Thank you so much, Michael. AE is the best. Good luck and thanks for continuing to fight the good fight.

If you get any inkling as to what, if anything, fans can do to influence the powers that be, you'll let us know, right? Little birds have been saying it's Procter and Gamble, but who knows how much they are paying attention.

What is so strange is that I haven't heard about any sort of organized protest/campaign from the right. And you KNOW how much they love an organized protest - the likes of which I could see convincing CBS, etc. to tone down the gay. Did I miss something?

It was a really sweet episode, but to pan away from the kiss was a horrible thing to do, both in terms of the story and the clear homophobia on display--any other str8 couple we would see them kiss, but because it's two young men, it's something that has to be hidden? Ridiculous and offensive.

In fact, in terms of today's episode, showing the kiss between Luke and Noah would've added so much meaning, coming as it would after Holden and Lily and then Holden and Bonnie restrained from kissing under the mistletoe.

I think I'll be shooting of an email to ATWT and CBS.

Of course we're not going to see Queer as Folk on As the World Turns.  We all know that and we don't expect it to be like that.  But you can't tell me it's too much trouble to see a kiss once in a while even if it's a little peck.  This is plain ridiculous. 

As an on and off viewer of ATWT for over 20 years (mostly on), I think I've gotten a pretty good idea of when the show is doing the "best it can within the constraints of the daytime television medium," or when it is being run to the ground without regard for its long-time viewers. It is also pulling a switch and bait with the new viewers who came to the show via the introduction of the Luke Snyder character and his subsequent pairing with Noah.

During her tenure as head writer of AWT, Jean Passanante and her staff have managed to destroy almost every single one of the show's core characters and have turned Oakdale into a misogynistic and bipolar mess. Surprisingly, Luke has generally been spared her wrath, as the worst that he’s gotten (besides being paralyzed – how appropriate) was not showing him at all. I liked what she did with Luke’s crush on his best friend Kevin, as it started testing the waters with both a gay storyline and what the viewer response could be. Then she introduced Noah, who came in with sorts of expectations from the audience as Chris Goutman, Executive Producer, told every single entertainment outlet that Noah was being brought in for Luke.

While I was not a fan of the Maddie portion of the Noah introduction, it's hard to be a Monday-morning quarterback as the original storyline was supposed to include Maddie's then boyfriend Casey, who was instead sent to the slammer when his portrayer decided to leave the show.

So after way too much Maddie and Noah for my taste, we in essence got a series of limited but telling scenes with these guys accidentally running into one another's personal space. I loved those scenes. Then came the amazing choreography of Luke and Noah’s post swim almost kiss (which may be the hottest scene to air on any show this year) and then we got the amazing kiss, again staged so well as to maximize both sexual hunger and tenderness. T

he audience (both gay and straight) went nuts seeing these two as they served as such a contrast to the boring musical chair sexual gymnastics and general hatred exhibited by others characters on the show. These two were the real deal and the viewers rewarded the show runners with higher ratings, which moved the show from the lower tiers of all daytime dramas to the highest tier. The tie-in between Nuke and higher ratings is measurable for anyone who wants to take the time to break it down. The strength of this duo is not only highlighted by their consistent number one status on most polls of publications that most of us had never even heard about (Daytime Confidential?), but also due to the fact that even the peak of the show’s other “explosive” storyline-focused plots (Carly’s “death” sentence, Katie and Brad wedding, and Cheri’s shooting) failed to do anything but lower the ratings. It does not take a genius to see what people are liking or not.

Today’s episode (in my opinion, even with Sofie…Yawn) was one of its strongest showings in ages as it actually had Luke’s parents being civil to one another and showing some of the razzle dazzle that made me fall in love with them 20 years ago, injected a cuteness factor with Vienna and Henry tiff (even a puppy for grim Oakdale), and showing our boys for more than 5 minutes. The almost kiss that was interrupted by Faith and Natalie (go away!!!!) it the beginning was actually cute to as it was universal. Annoying if the characters never kiss, but still… Then Luke walks (what an awesome soap moment and I mean in the best way), Luke and Noah have their parlor dialogue. Corny but I’ll eat it up because these two are like little puppy love in many respects. And let’s not forget the lustiness that pops out of Luke’s eyes which give almost anything he’s given a potent undercurrent. Van Hansis should put the champagne on ice as that 2008 Daytime Emmy is his.

