!'”
Fast-forward to early 2025 and as Zamprogna remembered it, “Elizabeth Korte (co-head writer, GH) came up to me at the General Hospital Christmas party, and I think it was a year and a half ago and she said, ‘We’re going to have you in scenes with Elizabeth,’ My internal monologue is going, ‘I’m not with Lulu (Alexa Havins) anymore and Sam’s (Kelly Monaco) gone, so maybe they want to see if this works.’ I didn’t want to get scenes with Becky and try to find the chemistry. I just wanted to play whatever honestly was written and came across for both of us and hope it was what people liked, and I don’t know if it is … or not.”
Knowing how beloved Elizabeth is to the GH faithfuls, Zamprogna added, “She got a big fan base with Ric … and a big fan base with with Jason … and you know, you’re going to piss somebody off. But, didn’t Ric drug Elizabeth and put Carly in a panic room?”
Photo: ABC
DANTE AND ELIZABETH PAIRING COULD STIR UP STORY FOR OTHERS IN PORT CHARLES
In closing, Dominic felt that the wide-reaching tentacles of a Dante and Elizabeth relationship is something he is 100% down for. “The triangle thing; I was happy to hear it was with Ric and her, because I felt it’s important to have her the top of it as opposed to Dante, Lulu and Elizabeth.”
Zamprogna added, “When you get into relationships on a soap, things seem to fizzle out a little bit, The buildup is what’s the fun part, and the getting to know each other, and the people who are affected by this coming together. When with this case it’s going to affect: Ric, Sonny, Lulu. There’s so much more story here. To me, it’s going to be a fun story to play.”
You can check out Dominic’s visit to That’s Awesome with Steve and Bradford below.
Now weigh-in: Are you rooting for Dante and Liz, or Dante and Ric at this juncture of the story, or neither guy for Elizabeth? Let us know your thoughts and picks via the comment section.
While Smitty tries to hold the fort down in his marriage to congressman Martin Richardson (Brandon Claybon) and their two teenaged children, Samantha (Najah Jackson) and Tyrell (Jaden Lucas Miller) on Beyond the Gates, Emmy-winner Mike Manning has also landed another feature film role.
According to Deadline, Manning has joined the cast of Deify with 6 other new cast members for the indie psychological horror film starring Neal McDonough and Skeet Ulrich, which was previously announced last week.
Joining Manning as the latest cast addition are: Dennis Haysbert, Ashley Greene, Casey Harnett, Kirk Avecdo, Anji White, anf Nicholas Chimera who’s directing the pic also has a part in the film.
WHAT’S THE STORY OF DEIFY?
Taking to his Instagram with the news of his casting, Manning shared, “A movie about a cult? What could possibly go wrong? Come for the enlightenment. Stay because they won’t let you leave. DEIFY is coming…”
The movie is currently shooting in Chicago and in story, “a cult leader is put on trial after causing his devoted followers to be burned alive. The film is inspired in part by events surrounding the 1993 Waco, Texas, standoff between members of the Branch Davidians church and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, one of the largest civilian firefights ever recorded on American soil.”
MIKE MANNING IS A DAYTIME EMMY NOMINEE
In addition, the multi-talented Manning is a producer on the feature. Previously, Mike was nominated last month in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for the upcoming 53rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards. He previously won an Emmy for his role on The Bay and for being a producer on the digital drama.
Mike’s previous credits include the role of Charlie Dale on Days of Our Lives and the Manny on This Is Us, plus various primetime and screen credits.
So intrigued to find what role Mike will play in the upcoming horror/cult film, Deify? Enjoying him as Smitty on Beyond the Gates? Share your thoughts via the comment section below.
General Hospital
GH and OLTL Alum Patrick J. Gibbons Reveals the Story Behind Writing Trina’s Song on ‘General Hospital’ (Exclusive)
At the conclusion of today’s August 21 episode of General Hospital, Trina Robinson (Tabyana Ali) sings a lullaby to baby Dez, that went into a montage to close out the episode as her father Curtis Ashford (Donnell Turner) reports to Pentonville and winds up in his jail cell.
However, in a fun fact, the song entitled, “A Lonely Heart To Give” was actually written by none other than former One Life to Live and General Hospital actor, Patrick J. Gibbons.
