It is a new year. Usually during this time, I’d list what I wanted to see on soap operas in the coming year with the hope that one or two things could happen. This year, I decided to change it up. I’m going to predict what I think will happen on each soap. What I expect to happen is a very different thing than what I wish would happen. I expect the majority of my predictions will be wrong, but this is just for fun.
Beyond The Gates
Dani and Bill Will Have Sex
Dani’s relationship with Andre is popular, but they are still playing with Dani’s connection to her ex-husband Bill. It is clear that while Dani is enjoying a different type of relationship, she does still feel a pull towards Bill. This leads me to believe that they will have sex in 2026. Perhaps it will happen after Bill finds out his current wife Hayley is trying to murder him. Or maybe it will be Anita’s cancer battle that leads them to comforting each other with their genitals. I just feel strongly that they will bone even if they don’t fully reunite.
Vanessa Will Find Out The Truth About Doug’s Death
In the past on soaps, a secret could be kept for years. In the modern soap opera landscape, fans do not have the patience to wait that long. Now the time table for a secret to be revealed is a year at most. That means it is extremely likely that Vanessa will learn that Joey ordered the murder of her husband Doug. Vanessa’s marriage to Doug was fraught, but she definitely won’t take the news well that her lover had her husband and the father of her children killed.
The big question is if Joey as a character can survive this. Since the beginning of the show, I’ve thought Joey had a shelf life. When you add in the factor of Joey having leverage over the Dupree family, it just makes me think it is untenable to keep him past this year. However, Michele Val Jean is friends with Jon Lindstrom and she may think she can keep Joey around for the third year of the show with the right writing.
Chelsea and Madison Will Break Up
Chelsea’s relationship with Madison feels like a starter girlfriend. They got together very fast and the relationship feels paper thin. The biggest argument they’ve had is offscreen drama with Chelsea being nice to Madison’s hippie mother. If they were invested in Madison as a character, we would have seen her mother. This leads me to believe this relationship is just until something better comes along. Chelsea is bisexual so her next relationship could be with a man or woman. I just hope it has a bigger impact than this placeholder pairing.
Smitty Will End Up In Danger
Smitty is a journalist and I think his Lois Lane antics will lead to him being a bottom-in-distress. There’s a few possibilities for characters that would kidnap or try to kill Smitty. The most obvious character would be Joey considering Smitty has confronted him about donating to Martin’s campaign and Joey’s involvement in covering up Martin killing that racist. There’s also Leslie who has been proven to be dangerous. If Smitty uncovered something about her, she wouldn’t hesitate to try to eliminate him. Another possibility would be dirty cop Marcel who works for Joey and is currently boinking Leslie. He could decide all on his own that Smitty is an annoyance that needs to go.
BTG Actor Most Likely To Be Fired: Marquita Goings
You likely thought I was going to predict that Alex Alegria would be fired. He is the weakest actor playing the most unpopular character. It just feels likely they aren’t ready to let this character go yet. This thinking made me shift my thinking to Marquita Goings whose character Hayley is being written into a corner.
Hayley is currently trying to murder her husband Bill which is something that will be hard for her to get out of. Her only family connection on the canvas is cousin and co-conspirator Randy. Her only friend is assistant Caroline who won’t want to be friends with her after finding out the truth about her. The only way to keep Hayley is if she gets pregnant and carries the baby to term with a character that matters. Having a baby can really save a character that by all rights should have fallen off a cliff like a Disney villain. It worked for Ava Jerome on General Hospital.
The Bold and the Beautiful
The RJ Recast Is Going To Flop
Is it fair to predict a recast is going to flop when they literally just started? No. Yet my gut feeling is it will go exactly like the last attempt to recast RJ. They’ll put him in a tepid pairing that is incest adjacent with Electra and he won’t have a real personality. He’ll just take off his shirt a few times. The hyped up rivalry with Will will go nowhere. And the new actor Brayan Nicoletti will be fired next year when Brad Bell is bored with him. I would love to be wrong about this.
Bill Will Sabotage Forrester Creations
Whenever Forrester Creations has a rival fashion house, that fashion house steals designs from them. It is Brad Bell’s go to story. The thing is Eric has been hired as the lead designer of Logan and he has too much pride and integrity to steal designs especially from the company he created. That leaves Bill to do something nasty. If they wanted to be creative for a change, Bill could impact Forrester Creations’ relationship with retailers or create a scandal since he owns a media company. I just don’t expect Bill to be hands off or ethical. He is going to do something underhanded.
Sheila Will Go Fully Crazy Again
There’s no question that Sheila will go off the rails when she finds out her husband Deacon is falling in love with his therapist Taylor. The only question is to what degree. Will it be mild like when Sheila made sure Brooke had alcoholic champagne? Or will the loon who killed a man with bees in her 2002 return? I’m predicting the latter. Brad Bell must know he’s had Sheila being nice for too long. Having one of the most famous soap opera villains serving breadsticks is like owning a Ferrari and not driving it. The time has come for Sheila to be dangerous again.
