And The Winners Are...

No doubt, it's been a long weekend for the 10 soap star hopefuls who participated in The Early Show's Screen Test series last week. Online voting took place Friday and Saturday. On Monday morning, Courtney Cole and Jon Rowland were announced as winners.

Courtney Cole, who performed first with "As The World Turns" star Tamara Tunie won with 26.21 percent of the votes for women. Amy Culbertson and Buffy Cannon followed with strong second and third place standings of 22.21 percent and 21.58 percent respectively. Megan Goldkamp received 16.98 percent of the vote and Megan Gunning came in last with 13.03 percent of the votes for women.

In the male category, Jon Rowland who performed Thursday with ATWT's star Mark Collier won with 29.66 percent of the votes for men. Rob Feinberg came in second ,receiving 22.59 percent of the votes. Dustin Price, Benjamin Mathes and Ben Parker were judged pretty evenly by viewers. They got 17.69 percent, 15.64 percent and 14.42 percent of the votes for men, respectively.

"As The World Turns" Executive Producer Christopher Goutman said the 10 actors offered outstanding performances. "We have more glitches in our studio than we do here live," he said about the screen tests.

In choosing young actors, he said, he looks for the ingredients that make a good soap opera, "confidence, personality, passion."

Both winners, Courney and Jon, proved they have what it takes to make it. They stopped by The Early Show to perform a romantic scene live and their final kiss had to be interrupted by The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm and Goutman.

From April 21-25, the 10 actors competing did their screen-test live on The Early Show with the assistance of As the World Turns' stars Mark Collier (Mike Kasnoff), Terri Colombino (Katie Frasier), Tamara Tunie (Jessica Griffin), Michael Park (Jack Snyder) and Martha Byrne (Lily Walsh Mason Snyder Grimaldi Snyder/Rose D'Angelo) during the week of the April 21.

The 10 screen tests were recapped on the April 26 edition of The Saturday Early Show. On Monday, April 28, the two winners you selected through our online poll will share a scene on The Early Show.

It is all part of the As The World Turns 47th anniversary celebration.

Goutman and casting director Mary Clay Boland discovered the actors participating in the "Soap Star Screen Tests" during the As The World Turns "Catch Us If You Can" Bus Tour, a talent search for college students who aspire to acting careers.

The bus visited nine college campuses in eight states, and 150 were chosen to appear on As The World Turns. The 10 taking part in the competition are definite standouts.

"The talent we discovered during the bus tour was so overwhelming that we couldn't let it go to waste," explains Goutman. "The 'Soap Star Screen Tests' provides us – and the fans - a unique opportunity to recognize untapped young talent. And who knows, maybe we'll discover another future Emmy or Oscar winner."

The new discoveries join an illustrious group of artists who've appeared on As The World Turns throughout the show's history, including Hollywood names: Jason Biggs, Dana Delany, William Fichtner, Lauryn Hill, James Earl Jones, Julianne Moore, Ming Na, Parker Posey, Meg Ryan, James VanDerBeek, John Wesley Shipp, Marisa Tomei, Cicely Tyson and Steven Weber.