Daytime fans first met Gibbons as Sam Manning on One Life to Live. At the time, when he started on the soap, he was just 5-years-old. Gibbons played the part from 2010-2013 on ABC and Prospect Park’s editions of the show. Fast-forward to 2018, Gibbons shows up on General Hospital as Wyatt Hoover, the scout who seemed always be injured, but in the thick of the drama. Patrick had appeared on GH multiple times as Wyatt including: 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023.
Photo: ABC
FROM HIS GRANDMOTHER’S DEATH CAME THE INSPIRATION FOR HIS SONG
Now in 2026, General Hospital fans are getting to learn about another side of Gibbons’ talent as a songwriter and guitar player after “A Lonely Heart to Give” debuted today! Michael Fairman TV caught up with Patrick, who is now a senior at Penn State entering his final year as a finance major, to get the back-story of how his song wound up on GH!
Gibbons explained he wrote the song in honor of his grandmother who passed away a few years ago with whom he was, very, very close with. “Randomly, my grandmother had a downfall and passed away during the second semester of my sophomore year. I was in my dorm a lot and I was just playing with my guitar. And at the time, I was really into finger-style playing. I wrote the lyric and music to it (with a little help from my guitar teacher Lou), and my mom showed the rough demo to Frank Valentini (EP, General Hospital). He’s like an uncle to me. Frank loved it so much he said, “Finish that up. I want to hear the whole thing, and I want it on the show.”
MAKING MUSIC FOR GENERAL HOSPITAL
Gibbons and his parents took the next steps! “So now, all we needed was a female voice, because I thought that would fit the song well,” Patrick shared. “At the golf club we go to my parents were at a dinner. They liked the singer that was performing and spoke to her about the song, and she says she would like to bring it to her ‘boss’ who ended up being Eric Bazilian of the Hooters fame!” (Bazilian also wrote the smash hit song “One of Us” for Joan Osborne).
Next, “We went in the studio and recorded it and the song came together and it was beautiful. We loved it. They loved it at General Hospital and now they’re putting it the show and they are coming in with a piano, instead of a guitar. Paul Glass, the GH musical director, has been keeping us updated over the last six months of how it was coming along, and when it would air, and how GH put their own arrangement to it. I can’t wait to see and hear what they did with it.”
Photo: JPI
PATRICK’S ONE LIFE TO LIVE FAMILY
Everyone knows that the One Life to Live extended family share a very tight bond, and Patrick said he does stay in touch with a few of his former One Life to Live co-stars, especially those from the Manning family! “I stayed in touch with Kassie DePaiva (ex-Blair) and sent her little videos here and there. She was like my second mom for five years. We keep in contact with Kristen Alderson (ex-Starr) over X the most, and she can’t believe how big I’ve gotten. Like, none of them can! (laughs). I also loved working with Roger Howarth (ex-Todd) and Trevor St. John (ex-Todd and Victor Jr.), and to me since I was so young, they were just my friends, ‘Roger and Trevor,’ not Todd Manning or Victor Jr.”
It was a trip to California and a visit to Port Charles that ultimately led to Gibbons second soap role of Wyatt Hoover. Patrick explains, “In 2016, Frank Valentini invited us out to Los Angeles to visit the set of General Hospital. I think he heard me say, ‘This is so much fun. I miss being on the set.’ He goes, ‘You should come out. I’ll bring you on the show. We can make you a character.'”
A few years later, Patrick’s dream became a reality! “Then, by the summer of 2018, I was playing Wyatt, the scout, and shared scenes with Wes Ramsey (Peter August), and the best was when I shared a scene with Roger Howarth and Michael Easton (ex-John, OLTL and ex-Silas, Finn et al, GH), it was like chemistry from the old days.”
Photo: PGibbons
IT’S ALL IN THE NUMBERS
As to his future aspirations, it’s a career in the finance game that has piqued Gibbons’ real-life interest. But never say never to a return to acting. Patrick explained, “I’ve always enjoyed numbers. And on top of that, one of the biggest parts of finance is being personable and outgoing.”
He continued, “That’s one of the greatest skills I developed growing up. I really love the markets. I’m super interested. I’m never going to close the door to acting. I’m always open to that because I just love it so much. It’s such a great art.”
Take note! If there are any investment bankers or private equity folks among the GH faithful looking for a young analyst next year, Patrick’s DMs are open. You can find him on X at @PatrickJGibbons.”
So, what did you think of the song sung by Trina on today’s GH that was written by Patrick J. Gibbons? Did you enjoy Patrick’s performances as One Life’s Sam and GH’s Wyatt? Would you like to see him back on GH at some point? Let us know via the comment section.
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