Susan Lucci ‘made peace’ with All My Children end

Former queen of daytime soap Susan Lucci has said she has come to terms with All My Children.

The ABC daytime soap was brought to an end last year by the broadcaster after 41 years on-air and over 10,000 episodes. All My Children was axed along with sister soap One Life to Live both of which were created by Agnes Nixon. ABC claimed the axe was due to declining ratings for both serials although OLTL was actually the channel’s top-rated soap at the time of its demise.

Susan Lucci played Erica Kane in AMC for all 41 years the soap was on-air and has previously been critical of the decision to axe the soap. However, the actress has now come to terms with its demise. Lucci, speaking to Parade, said “It really has taken a year for me to comprehend that it’s in the past, but I’ve made peace with it…Life goes on and I’m moving onto the next thing, but I hope the soaps that are still running will thrive. They have millions of loyal viewers.”

It was originally planned for AMC and OLTL to continue online in a deal signed by ABC with producers Prospect Park but unfortunately funding issues resulted in the planned continuations being scrapped. The demise of the two soaps has left a question mark hanging over the daytime genre as a whole in America.

ABC’s last remaining soap General Hospital and NBC‘s Days of our Lives are both seen as being vulnerable to the axe within the next few years. Meanwhile the departures of original cast members Ronn Moss and Susan Flannery from CBS‘s The Bold and the Beautiful will be closely monitored to see if ratings are impacted by the high profile exits. Top-rated soap The Young and the Restless also faces upheaval as new showrunners make their mark by writing out a string of characters which could impact on its ratings.

Susan Lucci will next be seen in Lifetime‘s new drama series Devious Maids by Marc Cherry. The pilot was originally developed by ABC who opted not to pick the drama up as a series which resulted in Lifetime acquiring the project instead. Devious Maids will premier on Lifetime next year and will also star Brianna Brown, Mariana Klaveno and Tom Irwin.