'All My Children's' Lucci to host 'real-life soap'

[January 13, 2012]  NEW YORK (AP) -- "All My Children" veteran Susan Lucci is returning to the world of soap operas. But this time, the stories will be real.

Lucci will host and narrate "Deadly Affairs," a new prime-time series airing on Investigation Discovery. The show will explore true stories of romance gone wrong and the crimes of passion that resulted, the network announced Thursday.

"They are deceptive love relationships, love triangles and betrayal that have deadly consequences," Lucci said. "And they end in tragedy.

"Every day you hear these stories and you think, `Oh, my goodness!' Then they disappear. You don't know what happened next, and you don't know why they happened. I'm hoping that, in exploring them, we'll shed some light on human nature."

Lucci won lasting fame as devious, often-wed Erica Kane throughout the run of daytime drama "All My Children," which aired from 1970 until ABC canceled it last September.

"As Erica, I got punished for my wrong deeds," Lucci noted. "I wound up in jail several times, even in a blood-stained ball gown. But with 'Deadly Affairs,' these are not characters on a soap opera. This is real life."

Describing her new show as a "real-life soap," she called her hosting role "a perfect match," adding, "I couldn't help but smile" after getting the series offer.

Filming of the 10-episode season is expected to begin in March, with its premiere slated for this fall, Investigation Discovery said.

Lucci also has guest shots on the Lifetime drama "Army Wives" and TV Land's sitcom "Hot in Cleveland." But she has closed the book on Erica Kane after 41 years.

"I miss Erica tremendously," she said. "That's the same thing I hear from people I meet."

Another long-running ABC soap, "One Life to Live," comes to an end Friday, but Lucci expressed confidence that the soap opera genre will endure.

"If it has good writing and good production values," she said, "it has a future."

[Associated Press; By FRAZIER MOORE]

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