j swift

Random Thoughts Poor Gwen is always the last to know. That character really needs a win in the romance department, because she’s become the Salem equivalent of Debbie Downer. If Lexie gets pregnant, I may fall into hysterical fits of laughter. I don't assume it, but it did cross my mind. I’m very intrigued by ARO Wealth Management — the letters have to be a clue — and the number of literary references is genuinely fun (Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Gabi's use of the Emmerson quote. etc). Also amused that Kate can stroll into Maggie’s house with one carry‑on bag and announce she’s moving in today. Peak Kate Roberts energy. But, I mourn the missed opportunity to make a new family unit out of Joy, Kate, and Ari (I love a naughty girl group). Do you think Javi’s drug‑addicted baby momma knew Liam’s drug‑addicted baby momma? JK, (too soon?) I assumed Coriseal is an additive, not a drug itself? Like a preservative that they add to pharmaceuticals. And the 2024 batch got contaminated by arsenic. So, I'm waiting to see if they show Coriseal pills, or like a power (just to understand the logic). The four-day rule has got to be the big clue. Because I thought Holly's symptoms were related to taking Sophia's meds (remember she still had lingering symptoms). But, it seems like there's a plot rule that whatever was ingested causes immediate nausea, and may be lethal within four days. I appreciate when they commit to plot rules in a mystery. Somebody's got to either renovate or sell The Horton Cabin on Smith Island. No TV, no bridge, no WiFi, shoddy cell reception, a well and a septic tank. No, thank you. And half of the women in Salem were kidnapped there. The Hortons need to sell that shack and buy a new space for their extended family and Christmas tree ornaments. I wonder who owns it now? Jennifer (since she owns the family home)? At least they should get a Ring Camera.. The funniest would be if we ever got to meet the ferryman (ferryperson?) who seems to have multiple trips per day to this one tiny island.

I got a kick out of Ari moving into the Pub and the bizarre familial circumstance of living with her great‑grandparents, both from completely different branches of her family tree. Roman → Sami → Will → Ari Kate → Lucas → Will → Ari The only pop‑culture equivalent I could think of was if Dakota Johnson had a kid with Jack Schlossberg. And then nineteen years later, that kid got in an argument with Dakota Johnson, so she decided to move in with Tippi Hedren and former president John F. Kennedy while they’re running the Kennedy Family Clam Chowder business and a local Air B&B. Totally relatable. Ari moved into the local boarding house (AKA Kate Roberts-Brady's Home for Single Ladies).

Here's what I'll need explained in the arsenic story. We've been told the arsenic contamination was found in 2024, and once the manufacturing error was made, George buried the drugs on Smith Island. And yet, EJ infamously the DA in 2024, but Tate and Holly spent the entire summer hiding out on Smith Island avoiding lacrosse camp, and never got sick from the water. I am willing to accept that EJ is trying to set up Kristen, who was CEO in 2024. But, the Tate and Holly part only works if George buried the drugs after they left. So, then why be so specific about 2024 that it shows up in a variety of scripts?

I have two guesses for ARO Theo: He heard Gabi wanted to invest in Titan, so he bought the loan to spite her. And now he serves as the human form of the loan on the mansion. So, if Titan misses a payment, Maggie is out and Theo moves in. Dimitri/Vivian: Just because the A in ARO made me think of Alamain/Alamania.

I'm betting my $.05 on Tracey Thompson as new headwriter. She's at BTG. She's worked on Y&R before. And she is probably less expensive than other candidates.

