Daytime legend Jackie Zeman to be honored with tribute episode for ‘The Bay’

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Dee Wallace in 'The Bay' tribute episode
Dee Wallace in 'The Bay' tribute episode. Photo Courtesy of LANY Entertainment.

“The Bay” will release its highly anticipated tribute episode honoring daytime TV legend Jackie Zeman who starred in her Emmy-nominated role of Sofia Madison on the series for 8 seasons, prior to her passing in 2023. #Powerjournalist Markos Papadatos has the scoop.

The special episode is set to air “LIVE” on Friday, December 27th at 5p ET / 2p PT with encore presentations at 10p ET / 7p PT and again at 1a ET / 10p PT exclusively on PopStar! TV. 

The episode titled “Sofia” will honor the character Zeman played for 8 seasons, Southern Belle Sofia Madison, and as previously mentioned, will feature several special guest stars including film icon Dee Wallace (E.T., Cujo) as Sofia’s sister Charlotte Grace and two of Zeman’s former General Hospital castmates Emmy winner Tamara Braun (Days of Our Lives) and Leigh McCloskey (Dallas) as important characters who show up in Bay City to also honor Sofia.

The special words written to describe Zeman’s character Sofia in a segment of the episode are written by Zeman’s real-life daughters, Cassidy and Lacey Rose.

Creator Gregori J. Martin remarked, “It was an honor for us to have Jackie’s daughters Lacey Rose and Cassidy contribute beautiful words to describe their mother that we implemented into our script and will play on screen this Friday.” 

Martin also thanks “Beyond The Gates” Executive Producer and Creator Michele Van Jean for suggesting the name of Tamara Braun’s character, Rita Elise Kennedy. Symbolizing several important relatives to Zeman.

Filmed at Associated Television Studios in Burbank, CA, “The Bay” is written, directed and produced by Martin and is owned by the independent production company LANY Entertainment, in association with She Mogul Media.

Over the last decade “The Bay” has won 23 Daytime Emmy Awards with 64 total Daytime Emmy nominations. Receiving five (5) Daytime Emmy nominations in 2024 for Outstanding Daytime Drama Series, Supporting Actor (x2), Outstanding Writing, and for Outstanding Directing.

The series has produced over 100 episodes of “The Bay” and is currently available on Tubi, Prime Video, and Popstar! TV, with several seasons also available for streaming on Peacock and The Roku Channel.

The drama series airs weekdays on Popstar! TV and is available live on Plex, STIRR, Local Now, and Distro. The Popstar! TV app is available on several major platforms including Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Vizio. 

POPSTAR! TV will have a special #bingethebay day on Tuesday December 31st with plans to re-releasing all episodes of season 9 leading up to its season finale at 5pm ET / 2pm PT.  Season 9 episodes will later become available on several streaming services in 2025.