The network that canceled Susan Lucci’s long running soap is not quite ready to say goodbye to its biggest star: The All My Children actress will co-star in Marc Cherry’s next drama in the works for ABC called Devious Maids.
The script is about four maids with ambition and dreams of their own while they work for the rich and famous. Lucci will play one of the employers.
Devious Maids also stars Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty).
There was a chance that Lucci’s old soap would continue online, but the company that bought the rights to AMC and One Life to Live were unable to reach guild deals. Arrangements with the unions were necessary if Prospect Park wanted to also sell the soaps to cable, but it’s economically unfeasible to pay guild wages for an internet show that would generate a fraction of the revenue it once did on ABC.
It also didn’t help that Prospect couldn’t convince Lucci to continue her role on the internet. Only Cameron Mathison (Ryan Lavery) and Lindsay Hartley (Dr. Cara Castillo Martin) had agreed to continue on AMC after it finished its network run in September.
After 44 years on the air, ABC’s One Life to Life ended its run today with a fittingly poignant finale that was only mildly hampered by the incorrect belief at the time of taping that there would be a future for it online.
