How Nathan Fillion Reacted to ‘One Life to Live’ Getting Canceled

Nathan Fillion offered a few parting words to ‘One Life to Live’ once the soap opera was canceled after decades on television.

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The cancellation of ‘One Life to Live’ not only affected the show’s fans, but also its former star Nathan Fillion.

by Antonio Stallings

Published on March 11, 2025

Actor Nathan Fillion experienced a turning point in his career when he did Firefly. But it was One Life to Live that gave him his start in the entertainment industry. Back then, he was best known for playing Joey Buchanan from 1994 to 1997 before leaving the series to explore other career opportunities. Although Fillion had long since moved on from the soap opera, he still maintained a deep bond with the show. So much so he shared fans’ sentiments when One Life to Live was canceled.

Nathan Fillion | Robert Milazzo / Getty Images

One Life to Live left a long legacy behind it before saying goodbye to viewers for good in 2012. The show first aired on television in 1968, and had a total of 11,136 episodes at the end of its run. ABC executive at the time Brian Frons asserted that the show was canceled due to low viewership.

“A year ago, we started to look at our projections where the ratings for the soaps would go,” Frons once revealed to Deadline.

According to Frons, the ratings for One Life to Live didn’t show much promise. Still, the news disappointed many viewers, some of whom advocate for the show’s revival to this day. Fillion was also one of the show’s many fans who became emotional after hearing about its fate.

“It really made me sad to hear that One Life to Live was cancelled again,” Fillion once said according to Daytime Confidential. “I had such an incredible time on that show. It was my very first job. I am very sad that daytime is a dying breed; not just because we are going to be denied that source of entertainment, but because, for actors like myself, anybody who has ever done a soap can tell you it is the most incredible intense work experience you can ever put yourself into. Truly, the only people who don’t respect daytime are the people who haven’t worked in it. It’s incredibly hard work and I learned from the best. I was very well cared for on that show, people who became my friends….I consider them to be the best in the biz.”

Fillion also mentioned that his old castmates were more than just his co-workers.

“These people are like family to me, I absolutely love and adore them. When I have guest actors on Castle that have a soap background, it’s like we are in a secret club. We know, we’ve been there. We know what it’s like,” he added.

Fillion’s goal wasn’t to be an actor with the perfect kind of fame. Initially, he was hoping to follow in his family’s footsteps and work in education. However, an audition tape he sent on a whim ended up accidentally changing his entire career trajectory.

“It’s hard for me to believe that I got that job,” Fillion once said about One Life to Live in an interview with Soap Central. “I was going to school to be a teacher. I come from a family of teachers. It’s a very noble profession. A reel that I had done somehow went from Edmonton to Vancouver to L.A. to New York and I got a call to ask if I wanted to audition for One Life to Live. Three weeks later I was on the show.”

It was noted that Fillion had previous acting experience in theater. But doing television proved to be a much different experience, and prepared the Superman star for his long career in front of the camera. One Life to Live taught Fillion how to perform without an audience.

 “The audience is right there. You hear them gasp, or the laugh, or clap. Acting for television… it’s a bit of a machine. The difference is that it became about the acting challenges that were present. Taking away the audience allowed for just the cameras, the lighting, and the actors — it’s really a team effort,” he said.

Fillion became an even more experienced and versatile actor after leaving One Life to Live. He dabbled in movies, sitcoms, and hour-long dramas. But he still ranked soap opera actors as some of the hardest working performers in show business.

“If you want to see hard work done by professionals who know what they’re doing, watch the soaps,” he said. “Anyone who says different has never watched a soap opera. I learned a lot of things both professional and personally from that show.”

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