At her peak, was Vanessa Marcil the biggest actress in daytime?

[JONNYSBRO]

I have to say nobody really brought as much buzz and hype to daytime as Vanessa Marcil did when she played Brenda. She started on GH at 22 and now she is close to 38. I will say I think Vanessa holds the title for the most soap magazine covers. She was on the magazine covers every week even if she was not the lead storyline. She was such a mega superstar and really I have not seen a young actress top Vanessa's status. Vanessa was never the best actress but she was so popular and so overly buzzed. Wouldn't you say at Vanessa's peak she was probably the biggest actress in daytime back in the 1990's?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

She did receive a lot of buzz in the 90's and she's DEFINETELY ratings gold for GH. Not even Genie Francis' return brought in the numbers that Marcil's short return brought in. However, I don't know if I'd go as far as to say she was the most popular and buzzed actress in all of daytime, though she certainly was insanely popular. The Sonny/Brenda/Jax triangle was definitely the most covered love triangle of the in the soap press back then though. I'd go as far as to say it was the definitive love triangle of soaps in the 90's.

[Quent]

You HAVE to be kidding.

[Shawn]

VM was certainly popular, but she was by no means in the same league as Deidre, Susan, or Kim. They are soap superstars. She was just a wannabe that refused to stop hitting the snooze button on her fifteen minutes of fame.

[Southofnowhere]

IMO Ms.Marcil isn't even in the top 3 In the Luke and Laura hayday of the early 80's Genie francis was the queen,if your talking the ruler of all daytime and the most know actress to even be a daytime star it's La Lucci. I would put Ms.Deidre hall at number 3. No question Ms.Marcil was huge and took millions of fans when she left GH and brought Million back when she returned and took them with her when she left the last time. I have no doudt unless they recast and ruin and character , when ever her primetime show comes to a end ABC will offer her a a couple Million bucks to return and she will once agian bring a million fans back to GH.

[DevotedToAMC]

Nope the biggest one is Susan Lucci

[JackPeyton]

VM, IMO, is def one of the biggest daytime stars. She is ratings gold, the media loves her,t he fans love her, the actors love her. However, she snot daytime sbiggest star. But if she stayed in daytime, esp on GH i think she would be.

Shes def better than the big 3 soap stars (dee, kim, susan)

[RuAsRuAnAu]

Everyone knows Luke & Laura, while all the others (even Lucci) pale in comparison, and always will. During the 80s, GH was averaged upwards of 11 million viewers per episode. Why can't ABC Daytime realize that Genie Francis & Denise Alexander are ratings gold?

[soapfan770]

I personally think Marcil being a powerhouse is more hype if anything else, though I liked Brenda they probably shouldn't have killed her off back in '98, cause after that up until her 2002 return it became IS BRENDA BACK?! ALL FREAKIN TIME IN THE SOAP MAGS!!! Good god, it was as bad as MARIA'S MEMORY RETURNS! if you know what I mean. Even though she's on Las Vegas now after sucky unworthy Emmy winning six month stint she pulled I still see some occasional recycled blind-item rumor about Brenda returing in Two Thousand and Never...

[JackPeyton]

well when GF did come abck and they did reuinte L&L ... it wasnt ratings gold. it didnt even compare to when Brenda came back.

[RuAsRuAnAu]

How many viewers did GH garner prior, during and after Marcil's 2002 return? Francis 2006 return could have attracted much more viewers if she were on the show for at least 10 weeks. Guza said he had a longer story for Luke/Laura & the kids, but it was Frons who wouldn't agree to a longer run.

[Cola]

LOL> I agee.

No way.

[Wales2004]

Luke and Laura are popular as a unit and probably not as much individually and even their portrayers are not as popular as their characters. Susan Lucci is popular individually and perhaps more so than her character, although her popularity stems from her role. More people probably know her name than that of Erika Kane (if they can even remember the name of her character these days).

I've never looked at GH's archived ratings to see the difference in them when either GF and/or TG did not appear on the show but they seemed to have done well enough to persist without them. I think GF and Rick Springfield and some of the former stars would bump the ratings for short periods of time depending on how they are featured but probably not consistently. I don't think GF and DA are ratings gold and I think the primary interest in GF is always going to be connected to Luke and Laura but I don't see Luke and Laura being able to maintain a significant increase in the ratings because the writing was a lot different at the time. Their characters existed in a time when the show was all about outlandish adventures. Even though there may be a great deal of nostalgia for the good old days, I'm not sure that the viewers would really buy any of that today nor would they really want it. They tried some of that with that deep freeze Stavros s/l and the final duel between him and Luke looked like a ridiculous version of Raiders of the Lost Ark, right down to the theme music. It was terribly silly but worth the head shaking in disbelief and the laughter at just how silly it was.

Then again ratings gold to me would be an increase of a whole point. Taking a show that might be in the 2.5 to 2.6 range to a 2.9 or 3 a couple of times is more along the lines of a gimmick, but if they went from that to a solid 3 then that's a different story.

[Adam]

I always myself found Marcil highly overrated and no I don't think she was ever the best actress in daytime, not even close. That being said, at her peak, she definitely always had that buzz factor that brought in ratings and of course $$$. In that sense yeah she was a pretty big actress. Talent though? No way.