I’m a long-time fan of the CBS-TV soap opera As The World Turns (ATWT), so I’m sad that it will be going off the air this September after an impressive 54 year run. Diminishing ratings have lead to it’s impending cancellation.
ATWT is hardly the only soap opera experiencing a smaller viewership in recent years. Ratings for US daytime serials have fallen drastically since the mid-1990s. America’s highest-rated soap, The Young and the Restless, has dropped from an 8.6 share in 1994 to a 3.7 share in 2009. No new daytime soap opera has been created since 1999, while many have been canceled. At the end of 2010, there will be six daytime soap operas on the three major networks, down from 12 in 1990 and a high of 19 in 1970.
Overall I’m pleased — though at times a bit frustrated — with the way ATWT writers have handled the program’s gay characters over the past three-plus years. The gay characters that have received the most screen time have been Luke Snyder (played by Van Hansis), Noah Mayer (Jake Silbermann) and Dr. Reid Oliver (Eric Sheffer Stevens). A few other minor gay characters and one bisexual character have come and gone.
Luke’s character was the first to come out. Noah became his first boyfriend, but not until Luke experienced the heartbreak of having his love rejected by his best friend (OOPS…Not a good idea to fall in love with your STRAIGHT best friend).
Luke and Noah made television history on August 17, 2007, when ATWT featured the first-ever gay male kiss in American daytime. (Did you realize that romantic kisses between men during prime time TV didn’t come about until May 2001? Until then handshakes and tender hugs were the only forms of affection shared by male couples.) The YouTube video of Like and Noah’s first kiss stands as one of the most viewed selections in the history of YouTube with over 2 million hits!
Earlier this year ATWT introduced Dr. Reid Oliver and well, he’s come between Luke and Noah. As of this writing, Noah is out of the picture and Luke and Reid are making a go of it as a couple. As the drama of it all! What would a soap opera be without a good love triangle? Its just not every day one sees a GAY love triangle depicted on TV — daytime or prime time.
So if you are a long-time viewer of ATWT, who would you like to see Luke “live happily ever after” with: Noah or Reid? I can live with either resolution to this triangle. I suppose I might be slightly prejudiced toward Luke and Reid making it is as a couple because onscreen it seems to me that they have a lot more “passion” between them than Luke and Noah ever did. What follows is a video clip to make my point…
Then again, I suppose Luke and Noah have decent onscreen chemistry as evidenced by this video clip…
So which couple would you prefer to see eloping to Iowa (or Canada) from Oakdale, Illinois to get married someday: Luke & Noah or Luke & Reid?
Luke and Reid because they have passion as well as friendship.
By: Dami on July 14, 2010
at 5:57 am
Luke & AND Noah.
By: Sara on August 26, 2010
at 3:57 pm
Luke and Reid ♥
By: Celia on August 27, 2010
at 12:44 pm
Luke and Reid have chemistry like no other soap couple gay or straight.
By: Michelle on August 29, 2010
at 9:44 pm
Luke and Reid, they are perfect together.
By: Deanne on September 1, 2010
at 6:59 am
If you would have asked me before Luke and Noah’s breakup, then I would have liked to say Luke and Noah.
But after see the relationship with Noah then Reid, I would say that
it brought out different sides of Luke, which I think is a plus.
But now at the end of ATWT, I would say Luke needs to find a different person to be with. After Noah’s fireworks accident last year, Noah kept beating up on Luke, using him as a scapegoat.
Though Reid’s relationship with Luke improved Luke’s character by leaps and bounds, However I felt it was a rebound relationship. So if the relationship would have had more time to play out, I felt that Luke and Reid wouldn’t have lasted and that a break up was inevitable.
To make my answer shorter: Neither at this point.
By: Steven on September 18, 2010
at 6:33 pm