Soap Talk
Encyclopedia
Soap Talk was a television talk show on SOAPnet
hosted by Lisa Rinna
and Ty Treadway
. It debuted in 2002 and ended in 2006. The reason for the show's cancellation was due to SOAPnet expanding their programming away from a soap opera
-related focus to expand their network's ratings and declining ratings.
was chosen to host the show after executives at ABC (who owned SOAPnet) were impressed by her on-screen auditions to take over the spot left open by Kathie Lee Gifford
on Live with Regis and Kathy Lee
. She was actually Regis Philbin
's first choice, but the network went with then ABC Daytime
soap star Kelly Ripa
. Lisa also had a background in soaps. She was Billie Reed
on NBC Daytime
's Days of our Lives
in the 1990s, as well as a stint on Melrose Place. Ty Treadway
was starring at One Life to Live
at the time.
The show taped at ABC
Prospect Studios in Hollywood, California. Ty lived on the East Coast and had to fly in every weekend. The show taped three episodes on Saturday and then three more on Sundays before changing it to taping on Friday and Saturday.
The show's format was almost always the same. Much like Live with Regis & Kelly, Lisa and Ty would come out, take a seat, drink coffee and discuss what was going in the world. Topics ranged from the world of soap operas, TV in general, movies, celebrities, and the lives of the two hosts. After that a soap star would come out and give an interview. They would also do cooking segments from time to time as well as fashion shows, instructions from experts on skin and heath care, and would often have editors from Soap Opera Digest
come out to discuss the state of daytime.
On the occasion that either Ty or Lisa would be gone, another soap star would fill in. Alison Sweeney
, Melissa Reeves
and Catherine Hickland
often filled in for Lisa, among others including Melody Thomas Scott
and Hillary B. Smith
. Extra
's Jerry Penacoli
or AMC
's Cameron Mathison
would often fill in for Ty.
The show frequently went on location as well. Soap Talk filmed a week's worth of episodes in Hawaii
and would also film live from Super Soap Weekend
at Disney World in Florida
and at Disney's California Adventure
in Anaheim, California. Lisa & Ty also hosted an annual show for ABC Daytime that would air in place of The View called ABC Soaps Present: Soap Secrets.
Soap Talk would occasionally dedicate an entire episode to a single soap opera. In celebration of SOAPNet getting Another World
reruns, Linda Dano
hosted an episode full of former stars of the soap. In celebration of having reruns of the TV show Dallas
, they had the entire cast reunite. As shows would celebrate anniversaries they would do these type of shows and sometimes bring in ex-members from the shows such as Days of our Lives
, General Hospital
, One Life to Live
, and The Young and The Restless
.
Soap Talk was also used by soap stars to make the first public announcement of various personal news. Actress Jennifer Finnigan
announced on the soap that she would be leaving her three-time Daytime Emmy Award
-winning role of Bridget Forrester
on The Bold and the Beautiful
. Tracey E. Bregman
from The Young and the Restless
premiered her fashion line on the show as well. Alison Sweeney
revealed she was having a baby boy.
SOAPnet
SOAPnet is an American cable television channel that broadcasts current and past soap operas and primetime dramas, along with some original programming. The channel launched on January 20, 2000, and is owned by Disney-ABC Television Group, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
hosted by Lisa Rinna
Lisa Rinna
Lisa Deanna Rinna is an American television host and actress. She is known for her roles as Billie Reed on Days of our Lives, Taylor McBride on Melrose Place, and most recently as the host of SoapNet's Soap Talk.-Acting:...
and Ty Treadway
Ty Treadway
Tyrus Richard "Ty" Treadway is a game show host, actor and talk show host. Treadway had co-hosted Soap Talk with Lisa Rinna.-Biography:Ty was born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey to Richard and Mary Lou Treadway...
. It debuted in 2002 and ended in 2006. The reason for the show's cancellation was due to SOAPnet expanding their programming away from a soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
-related focus to expand their network's ratings and declining ratings.