Liam Will Cheat On Hope
After the mannequin debacle, Brad Bell knew he couldn’t have Liam cheat for a while. That’s likely why Liam was celibate after Hope divorced him. Now that he’s remarried to Hope, Brad must be itching for him to cheat again. Thomas is working on Hope’s fashion line again so it would be easy to create a situation where Liam misunderstands something and cheats again. I would prefer Hope do the cheating, but I know it is more likely to be Liam this go around.
B&B Actor Most Likely To Be Fired: Murielle Hilaire
Brad Bell has a track record of getting rid of both Black characters and women from foreign countries. Unfortunately for Murielle, she is in both categories. I don’t even think Daphne marrying Carter will help since relationships are paper thin on B&B and it would be very in Brad’s wheelhouse for Daphne to just decide she wants to be in Paris and leave.
Days of Our Lives
Stephanie Will Get Pregnant
Unfortunately, The Powers That Be really want Stephanie and Alex to be a couple and I think that means a baby is going to happen sooner rather than later. There’s also the factor of Kayla and Steve being the only Days supercouple to not have grandchildren. Stephen Nichols and Mary Beth Evans aren’t getting any younger so it is past time for them to be grandparents on the show. I just wish Stephanie were in a better pairing, but it is what it is.
Xander and Sarah Will Reunite
The pattern with Xander and Sarah is he does something terrible, she leaves him and then takes him back. The difference this time around is this chemistry less pairing with Brady. Linsey Godfrey and Eric Martsolf don’t have romantic chemistry onscreen. They don’t even have sibling chemistry. If I saw them out together, I’d assume they had partners that went to the bathroom because they certainly couldn’t be together.
The problem is that Days shoots so far ahead that it will be months before they realize that Brady and Sarah suck as a pairing and put her back with Xander. This is why they need to get the taping schedule to not be ten months ahead. When they were six months ahead, that still wasn’t great, but it is better than being almost a year ahead of what’s airing. I just hope Xander is back with Sarah by summer and not fall.
Abigail Will Be Resurrected
We know from Billy Flynn that the scab writers were planning to resurrect Abigail when Ron Carlivati returned to work and turned it into the Cat story. Now that Ron isn’t around and his outline isn’t in play anymore, I think the idea of Abigail returning will be revisited. I don’t see it happening in the first half of the year considering we are expecting another high profile resurrection shortly, but there’s always towards the end of the year. And they should want to give Connor Floyd something juicy to play to help establish him in the role.
Days Actor Most Likely To Get Fired: Rachel Boyd
Rachel Boyd is in the same boat as Marquita Goings on Beyond The Gates in that the current story makes it hard to see them lasting past this year. Sophia is currently in the looney bin, manipulating troubled little Rachel and she wants her baby back. There’s also the factor of Days firing four actors who are connected to Sophia’s story. This makes me think she leaves before Holly, Tate, Johnny and Chanel. If I’m right, I will be sad to see Rachel Boyd go because she’s really grown on me.
General Hospital
Kelly Thiebaud Will Leave Again
I do believe that the past is prologue and Kelly Thiebaud will leave again. All of Kelly’s contract stints on GH lasted around two years and then she bounces to look for greener pastures. There’s no reason to believe this time will be any different. Some actors just like to flounce in and out. Not everyone is like Nancy Lee Grahn who is happy to stay on a soap opera. Nancy has talked about how her friends who were on primetime shows struggle to get work now and she’s still employed.
The question is if Kelly leaves this year or next year, what happens to Jason? Would Britt and Jason ride off into the sunset together? Would they have to create a new love interest for him? I know they wouldn’t put Jason with Elizabeth because that would be a sign of the apocalypse.
Elizabeth Only Gets a Story If Frank Hires a Friend
The show is only interested in Elizabeth if there’s a man in her age range they want her to bang so he can be popular. That means the only hope for Elizabeth not being a talk to character this year is if Frank Valentini into Jason Tam or David Fumero at Whole Foods. I wouldn’t mind it if it were Jason Tam. He is on my mental list of actors that could call Frank up for work and I wouldn’t be mad about it. We just have to pray someone really needs that electric bill paid and Frank thinks he’d look good with Rebecca Herbst.
There Will Be a Retcon Relative For Someone
Every year since Chris Van Etten ascended to co-head writer, there has been a retcon relative introduced on the show. Last year, it was Gio being revealed as Dante and Brook Lynn’s son. The year before that was the retcon of Sasha being Robert and Holly’s daughter. It is a consistent thing we can count on every year so I’m just going to wildly speculate about what could happen this year.
They could make Sidwell into a retcon Cassadine. Or reveal he’s a relative of Cesar Faison. I thought about if they revealed Kai is Justus’s son, but they don’t care enough about Kai to do that. They could reveal that Silas isn’t Willow and Nelle’s father. Nina was in a coma for twenty years so the retcon that she cheated on Silas and forgot about it isn’t the wildest retcon. No one cared about Silas so it isn’t like there would be backflash if they did that. This would only be a possibility if there were a fiftysomething actor that Frank Valentini really wanted to hire.
