All My Children

More than any other soap opera, All My Children is in the midst of a massive cast overhaul. New faces are gone (sorry, Sabine Singh); old faces are back (hello, Rebecca Budig).

Not only are these changes taking place during the writers' strike - Brian Fons, president of Disney-ABC's Daytime group - says they've been taking place because of the writers' strike.

"The strike actually helped us in terms of luring these actors back to the show,” Fons recently said. “If you aren't an actor with a steady prime time gig, you probably won't find [work] until fall of '09. So I think that gives soap operas a chance [for actors] to find steady work."

A solid example of this is Mario Van Peebles. The movie star has agreed to a role in All My Children, most likely due to his fear of how the strike will affect any primetime or big screen roles.