Empire

 
Private investigator Cane Haven, black sheep of the wealthy Haven family, just found his boyfriend dead. His older brother Thomas is diddling a teen prostitute his fiancé thinks is his long-lost son. Then there’s nosey bisexual journalist Jesse Jordan...
 
While the seedy soap-opera plot of the Haven family reads like a daytime soap, there’s one major difference: it’s only available online. Empire (EmpireTheSeries.com) is the brainchild of Greg Turner and Brian Hewson, former ABC daytime employees who took their love of soaps and their aspirations as writers to the web. “It’s a hard business to get into…since there are [fewer and fewer soaps]….We figured we had to do it for ourselves,” says Turner.
 
The result has been juicy. Now in its third season, Empire has an ever-growing loyal audience, including many longtime soap fans deserted by the cancellation of favorites like Guiding Light and As the World Turns. It boasts followers on five continents and—most surprisingly—is made on a shoestring budget.
 
But the upside of being independent has allowed the writers to inflect heavier—and more graphic—gay plotlines. “Almost any gay man you meet has watched soaps,” says Hewson. “It is a segment of the population that should be represented on the show because it makes up a large percentage of the audience.” Turner adds that while they feel the show is in the traditional soap frame (there are plenty of heterosexual characters), “[we] try to take advantage of the fact that we are on the web. I don’t think any TV show this season had a gay blowjob scene in their season premiere!”