Are sunny days in store for fans of the Days of Our Lives TV series? In an exclusive with soap reporter Michael Maloney, for TV Line, NBC Entertainment Chair, Robert Greenblatt, says negotiations to renew NBC’s last surviving soap opera are set for February. The daytime drama is currently in its 51st broadcast season.
Days of Our Lives premiered on NBC, November 8, 1965. The soap marked its 50th anniversary with a bicentennial celebration of the show’s fictional Midwestern town setting, Salem USA. This was no festive fête for Salem’s finest (or worst). Fan-favorite Peter Reckell returned, so that his character Bo Brady could rescue and reunite with Kristian Alfonso’s Hope Williams Brady, only to die in her arms, the next day.
From TV Line:
“We’re happy with where Days was this year,” NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt tells TVLine. “We have a negotiating period that starts in February. Stay tuned.”
Although the show’s current deal doesn’t expire until September, Days famously tapes many months in advance — as such, it will actually fulfill production of episodes under the current deal as early as March. The good news is that NBC entertainment president Jennifer Salke is “optimistic” a successful re-negotiation will take place.
“We’ve been really happy with the show,” Salke says. “I’ve been over there seeing Ken [Corday, executive producer] and the team and the new writers. They’re an incredible group and we love the show. They got a [ratings] bump in the fall for their 50th anniversary. There’s a creative resurgence and exciting storytelling going on right now.” […]
“I’m optimistic,” Salke adds. “We need to negotiate with Sony [Pictures Television], but I’m optimistic. We would like the show back.”
Based on remarks in numerous cast interviews, Maloney’s comment that Days of Our Lives typically tapes many months ahead, is no exaggeration. Usually the soap shoots five months or more ahead of airdate.
It is a cost-effective measure for the show, but when a character or storyline sinks with fans, the writing staff does not know, until well after the audience has started losing its patience.
The shooting schedule also means when a performer leaves the show or is written off, fans usually find out long ahead of time. Any big death or other reason for a character’s absence, is easy to anticipate, well in advance.
The death of Bo Brady was only the tip of the titanic iceberg of death, destruction, doom, and gloom, dished out to Days fans since November. While NBC is optimistic about renewing Days of Our Lives, fans of the show could use a little of that optimism injected into current storylines.
What do you think? Are you a fan of the Days of Our Lives TV show? Do you think this soap opera should be cancelled, or renewed for a 52nd season?
Keep renewing! This soap wouldn’t have lasted so long if it didn’t have genuine staying power. I’ve been a faithful watcher since high school and I’m now a grandma. This show is such a great outlet. How ingenious of the producers to keep a cast that has run for decades. For an hour a day, I lose myself in the fictional town of Salem and its crazy characters. Alice and Tom had become my 3rd set of grandparents! Please do not cancel this show in order to give the time slot to Megan Kelly. Don’t we have enough news shows?… Read more »
They must renew for another 20 years!
I have enjoyed the show. The writing is awful at times and the scripts strain (ruptures) credibility. Too staged. In 1965, in the days of live shows like Edge of Night and Secret Storm, it was believable, like a stage-play. The likes of McDonald Cary have not been duplicated. With better writing, it can be saved.
I’d LOVE to see Chad and Abigail get back together.
According to what my mother has told me, I have watched this show since it started in 1965 (1 year after I was born). I have grown up and now are growing older with these people as part of my life. Why end a show that is enjoyed so much, by so many, for so long. Losing this show would truly be a loss for my husband (yes, I said my husband) and myself.
Been a fan of Days for a very long time. I started watching this show when I was a kid with my mom. Mom is gone but Days lives on, please don’t cancel this icon of a show. It would definitely be another heart break in my life.
I’ll be SUPER HEARTBROKEN if it’s cancelled. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep it going for another 50 years!! I was born in 1979 and remember my mom putting me down for a nap everyday when it came on, then when I got old enough to start watching it I never stopped. It’s my ALL TIME F-A-V-O-R-I-T-E show!!!!
Please keep Days of Our Lives and don’t cancel the show because I always watch that show since 1976 till now Never stop and love it Please keep them! If it cancel then i will not watch another soaps!!
Love love Days of our Lives. Please do not cancel. I’ve been watching almost from the beginning. Always a new story not another reality, talk show or game show. Please keep the drama going
I’ve been watching DOOL since it began and will certainly continue to do so. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this soap.
I wasn’t born when DOOL premiered, but have been watching it since. I love the show, but I think it needs a firm showrunner with a firm hand.
I’ve been a fan of Days of our Lives since my childhood and still watching it. Enjoy the storyline and renew the show to keep airing on television. There are many fans out there. Please keep the show on.
This is how I feel, Clarissa Peterson. My mom, aunt, and grandmother watched Days before I was born. I so want it to be renewed. That said, I am so weary of the gloom and doom that came with the 50th anniversary.
I have been an avid watcher of Days of Our Lives since the beginning when I was only 7 and my 28 year old daughter and I still watch every day, so please renew this show I have watched every soap that has ever been on NBC and I get upset everytime they are cancelled so please keep this one going..
I know what you mean, Karen. I can’t believe Another World and The Doctors have been gone this long. If NBC fails to renew DOOL, I will likely fail to ever watch an NBC show, ever again.
PLEASE renew DAYS of our LIVES !!!! I can’t stand that so many excellent daytime drams are gone. DAYS is the only GOOD one LEFT !!! PLEASE renew it – PLEASE – PLEASE – PLEASE !!!!!!!!!!!!!
From your lips to God’s ears, Mary.