Did you know As the World Turns...
Jesse Lee Soffer and Jennifer Landon, As the World Turns
Did you know
As the World Turns toasts a half-century of daytime television on April 2? "I don't want to go too epic on you," says
Ellen Dolan (Margo), "but it's incredible that our show has been in American homes for 50 years. What a milestone!"
ATWT isn't waiting until spring to celebrate its birthday, though, since the CBS sudser just snapped up a slew of
Daytime Emmy nominations, including outstanding drama, outstanding writing team and five acting nods.
"When I heard my name [announced] on
The View, I was in shock," enthuses
Jennifer Landon (Gwen), who's a shoo-in to win outstanding younger actress. "Mom was so happy. She didn't even say any words. She just screamed!" No doubt her father — the late, great
Michael Landon — would be a proud papa, too.
"I was happy Jennifer was nominated because it would be weird if one of us was nominated and the other one wasn't," says outstanding-younger-actor contender
Jesse Lee Soffer (Will). "We have worked together
nonstop for the past year!"
Both young thesps submitted prenom reels of their finest hours during Gwen's heartbreaking baby-switch saga, which also helped earn supporting nods for
Jennifer Ferrin (Jennifer) and
Grayson McCouch (Dusty).
A supporting-actor nom additionally went to
ATWT's master of comic relief,
Trent Dawson (Henry). His prenom reel focused on Henry's bittersweet marriage to Katie (
Terri Colombino). "It was obvious that she was still in love with Mike (
Mark Collier) and we couldn't consummate the marriage," he recalls. "So I say, 'Let's go back to being friends,' though I was still in love with her." Ouch!
Dawson plans to submit "something funny" in his second reel for Emmy voters' consideration. "Why the hell not?" he grins. "Entertain 'em for a couple of minutes!" That shouldn't be hard, since
ATWT's talented cast has had us charmed for 50 years.
