Get ready to see some skin from the men of “Days of our Lives” as they will be featured in an upcoming (tastefully done) spread for PLAYGIRL.

“Y&R’s” Melody Thomas Scott is appearing on the cover of the March/April issue of WATCH! magazine, along with Nina Dobrev and Ethan Peck.

CBS’ “The Talk” is set to kick off its eighth season — its first since season two without co-host Aisha Tyler — on Monday, September 11. So what should fans expect as the new season launches with just four co-hosts? And when will they announce who will take on the fifth chair, and does it have to be a woman? First, you can expect an even greater show experience. Second, yes, there will be a fifth co-host at some point. And third, no, it won’t be a man!

The bi-annual list of Television’s Highest Paid Stars: The Soap Opera Edition, is here! Find out who made the cut, who got richer and how being part of TV’s biggest hit doesn’t always equal big checks.

In honor of ABC’s “The Goldbergs” receiving its first ever TV Guide Magazine cover, the publication has turned back the dial with an all ’80s-themed issue, due out on newsstands later this week. As part of the celebration, several of daytime’s biggest hunks from the decade will be featured in the upcoming issue, including Kin Shriner (as Scotty Baldwin, “General Hospital”), Stephen Nichols (as Steven “Patch” Johnson, “Days of our Lives”), A Martinez (as Cruz Castillo, “Santa Barbara”), Doug Davidson (as Paul Williams, “The Young and the Restless”), Don Diamont (as Brad Carlton, “The Young and the Restless”) and Michael E. Knight (as Tad Martin, “All My Children”).

If a year ago someone bet me that a modern-day soap opera would not only put their African-American characters in a front burner storyline that was deeply entrenched in social issues, which had nothing to do with the color of one’s skin, race or ethnicity, I’d owe that person plenty of money right about now.

Although I must admit that I may not always know the answers to their blind items right off the bat, I’ve long found myself fascinated with Soap Opera Digest‘s “Stuff We Know (And Shouldn’t Tell You)” mini-section. Why you ask? Because it’s no fun to be told something in print and not have anyone to talk about it with! What about you? Want to take a gander about who/what the blind items are all about this week?

In life you set goals for yourself, or at least you try to. You even have expectations for yourself that you hope will eventually get fulfilled. In my case, over the years I had set a specific list of goals that included certain expectations as they related to one another. Earlier this year, I officially crossed one of the major things off that list. It wasn’t easy as it had plagued me for nearly a decade. A stepping stone you might call it. I took up something many years ago that eventually became impossible to maintain on a full-time basis. I decided to do it part-time. I went from part-time to being very part-time. Later you could say I dropped it completely in order to concentrate on the things that either gave me personal joy and fulfillment (this site) or put several well earned dollars in my pocket. I imagine I’m not the only one out there who’s ever had pull some sort of double duty in their lifetime. Right?

Late last month we released a new layout of our website that was to allow us to present our content in manner we’ve been working towards for some time. Unfortunately, the design came with some issues that needed to be cleaned up. That cleanup left the site virtually silent news and interview wise. That’s now over.

If things look a little bit different around here it’s because things are different. As promised on our social networks, we have been working very hard behind the scenes leading up to this Thanksgiving holiday weekend to bring you the best user experience at Soap Opera Network, which not only includes the most up-to-date soap opera related content, but also a more visually appealing layout with page speed in mind. As a result of our new design, there will be plenty of new features we’ll be able to play around with that’ll provide our readers with the best presentation of our content, including this puppy.

Before becoming Thor for millions of fans in the “Thor” film series or “The Avengers” cinematic universe, actor Chris Hemsworth was probably best known for his role on the Australian soap “Home and Away,” where he played Kimberly Jonathan “Kim” Hyde. Now a major movie star, Hemsworth has graced the cover of People Magazine as its “Sexiest Man Alive!” He’s not the only one though as several of daytime’s biggest and brightest stars of today and yesterday have also made the annual list of sexy men, which hits newsstands today.

Playboy may have found popularity by publishing risqué photos of women, but as the old excuse goes, some people actually read it “for the articles.” And those who picked up the March 2014 issue of the popular mag for reading purposes only were in for a lovely daytime related surprise: The publication stripped down popular primetime series made predominately for a male audience and declares they’re exactly like “The Bold and the Beautiful,” The Young and the Restless,” “General Hospital,” and “Days of our Lives” — with a manly twist.

From re-runs of soap classics “Dallas,” “Dynasty,” “Another World,” “Port Charles,” and “Falcon Crest,” to the launches of original series “SoapCenter,” “Soap Talk” and “General Hospital: Night Shift,” SOAPnet was defined as the “new way to watch soaps” for much of its near 14-year run. With just 2 days left before SOAPnet is no more, we thought it would be a great opportunity to look back at the inaugural year of a network that gave diehard soap fans their own platform to shout with glee through the death of a network that outlived its purpose.

Celebrating its 12th year online, Soap Opera Network is currently experiencing its biggest year on record in terms of page views and unique visitors. This year we’ve been able to provide exclusive insight into the world of soaps while bringing readers inside the minds of some of their favorite characters and actors featured on “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Days of our Lives,” “General Hospital” and “The Young and the Restless.” As we come off of the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, we’re gearing up for even more features in the coming weeks and the new year including the return of the SON Awards along with the annual Airhog Awards, while introducing new features such as our first annual best and worst of the year report and our new best of soaps weekly poll highlighting the best actors, best soaps, and best storylines of the week for both daytime and primetime soap opera related programming. To better present all this content we’ve made significant alterations to our website design that gets rid of clutter and inactive coding that previously prevented the site from being presented in the best way possible. The new design codenamed “refresh” was launched today.

The last time People Magazine offerred a collector’s edition of a soap opera was in September 2011, when the mag celebrated the life and history of the then canceled “All My Children.” This time the magazine is celebrating the continued life and history of “General Hospital” with a special 50th Anniversary collector’s edition that finds Luke and Laura Spencer (Anthony Geary and Genie Francis), Maxie Jones (Kirsten Storms), Sonny Corinthos and Brenda Barrett (Maurice Benard and Vanessa Marcil), Duke Lavery and Anna Devane (Ian Buchanan and Finola Highes), and Jagger Cates (Antonio Sabato Jr.) gracing the cover.

Last summer I was lucky enough to be included as an interviewee in the new soap opera themed documentary appropriately titled “Soap Life,” which follows the life, and possible death, of daytime soap operas. I can’t believe I forgot all about it and didn’t realize it until this morning!

Ten years is a longtime for a website to remain in operation. It is thanks to all of you that we’ve been able to provide you with the most up-to-date, current and timely information relating to the genre of soap operas between our SON Community and our reporting team. Unfortunately, in the past month there hasn’t been much of any up-to-date, current or timely information relating to the genre of soap operas posted on Soap Opera Network by its reporting team.

“All My Children’s” replacement show “The Chew” debuts today, just three days after “AMC” aired its final episode on ABC, and I can’t help myself in wishing it would just go away. No, it isn’t the show or what it is all about. In a perfect world I’d care to watch it from time to time, after all we all have to cook good and healthy meals don’t we? But it is the way the network went about handling “The Chew” which included non-stop advertising during “AMC’s” final weeks on television along with non-stop advertising on soap opera centered websites including Soap Opera Network that I find myself saying “what a way to spit on your audience.”

What started out as a typical week that began on July 25 ended up being one of the worst in Soap Opera Network history, but you wouldn’t have known it from a behind the scenes perspective.

(SoapOperaNetwork.com) — The last time I wrote an edition of the Editor's Notebook was August 12, 2008. A lot has…