Due to special programming, both As the World Turns and Guiding Light – were preempted today.
This preemption and the preemption from last Friday were anticipated and there will be no "lost" episodes.
Regular broadcasting will resume on Tuesday, January 3rd and pick up where the action ended on Thursday, December 29th.
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Dan J Kroll
Founder, Soap Central
Carly and Jack are having coffee at a coffee shop. Katie and Nick arrive. Nick receives applause for being a hero. This upsets Carly because she thinks Jack is the hero. Jack says he doesn't need applause, but looks a little put out when Nick says that Mike is the real hero. When, Jack excuses himself Carly tells Nick he isn't big enough to fill Jack's shoes. When Jack returns, he makes Carly promise to be nice to Nick. Nick tells Katie he doesn't think Carly and Jack belong together.
Meanwhile, an exhausted Jennifer gets Johnny down as Barbara knocks on the door. She tells Jennifer she had a date with a younger man, who's a good kisser. Barbara wants to set Jennifer up with the man, but Jennifer doesn't want to date a man who her mother has kissed. Barbara says the real reason is because Jennifer is in love with Dusty, and she should be with him. Barbara feels, the reason Paul does the things he does is because he didn't have a good father. Barbara feels, Jennifer needs help raising Johnny.
Across town, Dusty blasts Meg for keeping the truth from Jennifer. Meg says the only reason she didn't tell was because she was afraid of losing Dusty. She tells him she saw him and Jennifer in Florida, and she couldn't face losing him. Then feeling guilty, she led Jennifer to her baby. Dusty says she should've told the truth sooner and throws her out.
In the meantime, Paul tells Emily it's over and he turns to leave. Emily shoots him in the back. Paul turns and collapses. Emily runs to him and apologizes as he asks her "why." Paul's eyes close and Emily, fearing he's dead, pushes him over the cliff. She wipes her prints off the gun and throws it over the cliff. Wearing gloves, Emily uses Paul's cell phone to call herself and establish an alibi. She throws the phone over the cliff. She then leaves not realizing she lost an earring.
Later, Susan sees Emily at the hospital. A sobbing, Emily tells Susan Paul called off the wedding, and she's never going to see him again.
Back in Jennifer's room Johnny starts to cry. Barbara takes him for the night so Jennifer can get some rest. Dusty then shows up and tells Jennifer what Meg has done. He says the reason Meg did what they did was because she knew Jennifer and Dusty were in love.
Across town, Meg takes her eyes off the snowy road to look for her cell phone. She crashes. Fearing she hit someone she starts to look around. She reaches the cliff. Just then, Paul pulls himself over the cliff.
Susan brings Emily home to the Stewart House, where Emily declares that she'll never escape what happened between her and Paul. After, Susan nearly discovers the bloody scarf but Emily quickly grabs it and starts to build a fire so she can burn it. Susan secretly calls Hal over and begs him to talk to Emily, while Emily is burning the evidence. Keith shocks Lily by announcing that he's taken a job in L.A., and he expects her to leave with him in the morning. Lily tries to stand up to him, but Keith insists that he can no longer trust her around Holden. Later, Lily informs Holden that she'll be leaving town for a while and he pulls out all the stops to convince her to stay. He says that he'll be waiting for her when she realizes it's time to be together. Meg rescues Paul and gets him to an abandoned cabin in the woods. She wants to call the cops and get an ambulance but he refuses, determined to keep his circumstances a secret. When Meg balks, he threatens to expose to Dusty all the rotten things she did to Jennifer. But, Meg reveals that he can't blackmail her now that Dusty knows the whole truth. Desperate, Paul tries to bribe her with money but Meg refuses and takes off for Memorial hospital to get him some help. With her gone, Paul tries to patch up his wounds and flee but collapses. Meanwhile, Dusty and Jennifer pledge their love for each other. But, when the baby interrupts their romantic mood, Jennifer tells Dusty that they can't just pick up where they left off. For one, she is a mother now and needs to know that Meg is out of their lives for good. Despite Dusty's assurances, Jennifer heads to the hospital to confront Meg.
