DAYS' Foster, OLTL's Gregory lead nominees for 13th Annual Soaphunks.net Awards

DAYS freshman Bren Foster and OLTL sophomore David A. Gregory both scored six nominations to lead the 13th Annual Soaphunks.net Award nominations, announced Wednesday at soaphunks.net. 80 nominations were announced covering 16 categories.

Both Foster and Gregory placed in the top category--Best Hunk--along with B&B's Adam Gregory, OLTL's Josh Kelly, and AMC's Jordi Vilasuso.

This is the first year since 2006 where four of the five Best Hunk nominees are competing in that category for the first time. Only OLTL's Gregory has previously been up for Best Hunk, having won the title last year.

A total of 36 soap hunks received nominations this year. With 24 nominations, OLTL led all shows for the fourth consecutive year, helping ABC lead the networks with 38 nominations. NBC scored 22 nods, with CBS at 20.

Other points of interest:

• In AMC's final broadcast year on ABC, the sudser managed five nominations, three of them going to Vilasuso. Cameron Mathison's nod (for Best Hunk Over 40) marks his 38th career nomination, lengthening the record he already held. And the soap itself picked up its eighth nomination for Hunkiest Soap, an award it hasn't been up for since 2007. AMC finishes with a total of 116 nominations and (thus far) 22 wins.
• Austin Peck's 22nd career nomination (Most Shamefully Clothed for ABC's OLTL) makes the actor the first hunk in history to pick up a nomination for appearances on all three networks. Peck's 21 previous nominations came from NBC's DAYS and CBS' ATWT.
• AMC's Jordi Vilasuso sets a record this year for the longest gap between nominations. His three nods in 2011 are his first in a decade, since receiving two bids in 2001 for GL.
• By referring to him on the show SEVEN TIMES as having won the fictional title of "Llanview's Best Arms," OLTL was clearly shouting-out to star David Fumero's win in that category last year in the Soaphunks.net Awards. And 2011 finds him up in that category yet again, with a record on the line: A win would give him four victories in that category, which would be the most all-time.
• Just three months shy of his 17th birthday, OLTL's teen heartthrob Andrew Trischitta becomes the youngest nominee ever with his three nominations.

The entire list of nominations is available online. Complete year-by-year history of the awards is also available online.

As always, voting begins December 1 at soaphunks.net.

Jordi Vilasuso returns to daytime; Adam Mayfield exits

Former Guiding Light hunk, and Daytime Emmy winner, Jordi Vilasuso is returning to the soap world.

Vilasuso is set to join the ranks of All My Children in the new role of Griffin Castillo. Vilasuso's first airdate is scheduled for November 15, meaning he'll pop up just in time for November sweeps. Vilasuso's gorgeousness helped raise the temperature in Springfield. Let's hope he does the same in Pine Valley.

While Vilasuso remains one of this blogger's favorite soap hunks of all-time, fans of Greg Vaughan may be disappointed to know he also tested for the role of Griffin.


As if by fate, AMC will add a hunk while booting another. Adam Mayfield, who has spent just over a year in the role of Scott Chandler, has been fired. Mayfield made his debut in April 2009 and received a Soaphunks.net Award nomination for Hunkiest Newcomer that year.

Don't expect his character to disappear, though. It's been reported that the role of Scott Chandler will be recast, in order to take him in a "new direction."


So long Adam...and hello Jordi!