Soap Opera Digest February 27, 2023

Despite leaving Salem as Sonny Kiriakis, Zach Tinker doesn’t see it as the end of the line. “What’s nice about soaps is you’re not ever really gone unless they recast you,” he points out. “So it’s nice knowing that at least, for now, I am still Sonny.” Yet, Tinker admits he’ll miss being a part of the soap he joined back in 2022. “I’ll miss the people most of all,” he notes, citing the crew and behind-the-scenes personnel as well as the actors. “DAYS is a good bunch of people. That was the crappiest part of leaving, leaving my friends.” Tinker grew close to a number of castmates during his run on DAYS. “I’m going to miss Greg [Rikaart, Leo; Kevin, Y&R] a lot. I’m going to miss Billy [Flynn, Chad] a…

Nick shows up at Society just as Sally and Chloe are concluding their meeting. Nick offers to buy dinner for the ladies but Chloe wants to get home to her family and leaves. Nick notices that Sally is riddled with anxiety over the pending paternity test results. “Sally definitely is really good at creating stress in her life,” notes Courtney Hope (Sally). “She has an overactive mind anyway, but waiting for the outcome of this paternity test is almost becoming unbearable.” Nick reminds Sally that the test results most likely won’t come in for another day and suggests they have dinner. However, when the discussion turns to her upcoming meeting with Jill, Sally gets even more stressed. “Not having a job in this economy when you’re bringing a baby into the…

The long wait for “Sprina” fans is finally over: This week, the show’s premier young lovebirds kiss for the first time. When Tabyana Ali (Trina) got the script for the scenes in question, “I screamed audibly,” she reports. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s happening!’ And what’s so funny is that I guess Nick [Chavez, Spencer] and I were looking at the script at the same time because as soon as I finished reading it, he texted me. He was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ And I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ And we were like, ‘We’ve gotta make this perfect!’” The buss takes place as Trina is reeling from the discovery that Curtis, not Taggert, might be her biological father. “She feels lied to and betrayed,” sums up Ali. “For Trina,…

After Douglas’s emotional custody hearing, Steffy and Finn bring him into their home. “Douglas threw everyone for a loop, and when the judge asked him what he wants to do, he blurted out that he wants to live with his Aunt Steffy,” says her portrayer, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood. “It’s a huge moment and everyone is floored.” Needless to say Thomas is not thrilled. “Thomas thinks he should get what he wants, when he wants it, at all times,” notes the actress. “Thomas gets rather entitled, telling Steffy that if he can’t have full custody of Douglas, then she is the next best person because he will be able to see Douglas as much as he wants to, whenever he wants to. Finn and Steffy are like, ‘What are you even talking…

John and Steve arrive at Statesville with a plan to even the score with Orpheus, the man they hold responsible for the deaths of Marlena, Kayla and Kate. “It’s the middle of the night, and Orpheus goes to the infirmary,” sets up his portrayer, George DelHoyo. “John and Steve are dressed like orderlies. Orpheus asks a question and John turns around. Then Patch comes out. Initially, Orpheus has a typical sardonic response to their arrival. Then they tell him, ‘We’ve come here to kill you. You’re dead. You’re finished.’ They’re very serious about it.” Not surprisingly, the character doesn’t go down without a fight, at least one of the verbal variety. “Orpheus doesn’t resist or try to run away, but he has ways to talk himself out of pretty much anything,”…

with Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth, GH) How did you feel about Elizabeth being thrown in the “Nikolas holding Esme hostage at Wyndemere” story? “Oh, it was so much fun for me to do. I loved, loved, loved being interjected into that storyline and I love little Avery [Pohl, Esme] — she’s just such a sweet person and I really like her. Very professional, very mature for her age, and I love that she doesn’t put her shoes on the bed when we’re rehearsing scenes [laughs]. I feel like our chemistry immediately just kind of jelled and we got the whole relationship between Esme and Elizabeth down pretty quickly.” Her collusion with Nikolas also led to interactions with Maura West’s Ava, which we haven’t really gotten before. “I hold Maura up on a pedestal.…