The 2008 Daytime Airhog Awards

As the year 2008 came to a close, so did a years worth of tracking appearances of contract and recurring actors on daytime's remaining eight soap operas. "General Hospital's" Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) and "The Bold and the Beautiful's" Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke Logan Forrester) top the list of appearances in 2008 as the duo appeared in 224 and 222 out of the 253 episodes of soap opera produced last year.

ABC: As daytime's most overexposed network, for the second year running, the network of "All My Children," "General Hospital," and "One Life to Live" held down 16.5 positions in the Top 20 Airhogs list. Yes, 16.5! (Two actresses played one of our top airhogs, don't you know). "GH" and its star Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) led the wave as the soap had eight airhogs in the 2008 Top 20. "AMC" was a close second with 7.5 airhogs. In total, ABC clogged up the airwaves with 23.5 actors in the Top 30.

CBS: The network with the most balance, CBS was led by "The Bold and the Beautiful" goddess Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke Logan Forrester) and "The Young and the Restless'" Eric Braeden, who ranked #14 on the list as Victor Newman appeared in 177 episodes of the drama series. Unfortunately, no "As The World Turns" or "Guiding Light" actor appeared in the Top 30, which excludes them from ranking. However, congratulations goes out to the two for having balance within their cast despite budget constraints effecting daytime as a whole. Had they ranked, they would have been led by Maura West (Carly Snyder, "ATWT") and Marcy Rylan (Lizzie Spaulding, "GL"), who appeared in 147 and 145 out of 253 episodes, respectively.

NBC: With only one soap left remaining on its schedule, NBC left the "Days of our Lives" cast fighting for airtime on this once flourishing daytime network. James Scott managed to top the "DAYS" list ranking at #23 thanks to dueling characters E.J Wells and Santo DiMera.

Note: Due to a leave of absence in '08, last years top Airhog, "All My Children's "Alicia Minshew" (Kendall Hart), fell to #4 in the ranking (tied with "GH's" Maurice Benard). In 2007, the actress appeared in 233 out of 256 episodes. Steve Burton remained a top draw at "GH," as he appeared in the same amount of episodes year-over-year, and Laura Wright (Carly Corinthos Jacks) fell dramatically from #3 to #12. Thorsten Kaye also fell a few notches from fourth in '07 (tied with "B&B's Katherine Kelly Lang) to seventh in '08.  Meanwhile, "AMC's" Cameron Mathison went from #6 in '07 to #8 in '08 (tied with "GH's" Brandon Barash) - he appeared in 16 less episodes this year.  "One Life to Live's" Michael Easton had the biggest plunge as he fell from a #10 ranking in '07 to #27 in '08 (tied with "AMC's" Darnell Williams). The actor appeared in 161 episodes in 2008 vs 203 in 2007. As two actresses played her in 2008, the character of Greenlee Smythe on "All My Children" takes the combined totals of actresses Rebecca Budig and Sabine Singh.

In honor of the Soap Opera Network return of the SON Top 10, we present to you daytime's top scene stealers (literally), who earned their paychecks (and then some) during a most dramatic year.

Our thanks goes out to those contributors who helped compile this list throughout 2008. Without you, we wouldn't be able to pinpoint the hoggers from a pinto. Thank you, jcar03, jhc2010, y&r_fan, JAS0N47, dmarex, Scotty, Toups and Angela.

Until next year...

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