History
Lisa RinnaLisa Rinna
Lisa Deanna Rinna is an American television host and actress. She is known for her roles as Billie Reed on Days of our Lives, Taylor McBride on Melrose Place, and most recently as the host of SoapNet's Soap Talk.-Acting:...
was chosen to host the show after executives at ABC (who owned SOAPnet) were impressed by her on-screen auditions to take over the spot left open by Kathie Lee Gifford
Kathie Lee Gifford
Kathie Lee Gifford is an American television host, singer, songwriter and actress, best known for her 15-year run on the talk show Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, which she co-hosted with Regis Philbin...
on Live with Regis and Kathy Lee
Live with Regis and Kelly
Live! with Kelly is a syndicated American television morning talk show, hosted by Kelly Ripa. The show has aired since 1983 in New York City and 1988 nationwide. Tony Pigg has been the show's announcer since its inception...
. She was actually Regis Philbin
Regis Philbin
Regis Francis Xavier Philbin is an American media personality, actor and singer, known for hosting talk and game shows since the 1960s. Philbin is often called "the hardest working man in show business" and holds the Guinness World Record for the most time spent in front of a television camera...
's first choice, but the network went with then ABC Daytime
ABC Daytime
ABC Daytime is a programming block on the ABC Network which has historically encompassed soap operas, game shows and talk shows.-Schedule:...
soap star Kelly Ripa
Kelly Ripa
Kelly Ripa is an American actress and television host. Since February 2001, she has served as the co-host of talk show Live with Regis and Kelly, along with Regis Philbin and now solo host of Live! With Kelly...
. Lisa also had a background in soaps. She was Billie Reed
Billie Reed
Billie Reed is a fictional character from the NBC soap opera Days of our Lives. The character is no longer used in the current storylines. Created by writer Sheri Anderson, the role was originated by actress Lisa Rinna on September 21, 1992. Krista Allen stepped into the role from 1996-1999. Lisa...
on NBC Daytime
NBC Daytime
NBC Daytime is the schedule for the NBC television network's daytime television programming which consists of morning news program Today and soap opera Days of our Lives...
's Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
in the 1990s, as well as a stint on Melrose Place. Ty Treadway
Ty Treadway
Tyrus Richard "Ty" Treadway is a game show host, actor and talk show host. Treadway had co-hosted Soap Talk with Lisa Rinna.-Biography:Ty was born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey to Richard and Mary Lou Treadway...
was starring at One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
at the time.
The show taped at ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
Prospect Studios in Hollywood, California. Ty lived on the East Coast and had to fly in every weekend. The show taped three episodes on Saturday and then three more on Sundays before changing it to taping on Friday and Saturday.
The show's format was almost always the same. Much like Live with Regis & Kelly, Lisa and Ty would come out, take a seat, drink coffee and discuss what was going in the world. Topics ranged from the world of soap operas, TV in general, movies, celebrities, and the lives of the two hosts. After that a soap star would come out and give an interview. They would also do cooking segments from time to time as well as fashion shows, instructions from experts on skin and heath care, and would often have editors from Soap Opera Digest
Soap Opera Digest
Soap Opera Digest is a weekly magazine covering American daytime soap operas. It features onscreen and offscreen news about the series, interviews with and articles about performers, storyline summaries and analysis, and related promotional information...
come out to discuss the state of daytime.
On the occasion that either Ty or Lisa would be gone, another soap star would fill in. Alison Sweeney
Alison Sweeney
Alison Sweeney is an American dramatic actress and reality show host. Sweeney is best known for her portrayal of Samantha "Sami" Gene Brady on NBC's long running Days of our Lives, a role she has played under contract with the show since January 6, 1993...
, Melissa Reeves
Melissa Reeves
Melissa Reeves is a long-time American actress. She is perhaps best known for playing Jennifer Horton, a role she originated in 1985 on the long-running NBC series Days of our Lives -Personal life:She was born in Eatontown, New Jersey.Since March 1990, Reeves has been married to soap opera actor...
and Catherine Hickland
Catherine Hickland
Catherine Hickland is a singer and an actress best known for roles in soap operas broadcast in the United States, most notably as the character of Lindsay Rappaport on ABC's One Life to Live, a character which she has portrayed since 1998.- Early life :Hickland was born and raised in Fort...
often filled in for Lisa, among others including Melody Thomas Scott
Melody Thomas Scott
Melody Thomas Scott is an American actress, best known for playing Nikki Newman on the soap opera The Young and the Restless since 1979.-Early Training:Melody Thomas Scott has been a working actress since the age of three...
and Hillary B. Smith
Hillary B. Smith
Hillary Bailey Smith is an American actress.Born as Hillary Bailey, Smith attended Dana Hall School, Pine Manor College and Sarah Lawrence College....