Meg and Jennifer come face-to-face at the hospital and Meg tries to explain her said of the story. Comparing Meg to Paul and Emily, Jennifer finds Meg's logic for keeping Jennifer from her baby to be the worst. When Bob overhears and discovers that Meg falsified hospital test results, he fires her and Meg is devastated as her world continues to fall apart. Meanwhile, a desperate Paul tried to get away before Meg returned with the cops but collapsed in pain. When Meg returns, thinking her only option is to leave town, she asks him what he will give her in exchange for nursing him back to health. Meanwhile, Emily must face Hal and cover about what she did to Paul. Thinking about him, she becomes emotional and Hal comforts her. Fearing Paul jumped bail, Hal goes off to try to track him down while Emily gets rid of the damning bloody scarf. Lily is forced to reveal to Luke that she is leaving for California with Keith. Luke, upset, goes off into the night only to later sneak back into the house and get drunk. Angry, he heads out and finds Keith. Luke presents him with a knife and demands that he take the kidney back and let his mother go. Nick is looking out for Katie, protecting her from a possible BJ confrontation, as per a still hospitalized Mike's instructions. Nick tells Katie a little bit about himself and she realizes that he has designs on Carly. Later, a noise at the door makes them both think it's BJ but all are relieved when Mike walks through the door.
At Susan's, Emily awakens from a nightmare about shooting Paul. She tells Susan she needs to find somewhere else to live, because she's angry that Susan asked Hal to come see her. Tom arrives at Susan's request with Daniel, and Emily is happy to see her son again. With Daniel out of earshot, Emily apologizes to Tom, who tells her she was responsible for him and Margo never knowing their grandson, seeing his face, or being able to even offer a prayer on his behalf. Emily tells Tom how sorry she is again but blames Paul for everything and says he should be punished. She begs Tom to consider letting her see Daniel again, even on supervised visits, and he says he'll think about it. When Daniel comes back into the room, he notices that Emily is missing an earring, which causes Emily to freak out momentarily. She then asks Daniel if he'd like her to drive him to school today, and she manages to get Tom to agree to this, and she and Daniel leave. Tom and Susan sit down to have coffee and talk about how you usually end up forgiving the people you love, and Susan pleads with Tom to consider letting Emily continue to see her son. Hal calls Tom, and Tom tells Susan that Hal said Paul was missing and had never returned to his apartment.
At the cabin in the woods, Meg tells Paul she has decided to help him in exchange for a million dollars; Paul agrees. Meg tells him she'll be leaving Oakdale after she gets the money, and Paul asks her about Dusty. She tells Paul that's none of his business and that she lost her job, and Paul realizes someone found out about Meg's role in the baby switch cover-up. He tries to tell Meg that Dusty didn't deserve her, but Meg doesn't want his sympathy and says he doesn't know anything about her. Meg asks Paul why he doesn't think Emily will be looking for him, and then she realizes that Emily is the one who shot Paul. Paul tells her he doesn't want Emily to have to pay for that, because it was his fault, and if Meg tells anyone about Emily, their deal is off; he just wants to recover from the gunshot wound and disappear. Meg says it's too bad Emily had such lousy aim. Meg leaves to go get food and a disposable phone so that Paul can make a call to Switzerland to set up her million dollar account.
Emily arrives at the bluff and frantically tries to find her earring. She does find it, but then she stumbles around in the fog trying to get back to her car and comes upon the cabin, where she sees Paul through the window. She screams.
Dusty and Jennifer declare their love for one another and then make love, and later, Dusty gets the baby, whom he calls "JD," and brings him to Jennifer.
Luke confronts Keith with a knife and tells him to cut the kidney out of his body so that his mom won't have to marry Keith; Keith wrestles away the knife just as Holden arrives, looking for Luke. Holden realizes what's happening and says he'll take Luke back to his mom; Keith suggests he get Luke some coffee first. Holden then apologizes to Keith for Luke's behavior. Holden tells Luke what he did was unjustifiable and that he'll talk to him about it more when he's sober.
Keith calls Lily, who is having breakfast with Faith and Natalie at the Snyder farm, to tell her about Luke trying to cut out his kidney, and he insists that the right thing for Lily to do is to leave with him for California in 1 hour. Holden brings Luke back to the farm, then a courier arrives with the divorce papers that Holden has requested be brought over. Holden tells Lily that he and Lily are tearing Luke apart and it has to stop: if she can't walk away from Keith, then she needs to walk away from her family. He signs the divorce papers and says he's cutting Lily loose.
