2005 Soap Opera Digest "Best and Worst" Awards

Biggest Waste of Talent

Ben Masters
(Julian, PASSIONS)

Sure, you can still catch Ben Masters on the soap most days of the week, but quantity of screen time is not the same thing as quality of screen time. Back in the day, Masters cracked us up as the slurring, sarcastic, sex-driven Crane. However, now that Jules has won back lady love Eve, the poor guy's lost his mojo.

Yeah, yeah, we get that Eve's love changed Julian into a man with a heart and all that, but did he have to lose his funny bone? Gone are the sarcastic one-liners and hilariously humiliating scenes (diapers, Tarzan garb). "Evian" were pretty racy (granted, cocaine, cocktails and cameras were involved). Certainly, PASSIONS can take advantage of the chemistry between Masters and Tracey Ross (Eve) to stir up excitement and fun.

Masters has proven that he is fabulous in comedic situations. We've uh, Ben there, and demand to go back.