Soap Opera Scoops

Digesting Soap Opera Scoops

A scoop is defined as a ‘news story that no other reporter has discovered yet!’ In the soap opera genre, this can simply mean a news tidbit about the soaps that no one else has figured out yet. Scoops include, but are not limited to:

• Casting news
• Storyline news
• Writer/producer changes
• Location shoots
• Interviews

Essentially, soap opera scoops are the new items that soap fans want to read about. They are interesting tidbits that will whet their appetites for more. Scoops provide insights into the actors and actresses that fans admire or enjoy watching. Maurice Bernard, for example, opened up about his own bipolar disorder condition long before his character was diagnosed with it. Interviews with Bernard were gobbled up by fans inside and outside the industry as he shared a very private part of himself and the struggles he faced. Understanding the actor allows fans a greater understanding of the character.

Soap Opera Central

Soap Opera Central offers fans access to ratings, recaps, soap opera scoops and spoilers as well as news, message boards and blogs. It’s a site built by fans of soap operas, for fans of soap operas. The great thing about Soap Opera Central is that it’s free to register and use.

Soap Opera Digest

Soap Opera Digest was not the first soap opera magazine, but is among the most well known. The tabloid-esque style of the magazine is offset by the feature articles and genuine love for the genre. Network executives enjoy a symbiotic relationship with the magazine, often promoting storylines by agreeing to interviews with actors they want featured on the cover.

Soap Opera Weekly

Soap Opera Weekly is the tabloid-like sister publication of Soap Opera Digest. The weekly is often splashed with tabloid headlines, misleading blurbs and interesting photos. But it does come with at least one new article, soap opera scoops and some previews of upcoming soap episodes.

These three sites are also ideal because they are not devoted to one soap opera over another. Coverage of Days of Our Lives, the Bold and the Beautiful and All My Children is about equal and on par with coverage of other daytime (and in some cases nighttime soap operas).

Great Daytime Scoops

The best daytime scoops of the last decade include Genie Francis returning to General Hospital after a very public breakup with the producers of the show and Laura’s subsequent insanity jaunt. What about the tipoff that many veterans would die in the 2003 Days of Our Lives serial murder storyline? Shock and horror met the idea that actress Frances Reid would be let go and then the bigger scoop came when fans learned that all of the veterans would be returning.

The return of fan favorite Robin Scorpio to General Hospital after several years away along with the recasting of Lucky Spencer (Jonathon Jackson’s Lucky ‘perished in a fire’ and returned first as Jacob Young and later as Greg Vaughn). The best scoops are a lot like the soap operas they are about – they should make fans feel something. Otherwise, they’re just another sound bite.