. Extra
Extra (TV series)
Extra is an American entertainment television news program covering events and celebrities which debuted on September 5, 1994 in syndication. It is produced at Victory Studios in Glendale, California by Telepictures Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television Distribution...
's Jerry Penacoli
Jerry Penacoli
Jerry Penacoli is an American actor and entertainment reporter.-Reporting career:Before going national, Penacoli served as a newscaster and talk-show host in several markets, starting with Jacksonville, Florida, then, WTVJ, Miami, where Jerry served as host of PM Magazine in the early 1980s, then...
or AMC
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
's Cameron Mathison
Cameron Mathison
Cameron Arthur Mathison is a Canadian actor and television host, perhaps best known for his role as Ryan Lavery on the ABC soap opera All My Children — a role which he has played from December 15, 1997 to 2002, and from 2003 to 2011...
would often fill in for Ty.
The show frequently went on location as well. Soap Talk filmed a week's worth of episodes in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
and would also film live from Super Soap Weekend
Super Soap Weekend
ABC Super Soap Weekend was an event, organized in conjunction with Disney and ABC to bring soap opera actors from the various ABC shows to visit and mingle with their fans....
at Disney World in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and at Disney's California Adventure
Disney's California Adventure
Disney California Adventure, or simply California Adventure, is a theme park in Anaheim, California, adjacent to Disneyland Park and part of the larger Disneyland Resort. It opened on February 8, 2001 as Disney's California Adventure Park. The park is owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and...
in Anaheim, California. Lisa & Ty also hosted an annual show for ABC Daytime that would air in place of The View called ABC Soaps Present: Soap Secrets.
Soap Talk would occasionally dedicate an entire episode to a single soap opera. In celebration of SOAPNet getting Another World
Another World (TV series)
Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...
reruns, Linda Dano
Linda Dano
Linda Dano is an American soap opera actress. A longtime performer in daytime dramas and a bestselling author and businesswoman, Dano was married for over 20 years to advertising executive Frank Attardi....
hosted an episode full of former stars of the soap. In celebration of having reruns of the TV show Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
, they had the entire cast reunite. As shows would celebrate anniversaries they would do these type of shows and sometimes bring in ex-members from the shows such as Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
, General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
, One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
, and The Young and The Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
.
Soap Talk was also used by soap stars to make the first public announcement of various personal news. Actress Jennifer Finnigan
Jennifer Finnigan
Jennifer Christina Finnigan is a 3-time Daytime Emmy Award winning Canadian actress, perhaps best known for her role as Bridget Forrester in the American soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful from 2000 to 2004. She appeared in the ABC sitcom Better with You.-Biography:Finnigan was born in Montreal...
announced on the soap that she would be leaving her three-time Daytime Emmy Award
Daytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...
-winning role of Bridget Forrester
Bridget Forrester
Dr. Bridget Forrester is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. The role has been played by various actresses, including Agnes Bruckner, Jennifer Finnigan and Emily Harrison...
on The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS Daytime. It premiered on March 23, 1987....
. Tracey E. Bregman
Tracey E. Bregman
Tracey E. Bregman is an German-American soap opera actress. She is best known for the role of Lauren Fenmore on The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful and for her role as Sarah Smythe on The Young and the Restless .-Personal life:She was born...
from The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
premiered her fashion line on the show as well. Alison Sweeney
Alison Sweeney
Alison Sweeney is an American dramatic actress and reality show host. Sweeney is best known for her portrayal of Samantha "Sami" Gene Brady on NBC's long running Days of our Lives, a role she has played under contract with the show since January 6, 1993...
revealed she was having a baby boy.