Michael and Willow Will Have Hate Sex
I can already hear the boos and see the tomato emojis from saying this. I already know what the response to saying this will be. It will sound something along these lines: “Alan, Michael is never going to bless Willow with his eight inches ever again. When he finds out that Willow was gaslighting Sasha, he’s going to take out a rocket launcher and blow her up! Then he’ll passionately kiss Jacinda and Sasha will run in and they’ll have a polyamourous makeout session. And Gio will be playing a violin cover of ‘Party Rock Anthem’ by LMFAO right next to Willow’s smoldering remains. It will be glorious.”
My response to that is Michael and Willow having hate sex is not a matter of if. It is a matter of when. It is clear that Michael wants to punish Willow for how she’s hurt him and their children, but from his loverboy in the window moment, he’s clearly still in love with her. There’s also the matter of his relationship with Jacinda being a stopgap pairing to the point that even Jacinda herself knows it won’t last.
Rory Gibson’s best chemistry is with Katelyn MacMullen who has ascended to leading lady status on GH. Do y’all honestly think they are going to do nothing with that? It would be foolish to not play with that. Any soap producer worth their salt would look at the chemistry and talent of the portrayers and toxicity of the characters and know they have years of stuff to play out with these two.
Drew Is Going To Mess With Portia’s Paternity Test
I think Portia admitting that Drew was blackmailing her will have him looking for payback. She has already been suspended from the hospital so he can’t hurt her on that front. This leaves the paternity test as a means of revenge. If Curtis is the father and Drew has it changed to Isaiah, Portia unknowingly lives out a lie and Curtis gets hurt which is a bonus for Drew.
Lucas and Brad Will Have Sex
When Lucas finds out that Marco is up to his neck in his father’s criminal behavior, he’ll be aghast and likely willing to seek comfort in Brad’s arms and crotch. Even though Carly hates Brad for his role in stealing Wiley, I think even she’d take Brad as the lesser of two evils of romantic prospects for her brother. Brad’s morals are loose, but no one is getting shot in his living room and he’s not an accessory to the chief-of-police being held captive.
GH Actor Most Likely To Get Fired: Chris McKenna
I considered several actors for this spot and the most realistic option at the moment is Chris McKenna. Brennan’s love interest Carly is plotting against him for his role in turning her daughter Josslyn into a killer and a WSB agent. The way Carly looks like she wants to beat Brennan to death with a baseball bat is truly comical. There’s also that they are toying with pairing Carly with Valentin who wants Brennan dead or in prison. The whole story feels like the end of the road for Brennan. Unless they want to put Brennan with Nina, Chris McKenna seems like he’s going to be out of a job this year.
The Young and the Restless
Patty Will Return
The list of psychos from the past that Josh Griffith hasn’t used is dwindling. He can’t use Isabella because Paul isn’t around. He doesn’t care enough about Nina to resurrect David Kimble. That leaves Tricia Dennison and Patty Williams. If Josh wanted to generate a story for Victoria, he’d choose Tricia, the woman who killed Ryan at the altar. I think it is more likely to be Patty. She is tied to the history of Jack and Diane and the majority of fans will remember her most recent stint played by Stacy Haiduk.
Sienna Will Be Put With Nick
I don’t trust this supposed slow motion reunion of Sharon and Nick. I remember Josh Griffith teasing he was going to put Sharon back with Adam for literally two years and nothing came of it. There’s also the factor of the show pretending like Nick is still thirty years old so why wouldn’t they take his son’s love interest and put her with him instead? And Sienna already took Sharon’s spot as the female lead of Matt returning so she might as well snatch Sharon’s reunion with the love of her life away from her. Ugh.
Y&R Actor Most Likely To Get Fired: Lucas Adams
If the joyous event of a regime change were to happen, the most likely Y&R actor to be fired would be Billy Flynn. Since we are more likely to have the status quo, Lucas Adams is the most in danger. This story of Noah sleeping with the wife of his mother’s rapist hasn’t been popular with fans. I was someone who defended Rory Gibson’s portrayal of Noah, but I am not inclined to do so with Lucas. I just think there’s too many things going against this return. When you think about the likelihood that they’ll need to free up money so they can have Michael Easton play the next big bad billionaire, Lucas is the easy one to get fired.
Dispatches From Soap Land
*I initially thought Willow being Drew’s shooter on GH was the boring choice, but it already is giving Katelyn MacMullen fun material to play so I’m willing to go along with the show doing the obvious thing. Scout still would have been the funnier choice.
*Michele Val Jean was smart to have Anita get cancer now. If they would have had Anita getting diagnosed with breast cancer in April of last year, that would have been crazy. You need a foundation to play a story like this and I think if all the beats are played, it will only strengthen Beyond The Gates.
*If Days fired Raven Bowens, Carson Boatman, Leo Howard and Ashley Puzemis so they could hire some big name from the past, it had better be someone great to make it worth it. Otherwise, it is crazy to fire most of the young characters on your show.
