The Times noticed something about the soap opera As The World Turns, which has featured three oh-so-groundbreaking gay kisses in the past year: It is the only soap opera that has gained young viewers over the past seven months. All the other soaps lost young people and are basically left with olds and adult diaper commercials. Sure, maybe forbidden gay love will energize soap operas the way class tension used to, as the Times suggests. Or maybe As The World Turns is just the latest show to learn what Ellen DeGeneres figured out so long ago: introducing a gay subplot is a great way to keep an otherwise weak show on life support, at least in those increasingly rare genres devoid of homosexual storylines. [Times]