Days of Our Lives Watching Days of Our Lives

[Daniel Avery]

I was reading a recap of the latest episode and the recapper pointed out that while Deidre Hall/Marlena arrived in "heaven" in a lovely white suit, she was wearing camel-colored heels. "Is Days too cheap to get La Hall a matching pair of shoes?" someone asked. Actually, it is a brilliant telegraphing of where she really is, because the idea of her shoes not matching her outfit is indeed Hell on Earth for Marlena.

 

[Monzo]

How are the episodes for the international market delivered? Are they already cut to the usual 36 minutes or do stations have to do it themselves if they suddenly can't air 48 minutes?

I'm surprised Days doesn't cut the episodes down to half an hour. That's what I expected so that in the streaming competition there would be no more filler scenes, instead we got as many filler scenes as ever.

Isn't it expensive to produce more minutes and shouldn't Days save money on Peacock?

 

[Daniel Avery]

If they were to re-edit the show to 30-minute episodes, I don't think there would be any cost savings. They would have to pay editors for long hours of editing, and the paychecks of the recurring actors would have to be adjusted since they get paid per episode. Despite their best efforts, a lot of already-filmed material might end up on the cutting-room floor, which might make the scenes feel disjointed and certain dialogue-based plot developments might end up being left out (since the editors will not know when the character's dialogue might be dropping an important hint). They might be forced to go back and film new scenes to drop into the episodes just to clean up the mess made by bad editing, which would mean additional headaches and expense. I'm sure Ron Carlivati would feel put out, seeing his material being switched around and decisions about scene order, lengths, etc. being made by non-writers.

If they were to ask him to start writing new episodes in that half-hour format (which would be what...19 minutes?), that's one thing....but going back and doing surgery on the already-completed episodes would be problematic.

 

[Monzo]

George DelHoyo first appeared on Days in 1986, Bryan Dattilo joined the show in 1993. Right now, their two characters' paths cross in prison. Bryan Dattilo tells a story that shows how little George DelHoyo knows about Days' history:

“It’s the first time I ever worked with him, ever met him; we never really ran into each other because we didn’t have scenes or storyline together. When we had our first scenes, he really wanted to rehearse. He was amazing with it. He said, ‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ He said, ‘Let’s do it one more time.’ I said, ‘Okay, it’s up to you,’ because I never say no to more rehearsal. Well, we must have rehearsed this thing, I don’t know how many times — like, for an hour! The next day George came up to me and said, ‘Bryan, I’m so sorry.’ I asked, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘I had no idea that you had been on the show for so long. I thought it was your first episode. I just wanted to make sure you felt comfortable.’ I told him, ‘I just wanted to make sure you were comfortable because you kept wanting to run the scene.’ It was really funny.”

 

[Monzo]

What a surprise!

‘Days Of Our Lives’ Renewed For Two Additional Seasons By Peacock

The adventures in Salem are expected to continue on NBC’s sister streamer, Peacock: Days of Our Lives has been picked up for an additional two seasons. The renewal will take the daytime sudse…

deadline.com

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

What a surprise!

‘Days Of Our Lives’ Renewed For Two Additional Seasons By Peacock

The adventures in Salem are expected to continue on NBC’s sister streamer, Peacock: Days of Our Lives has been picked up for an additional two seasons. The renewal will take the daytime sudse…

deadline.com

I think this is good news for soap fans overall. I’ve been apprehensive about how soaps would perform on streaming platforms but there’s obviously an audience there / the existing audience is willing to follow the show online. Maybe in the future, if networks are considering dropping a soap from their linear schedules, streaming may be seen as the alternative option rather than cancelling a show outright.

 

[Monzo]

I got happy when I read the news, although there are times when Days is too supernatural for me that I don't want to watch it anymore, but when it's more grounded for soaps standards, it can keep me entertained.

I find it strange how few comments there are on the renewal. Just two on Deadline, more on Soap Opera Digest (while there's more talk that most stopped watching when it went off the air), but when Days got cancelled on NBC, there were way more comments. Maybe Days is like Dancing with the Stars - it's suggested that almost everyone who's watched it on TV before is now streaming it so I should do it, too, but no one really knows how successful the show is. Being in the daily top 10 doesn't mean much if you don't know how successful in streaming numbers the top 3 shows are.

In my opinion Days is on the perfect streaming service right now. Peacock wants to be more successful and cancelling a show whose viewers come to the platform daily and thus get recommendations for other shows is useful. I don't think CBS soaps are in danger of cancellation, but I'm always worried about General Hospital. Maybe Disney would try one season of GH on Hulu, but since the competition is stronger there, I don't see GH surviving there.

 

[Daniel Avery]

The cynic in me always comes out when I hear about these renewals. Rather than saying "Oh, good---the show will continue," I think "I wonder what new concessions had to be made in casting, studio space, and budget for the network to agree?" And then I wait a month or two to see the concessions shake out.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I don't think CBSsoaps are in danger of cancellation, but I'm always worried about General Hospital. Maybe Disney would try one season of GH on Hulu, but since the competition is stronger there, I don't see GH surviving there.

Yes, I think international sales also bolster the value of B&B (and possibly to a lesser extent Y&R) so it’s unlikely to be going anywhere. GH on the other hand, is ABC’s last soap, which to my limited knowledge isn’t big internationally. So it’s the one most at risk of the last three left on network TV.

 

[Monzo]

I wonder if the intense gay sex scene between Paul and Andrew aired (or will air) in countries where Days actually still airs during daytime or if it was cut.I think NBC would have cut it if Days was still on air.