Who Wants To Marry My Dad’s Heidi Mueller to Be Passions’ New Kay

Sheraton Kalouria, Senior Vice President of NBC Daytime, announced Monday that Heidi Mueller, one of the daughters on NBC’s recent summer reality hit Who Wants To Marry My Dad, will be making her acting debut by joining the cast of NBC’s outrageous daytime drama Passions in the contract role of Kay Bennett. Carly Pope of the former WB drama Popular had been rumored to be in the running for the role as well.

Kay, the manipulative yet vulnerable daughter of town police chief Sam Bennett (James Hyde) and his tomato soup cake-baking wife Grace (Dana Sparks), is perennially trying to win bland childhood friend Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald (Jesse Metcalfe) away from her saccharine vision-plagued cousin, Charity Standish (Molly Stanton). In the current storyline, after feeling like she was no longer welcome at home because Grace seemed to favor Charity over her, Kay moved in with resident witch Tabitha Lenox (Juliet Mills) and became her apprentice. Kay seems to have won the current round to win Miguel as she just had his baby, Maria Ivy, a result of seducing Miguel by casting a spell to make her look like Charity. Moreover, Charity is trying to remove herself from the equation because Death (don’t ask) told Charity that if she didn’t give up Miguel, fragile premature Maria Ivy would die.

Mueller is set to start taping the week of September 8th and her first airdate is scheduled for Friday, October 24th. She replaces current Kay, Deanna Wright, who opted not to renew her contract, allegedly in part because Kay’s turning to witchcraft went against her Christian beliefs.

The role of Kay has seen plenty of upheaval since the show’s debut in July 1999. Taylor Ann Mountz, who originated the role, abruptly quit in the summer of 2000 to go to college. She was temporarily replaced by the widely-panned Gina Marie May until permanent replacement Wright came aboard in September of that year, thus making Mueller Kay #4.

As readers of this site know, I’m a devoted Passions aficionado, and as such I must admit that this news concerns me somewhat - primarily because it seems to smack of stunt casting. Who Wants To Marry My Dad was one of NBC’s most successful shows of the summer, frequently finishing in the Nielsen household ratings top 15; therefore, it would seem that NBC executives are hoping that some of that audience will follow Mueller to Passions, which, while scoring quite well in key demographics, generally finishes next-to-last among all soap operas in household ratings. On a business level, this would seem to make sense. It’s also not the first time NBC has cast a former reality star in one of its daytime dramas - earlier this summer, Kyle Brandt of The Real World: Chicago took over the role of Philip Kiriakis on Days of Our Lives.

The problem, for me, is that she’s not replacing just anyone. Deanna Wright is a rare breed of soap actress - one that can not only make a “villainess” role sympathetic, but actually make the audience root for her over the “heroine.” This is a skill only a very few soap actresses - Robin Mattson (ex-Heather, General Hospital, ex-Gina, Santa Barbara, ex-Janet, All My Children) and Ilene Kristen (Roxy, One Life To Live, ex-Delia, Ryan’s Hope) come to mind - are able to achieve. From a creative level, therefore, this role needs someone with similar acting chops.

When it comes to recasts, Passions’ track record has been decidedly mixed. Some (Andrea Evans as Rebecca Hotchkiss, Natalie Zea as Gwen Hotchkiss, Eric Martsolf as Ethan Winthrop, Deanna Wright herself) have been excellent choices who were as good or better than their predecessors. Others (Ryan McPartlin as Hank Bennett, Charles Divins as Chad Harris, Danica Stewart as Jessica Bennett, Gina Marie May) have been abysmal.

Which group will Heidi Mueller fall into? It’s impossible to say definitively. While this is her professional acting debut, it’s possible she has the talent to back it up; furthermore, Taylor Ann Mountz was thought similarly irreplaceable until Wright took over. Or it could wind up being a complete embarrassment for all parties involved. Only time will tell!

Brian James is an actor/writer/singer in New York City and the Assistant Editor of RealityNewsOnline. An avid reality show, Passions, early Ryan’s Hope, retro music, and Internet discussion board junkie, he can be found holding up "Will Snark For Food" signs in subway stations as he continues to search for that elusive "day job." Brian would like to stress that his writings are based solely on what he sees in each episode of each show, and realizes that there may sometimes be more to the story and that people may behave quite differently under normal circumstances. Comments and cybertomatoes accepted at BrianJamesRNO@earthlink.net.

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