All I can add is. I've only ever lived in the US. But, personally. I think the actors that ABC pick (especially the veteran ones from the 70s/80s/90s) have more charisma than the rest of the soap actors out there. Also, ABC daytime was more brazen and diverse in their storylines than CBS/NBC.

Did you miss Y&R of the 80s and 90s? Because they had great diversityin storylines and cast that was appreciated in various countries.

Can't explain it exactly, but it is a cultural thing. I started watching ABC soaps because my mother and my sister watched All My Children and General Hospital, with One Life to Live mixed in. I started watching Loving, The City and Port Charles on my own. However, it wasn't until 1996 when I started watching Days of our Lives, The Young and the Restless, Another World, The Bold and the Beautiful, Guiding Light and As The World Turns semi-consistently. Prior to 1996, I saw episodes/snippets here and there of the CBS/NBC shows. The reason 1996 stands out is because that's when we got DirecTV and at that time my family resided in Florida and we were able to receive the West Coast feeds of the networks. I remember watching Northwest Afternoon and the soap segment with Cindy Reinhardt. She, along with reading my soap mags Soap Opera Update and Soap Opera Digest (SOU was my fave) got me really interested in the behind the scenes of the soaps and spoilers.

The ABC soaps are what led me to discovering soap boards such as SoapZone and even this very website back in the day. There was just something about ABC Daytime that I found myself fascinated with. It didn't hurt that I was an ABC Primetime and ABC/FOX Saturday morning viewer too.

Did you miss Y&R of the 80s and 90s? Because they had great diversityin storylines and cast that was appreciated in various countries.

I didn't watch Y&R in the 80s. Because, I wasn't alive most of the time. But, 90s Y&R was amazing. And, it was one of my first soaps. (Y&R, AW, SB, and GL.)

I never got into shows like AMC, OLTL, or GH for the fact at the time I tested them in the mid-90s they seemed too light and comical to myself but now that AMC and OLTL have been gone I've gotten a fuller appreciation for those shows and have always held their shows in respect despite my preference for Y&R, ATWT, GL, and Days.

That said, most of all the ABC star hires have pretty much failed massively at Y&R (see Eden Riegel, Genie Francis etc) so I don't need the reason to hire more notable stars as most of them have failed. Overall though many other notable stars failed too namely Maura West so I think its partly the unfamiliarity to the Bell atmosphere and bad writing to blame.