CBS Television announced on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 that it would cancel the long-running daytime drama As The World Turns. The famous soap opera debuted in 1956 and has aired more than 13,000 episodes. It is presently set to conclude next September.

All might not be lost for fans of life in fictional Oakdale, Illinois, however.

Senior vice president and managing director of TeleNext Media, Brian Cahill told the Associated Press that the show is being offered to other outlets in hopes of keeping it alive.

Along the way the series has featured stars on their way up including Meg Ryan, Marisa Tomei, Julianne Moore, Ming-Na, Courtney Cox, Jason Biggs, Margaret Collin, Kristanna Loken, Parker Posey, Martin Sheen, Steven Webber, and James Earl Jones, among others.

The series has had the longest-running continuing character in television history. Family matriarch Nancy Hughes, played by Helen Wagner, appeared in the show’s first scene in 1956. She is now 91 years old.