Once more for those who in back who are slow when it comes to math, and need it broken down simply. 📊 DAYS Math, Made SimpleTL;DR: DAYS is cheap to make, heavily watched, and brings in more value per minute than it costs. Peacock keeps it because the economics quietly work.People talk about DAYS like it lives or dies by “Top 10 tiles,” but that’s not the real story. The show runs on about $25M a year for 169–250 episodes — roughly $100K each. With 3.1-4.2 Billion minutes streamed annually, each episode ends up with around 500,000 full‑episode‑equivalent views. However, on Peacock’s side, 46M subscribers and $2B in quarterly revenue works out to about $14.49 per subscriber per month. A loyal DAYS viewer watching 21 episodes a month (about 840 minutes) effectively generates 1.3–2 cents per minute in revenue. Streaming value is about total minutes watched, not popularity. If a show delivers huge consumption at a low cost per minute, it’s the better deal. That’s why DAYS — with 4.3B minutes in early 2026 at roughly $166 per minute — outperforms a “top streamer” like Love Island US, which racks up 18B minutes but costs around $12,000 per minute. One is simply a far more efficient use of budget. Promise me, the next anyone catastrophizes about DAYS failing because they don't like the creative choices, remind them that there is no correlation between those two factors. Like many other shows, taste does not determine profit.

As of mid‑May 2025, Season 60 ranked as the 4th most‑streamed original program on Peacock, while costing only 1% of the budget required for the platform’s top‑ranked series. Season 59 delivered 52 million hours watched, and in 2025 the show has averaged 10 million hours per month, based on Errol’s reporting. Peacock does not release weekly or monthly “most‑streamed minutes” data, because that metric is not used internally to determine a title’s popularity.

because every lil' guy wants their own Aunt Liz

See, after Johnny, Tate, and Holly never searching their birth, I found it refreshing that at least one kid had the gumption to google themselves. Loving the new font and clean look of this thread. It is like someone came and wiped away all the cobwebs and it all fresh and new.

One other side note, because now I've re-read 1993-1994. I think that I found a ret-con issue. In 1993 after John finds out that Stefano is Kristen's father. It is not like I am claiming to have found nuclear fission, clearly mistakes happen. But, I found this to be amusing. In 1993, Stefano becomes deadly ill, so Kristen tells John that she needs to be by her father's side, but not to worry about the deadly disease, because she's adopted. Given, that I've always thought of Kristen as being adopted, until the more recent cannon that she is Stefano's biological child, it is interesting that in 1993, the week before Tony comes to town to announce that he is Kristen's fiancée. Kristen is saying that she can't give blood to her dying father, because she was adopted. So, the current reverse in cannon, neglects that detail. It is so funny to read this and then see Kristen and Tony in the crypt this week, 32 years later. That's more than half the show's history at this point, amazing.

I asked my soap historian GPT to help pull together the best available sources on Daniel Pilon’s run, and here’s what the research confirms: * Pilon played Max Dubujak on *Ryan’s Hope* from 1983–88. * He began appearing as Alan Spaulding on *Guiding Light* in 1988. * An academic source notes that he appeared as **Max and Alan simultaneously in November 1988 * His later-life interviews mention major upheavals, including losing his home in the Northridge earthquake and declaring bankruptcy in 1994. That’s the factual foundation. Now for the human side of it. I’ll admit Pilon was never my favorite Alan. The Spauldings are supposed to have that patrician, Midwestern money vibe, and suddenly here comes this very European-sounding gentleman sweeping into Springfield like he wandered in from a different soap entirely. It created a strange tonal shift, at least in my memory. Whether he was intended to be temporary is hard to pin down, but honestly, looking at what he was dealing with in his real life, I don’t know that the show ever had a truly stable window to figure it out. He was going through marital strife, while being talked about as the "next James Bond" back in Canada, and juggling work on two soaps at once is a lot. Under those circumstances, the question of whether he was the “right” type for Alan becomes almost secondary to the fact that he was working through multiple emergencies while stepping into one of GL’s biggest roles. So for me, the story of his Alan isn’t just about casting fit. It’s about an actor navigating chaos and the show adapting on the fly. Also, the proverbial soap hill that I would defend its honor, is that Ron Raines in the final week was so amazing, that for me, it erases all prior memories of his performance.

From TMZ, the Mia thing is a very trashy matter. She's accused of renting a furnished apartment. Then moved out in the middle of the night and took all the furniture and the TVs.

That's funny, I totally didn't think about the possibility that they'll pin this on someone else. I assumed they'd just roll him into the water. Obviously, I would not make an ideal hitman. I hope it's not Laura.