Credit: ABC, Howard Wise/JPI (2), Jill Johnson/JPI, CBS
When General Hospital killed off Austin, in so doing letting go Roger Howarth, we didn’t believe it at first. The soap clearly knows that the Emmy-winning alum of Loving, One Life to Live and As the World Turns is an MVP and a half. It wouldn’t have given him one character after another to play if it hadn’t been aware and appreciative of his talent and popularity.
But when the actor spoke out about what had gone down behind the scenes, expressing his gratitude for his decade-plus run, we finally started to wrap our brains around the fact that he really was gone. Not forever, mind you. Howarth is sure to score a new soap role in less time than it will take you to read this article.
Ready, Willing and Able
“I’m an actor. I love acting,” the soap vet said when asked by Soap Opera Digest whether he was open to doing another daytime drama. He’s “100 percent” into the idea. “If somebody’s gonna ask me, I’m gonna go! I’m gonna get in the car.”
The question is, which show will snap up the fan favorite first? Since he’s never appeared on The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful or Days of Our Lives, he couldn’t reprise a role on any of those serials. But he could certainly rock a recast, as he did on both As the World Turns and General Hospital.
Go Bold or Go Home
The Bold and the Beautiful could tap the actor to play Blake Hayes, the unstable ex-husband of Taylor (for whom Steffy’s son is bizarrely named). Peter Brown, who originated the role, passed away in 2016. But there’s still a lot of story to be told with the character, especially if he came back to Los Angeles proclaiming to be a changed man. If Taylor bought it, would her waffling former spouse Ridge get all territorial and protective… in such a way that it made trouble in paradise with his favorite missus, Brooke?
On The Young and the Restless, Howarth could give the Newmans and the Abbotts a run for their (vast quantities of money) by reintroducing the Prentiss family — starting with Brooks, aka the son of Bold & Beautiful star John McCook’s Lance Prentiss and Leslie Brooks. The character hasn’t been on the show since he was a kid, so he could’ve grown up to be a real mover and shaker like his dad. And Brooks would be a great romantic interest for Phyllis; we already know that Howarth and Michelle Stafford have chemistry galore thanks to their General Hospital pairing as Franco and Nina.
Something New, Something Old
At Days of Our Lives, Howarth could — and, we’d argue, should — play an altogether new character. Let the actor, who’s so great at fleshing out his parts, invent someone from scratch, drop him in Salem and turn him loose on the dating scene. Allow the character to have some fun with the fact that everyone in town just goes around breaking up and making up with their exes in a never-ending cycle. Have him swear off the Nicoles and Sarahs of Salem to try his luck on a matchmaking app and wind up being paired with, of all people, Kristen!
And hey, there’s no saying that just because Howarth is done as Austin on General Hospital, he’s done at General Hospital. Now that, sadly, the streaming version of One Life to Live is defunct, he could always bring Todd Manning back to Port Charles. Not only did his Llanview counterpart throw eye-popping sparks with Carly, his on-again/off-again soulmate Blair Cramer now has ties to Port Charles, owing to ex-husband Martin Grey.