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Port Charles is about to get a new resident in the form of daytime actor William deVry, who took to Facebook to announce that he has joined the sudser in a contract role. “Finally! I just got word I can tell you I just finished my first day of work on ‘General Hospital,’” the actor wrote. “It is a contract role. Very rare these days indeed. And I come to town as the character of Derek Willis.”

According to NBC, “Days of our Lives” is up by more than 30% year-to-year in the key sales demos of Women 18-49 (+30%), Women 25-54 (+34%) and Women 18-34 (+42%). The soap is also up 14% year-to-year in total viewers with the soap averaging 2.7 million viewers last week compared to 2.3 million during the same week last year. For the just completed second quarter, “DAYS” ranked 5th among ABC, CBS and NBC in the women 18-49 demo (1.0 ratings, 7 share) and tied for 4th place in women 18-34 (0.7 rating).

Days of our Lives

For weeks “Days of our Lives” fans have been asking that question after actor Drake Hogestyn (John Black) tweeted he last taped an episode of the NBC Daytime drama series on March 18 (scheduled to air Wednesday, July 17). In his tweet he said, “Given a chance off the bench, I’m sure I could hit a homer for J&M. #putmeincoach.” Fans were given some hope when Soap Opera Digest reported in its June 24 issue that the actor “has reported back to work after a brief hiatus from the show.” The report was found under the “Stuff We Know (and shouldn’t tell you)” section. Sadly, the mag didn’t actually know as Digest semi-retracted its reporting per the Tuesday, July 9 issue citing comments from Hogestyn’s daughter, Alex, who took to Facebook to say that her father was not filming again. “[The] report is not true. My dad has not been back filming, I wish he was though!”

If you tuned your TV to ABC Family on Wednesday, July 3 expecting to see Trevor Donovan in his third and final appearance on “Melissa & Joey” as Austin, a childhood friend of Mel’s (Melissa Joan Hart), who moves back to Toledo and quickly convinces her to take their old friendship to the next level, you were probably one unhappy camper. Turns out the network pushed the episode back a week and his final appearance on the comedy series will instead air on Wednesday, July 10, a network spokesperson informs Soap Opera Network.

As has been the case for the last several years, ABC will be airing a re-run of “General Hospital” on Independence Day (Thursday, July 4). The episode scheduled to air is the Wednesday, March 27, 2013 episode (#12,773), which found an injured Nikolas injected by Luke as he prepares to search for Lulu on the missing Haunted Star with Dante and Anna’s help. Laura arrives in time to join Luke on the adventure. Meanwhile, Carly debuts the Metrocourt Ballroom to Lucy and Sabrina and Felix find themselves in a tiff as they prepare for the Nurses Ball. Alexis and Shawn get a sweet surprise from Sam, Molly and TJ.