AMC's Alec Musser out?

Rumors are swirling that AMC plans to axe the hunkalicious Alec Musser (Del), along with co-star Kelli Giddish (Di). ABC Soaps in Depth says this may happen just after December taping is wrapped. ABC reps deny it, but where there's smoke, there is often fire in these situations.

If this is indeed true, that will be make ABC's invalidation of SOAPNet's reality show "I Wanna Be a Soapstar" truly complete, as GH and OLTL have already banished their inherited winners, Mykel Shannon Jenkins and Mikey Jerome.

Musser won "Soapstar" in its second season, and he remains the only performer to be kept in the cast for a year or more. However, he's been woefully underused, both as an actor and a soap hunk--both of which he had talent for. Keep him, AMC!

Soaphunks.net Award Nominations Announced!

The nominations for the 8th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards were unveiled today at soaphunks.net. 16 categories, 80 nominations, and limitless soaphunkery!

Check out the Flash nominations show here, or just refer to the text list here. Complete year-by-year history of the awards is also online here.

A total of 37 soap hunks were recognized this year. "Passions" led all shows with 18 nominations, and ABC & NBC tied for the network lead with 31 noms each.

As always, voting begins December 1 and runs through New Year's Eve.

We will be chatting about this year's nominations in tonight's weekly chat at soaphunks.net/chat. Chat begins at 10 pm ET/7 pm PT. Please join us!

Mikey won't like this...

Mikey Jerome, who got a contract role on OLTL after winning SoapNet's "I Wanna Be a Soapstar 3," has now been quickly shown the door. That means of "Soapstar's" three hunky male winners, only one has remained with his show.

That would be the woefully underused Alec Musser at AMC. (Yo, AMC writers: I realize you are in one of your patented slumps where you can't write for anyone these days, but Musser could actually handle a storyline.)

Knowing the shoddy treatment the winners of "Soapstar" are headed toward, it makes it harder to root for anybody during this Soapnet series.

'Passions' same-day episodes on NBC.com

From my buddy Daniel Coleridge's blog at TVGuide.com:

NBC has decided to air same-day repeats of Passions online at NBC.com, starting today! New episodes will be available daily after 6 pm Pacific Time. This is the first time any daytime drama has made complete episodes available for streaming online.

Great news! So now if you miss all the gratuitous Harmony shirtlessness, you have been granted an Internet reprieve!

Another ATWT hunk shakeup

Even though he's only aired in a handful of episodes, ATWT's new Adam Munson (Tony nominee Matthew Morrison) is exiting the soap due to "scheduling conflicts." Replacing him is hottie Matt Cavenaugh, who played the title role in Broadway's Urban Cowboy and who was most recently seen as OLTL's Mark Soloman.

You can just feel the ATWT casting people amping up the pec quotient, now that the Mark Collier and Paul Leyden exits have been confirmed.