Then we get even another scene with these would-be lovers (in surprisingly low lighting, but given what happens on the show this is but a foot note). While I wish that Noah would not be written like a 10 year old, who can argue with Luke’s sweet and downright sexy monologue which was culminating into the best scene that these two have had since they were first shown kissing. Luke’s “I am in love with you” had me in love with him/them. Had the show just sent the boys on their merry ways without putting them under the mistletoe, we could be complaining about wanting them to kiss, but to actually have them kiss and treat the actual moment as if it were bestiality or something worse was a stab in the heart of any soap fan. This is the same show had the Jack character raped onscreen when his nutty ex-wife gave him a Viagra cocktail as he was tied down on a chair and she lowered herself on to him. Confines of the genre? There are few…..

Doing their best? Not by a long shot!!!! If they were shown kissing, I am 100% certain that we would not be complaining that they are not naked and in bed. I do expect them to go there, but the nudity could be implied. I don’t want to see Queer As Folk on CBS daytime nor expect what is shown on pay channels, but I think that you could be grossly underestimating not only the gay fans of the show, but the audience as a whole. We can get our porn fix elsewhere.

This to me is about honesty and the show reaping the benefits of what it thought may have been risky when it first contemplated it a year ago. The pre-kiss seductions are much “sexier/racy” than any lip on lip action. No one is picketing the show. It’s receiving praise from sources that never even address daytime and mid-America has spoken. But just like they continue to destroy Carly (once the shows best bad girl and now just a doormat), they also refuse to listen to listen to the vast majority of the viewing audience, as they seem to think that by keeping the audience from what it wants to see, it will keep it coming back for more.

They have lost me with the exception of the Luke days, and not simply because of not showing him but because the show is a hateful mess. There is not a source that has not said that Luke and Noah are the exception to the lousiness that ATWT has become. Being “realistic” is to expect that the show runners will use what the audience has told them they want to see and to deliver that on a daily basis. Luke and Noah are not controversial. Even if it were, an actual kiss to me would be less controversial than the extended sweet/hot dialogue that these two got. If there is another stakeholder that we may want to address, it’s Proctor & Gamble as they deliver the show to CBS based feedback with CBS; however CBS is buying this show not making it. ABC produces its own shows.

As gay men, I think that we would do ourselves a huge disservice to accept crumbs without serious questioning. Most get that the CBS’ response to today’s question was BS. The AfterElton team asked a specific question on our behalf yet it can’t control the answers it receives. The fact that they are even taking ATWT to task (and willing to do more) is a big deal as any access and relationship building that it might have worked on could be completely cuff off. But they went and are going for it.

Those of us who want to see and think that we deserve more airtime to Luke and Noah and further development of their love story, need to take ownership of this matter and try to use our own unique ways of trying to bring attention to what we expect. It’s ok if some think that what is shown on the screen is the best that the show can do under its constraints. I want to push hard to have them verbalize what the heck these constraints are, and put it on the line to get dialogue going, which would bring even more attention to this show.Any excuses should come from the show, not us. 

The genre is on its last legs and the shrinking ratings are proof of that. Those who don’t follow these matters may be happy to know that ATWT is the show which has lost the least number of viewers of ANY other daytime drama. It reached an all-time low May (as others are still testing new lows) but even the most frustrated viewer seems to have stuck around waiting for a love story of any kind. At this stage, I think that the only way to change the status quo is to dump the head writer. I’d take EP too. I’d then focus on the person who’s been doing the break-down writing for Luke and Noah to see if they could bring that to the rest of the cast. This genre lives and dies on character development. I want to see all of Oakdale (including Luke and Noah) falling in love and having real challenges. While I am thankful that Luke and Noah have not been treated like the female character had sex 6 times with two men in less than 24 hours, it’s not enough.

If it were up to me, I’d rather have our two men shipped to Wesleyan (like poor Maddie) than seeing them like best buds, not seeing theri affection, or appearing less than the almost mute Natalie. The kiss pull-away………..I assert that if there is a problem that will lead to the cancellation of this show is not Luke and Noah, but continued disregard for ALL fans, not just the gay ones.