When it comes to reality series being inspired by daytime soaps—such as ABC's proposed reality version of General Hospital— it's really a situation of been there, seen that. For the past two decades, unscripted television has borrowed heavily from scripted, serialized daytime dramas. In fact, they've done so with the help of veterans of the daytime soap community! Here are 5 reality series with strong ties to the daytime soap world.

No. 5:  Dirty Soap

In 2011, E! debuted this unscripted drama from producers and All My Children alums Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. Featuring suds stars: Kelly Monaco (Dancing With The Stars, General Hospital, Port Charles), Kirsten Storms (General Hospital, Days of Our Lives)  Nadia Bjorlin (Days of Our Lives), Brandon Beemer (The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives), John-Paul Lavoisier (One Life to Live), Farah Fath (One Life to Live, Days of Our Lives) and real-life married couple Galen Gering (Days of Our Lives, Passions) and his wife Jenna, DS only ran for one season.

The series did manage to create a new breakout star in Bjorlin's mean-as-hell mama Fary. It also shed light into why Storms and Fath often vacillate back and forth between friends and frenemy status.     
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Don't expect Kelly Cutrone to be shedding tears over the end of MTV's The City—or anything else for that matter. According to New York Magazine's The Cut blog, the boss from haute couture hell not only has a new MTV show in the works, but also a daytime talker! READ MORE

No, it's not a typo folks. The Hills star and wannabe singer Heidi Montag will sit in as a guest co-host for Elisabeth Hasselbeck on The View. Montag makes her co-host debut Oct. 1. One question: WHY!?

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The merciless monster that is Reality Television continues to seek out and devour much of the broadcasting and cable landscape. Forgive all the vivid imagery, I've been reading J.K. Rowling. Okay, no I haven't, but I thought that would sound good. Anyhoo, as Luke just reported,  Lisa Rinna, who had breakout roles on Days of Our Lives and Melrose Place, once upon a time when television was scripted, has booked a TV Land reality sitcom for herself and hubby Harry Hamlin, he of L.A. Law fame. READ MORE

The City - MTV Shows

Ellen Wheeler's Guiding Light role model The Hills is getting a New York City spinoff called, you guessed it, The City.  Marcy Rylan's Lizzie Spaulding could so be the Springfield version of Lauren Conrad or Whitney Port, if they would just write her that way.

Oh and another thing, both The Hills and The City have arch-nemesis for Lauren and Whitney, who does Lizzie have? No one. Why is it that "reality" TV does soap better than soaps?

Never fear fans of Guiding Light, Ellen Wheeler's source of inspiration, MTV's docusoap The Hills, will return for a fifth season, says Backseat Cuddler. Whew, that was close. For a while there I thought Ellen might start watching Heroes to get ideas from, then she'd turn one of the soap's heroines into a superhero! Oh wait, she already did that once. Nevermind. GAWD Beth Ehlers is SO freaking ungrateful! Ellen didn't give Kim Zimmer or Mandy Bruno a cape and the ability to fly. Actresses.