DAYS: November Sweeps spoilers

[KevC1980]

i'm just a spoiler whore when it comes to days...so i love surfing the net looking for Days news..then sharing/discussing it on here..and telling some of my friends and my mom who watches...

Spoilers don't stop me from watching, but Gabe i can totally see your point...

[DaysForever]

I understand what you mean, Gabe. I've been meaning to say this for a long time, but now is the right time to say it. I think The Early Edition site should be shut down. Most people read that, and decide if they're not going to watch that particular day's show. I think that's what drives the ratings down, but I also agree with you that DAYS should start toning it down a bit where the spoilers are concerned. And I also agree with you Phoenix, that they're just trying to bring the former viewers back or even some new viewers by laying out detailed spoilers. But come on, these are a little too detailed, IMO.

On the other hand, I did like what it said about J&M's trip to Canada. It didn't say exactly what the danger is that they run into. Although they could've left out the part of them going to Canada for what reason. If the viewers didn't know why they are going on the adventure, maybe it would make them tune it.

Who knows anymore?

And thank God that NBC is finally promoting DAYS in primetime. I remember last Friday, they aired a promo for the following week 3 times; once during every hour. They also aired a promo during The Biggest Loser this past week and once last night during 1 vs. 100. Great job on NBC's part. I hope they keep it, and I know they will because they want DAYS to succeed.

I'm just lovin' DAYS right now. This is the best I've ever seen it. (I started watching in Jan. '04)

[Vee]

This is the best I've seen it in at least ten, if not twelve or thirteen years. I say that since I loved some of the stories in that period, but they weren't necessarily very well-written and scripted, thanks to James Reilly.

[DaysFanJean]

Spoilers actually keep me watching. I love to know something is going to happen and then watch it unfold. Of course, I'm a Days fan and love every bit of what goes on, even what I don't like. With the intermixing of characters and the short and long scenes, it's pretty difficult for picky viewers to see what is going on if they don't watch the whole show. To me it's like reading a few paragraphs of each chapter of a book and then saying you read the book....LOL, which meant you got your own idea of what the book was about and not the true story. To me, watching the setting, the clothing, the actors action in delivering the lines, the looks, the body language, everything makes what happens different than the black and white words. The more spoilers the merrier for me.

[ademption]

Thanks for the spoilers, DaysfanJean. I think that John is going to go missing/be kidnapped late November and Marlena doesn't find him until February. Perhaps then they have a wedding?

I have to agree with those who say that there are TOO many spoilers for Days out there!! I'm a major spoiler feen and wouldn't have said that a few weeks ago. But I've been checking out various boards and I've realized that Days' fans are different from other fans. A lot of Days' fans are not total fans of the show so when they realize that their favorite characters/couples are not going to appear on the show for that particular episode, they refuse to watch the show. So even if Hogan wrote a particular character that they hated before in an entirely new and different way, they wouldn't know b/c they've already come to the conclusion that the character is hopeless and a waste of their time to watch.

Plus, Days' fans are VERY impatient. When Hogan started giving out fall previews say in August, fans expected the spoilers that he talked about to come to their screen that week or maybe the following weeks. Whereas, I think Hogan was giving his long-term vision of where he wanted to take the show and his timeframe was MONTHS (6 months) not weeks. B/c of this misunderstanding, we now have a lot of people on various message boards who are saying that: "Hogan is a liar. He's just like JER. He's just leading people on. He's all talk and no action. He's a hack!! The show should have just kept JER if Sheffer wanted to use Billie to break up Steve/Kayla and Bo/Hope."

I also think that there was an unwritten/unspoken expectation from fans that once a new headwriter came onto the show that a miracle would occur and Sheffer would magically erase EVERYTHING that they didn't like during JER/other writers' tenure IMMEDIATELY. So when they see him trying to redefine characters using JER's history (ie Bo/Billie), they get pretty pissed!! Too bad for them, they didn't realize that during Hogie's first stint at ATWT, he used previous history under the former hated regime (Laiman) to develop characters and eventually tell his story. He is not going to shove JER's history into the "dustbin of history." He's going to deal with it to further the development of characters.

Also, if the network honchos are reading this thread, here's my suggestion. Don't give out "bad" spoilers. Bad spoilers are those which you know are going to drive fanbases crazy. I'll give you 2 examples. Steve/Kayla fans were extremely upset when they read that Steve asked Hope to get a necklace so that he could give to Billie. Bo/Hope fans have been upset for the past week that Chelsea finds Bo/Billie in bed together and takes pictures of them to presumably give to Hope. They've been threatening to stop or have already stopped watching the show b/c of these spoilers. Here's my suggestion to Days' people. Don't give out ANY spoilers about interlopers. These particular fanbases can't handle it. In the daily spoilers, be very brief and general. Instead of saying that "Chelsea told Billie that she wanted her parents to get back together," just have the spoilers say that "Chelsea and Billie got into a heated argument." Talk about the emotions generated from the scene, not the subject matter of the scene itself.

The necklace spoiler was a particularly bad spoiler to give b/c after reading Monday's EE, I don't think that Steve/Nick even gives Billie that necklace!! But the end result is that you have a fanbase upset and threatening to stop watching the show (if they haven't already) b/c they don't see any spoilers that they like. Here's some good spoiler hints for you that these fanbases want to see: J&M kissed. J&M made love. Lumi kissed. Lumi made love. Bo and Hope kissed. Bo and Hope made love. Steve and Kayla kissed. Steve and Kayla made love. At the end of the day, that's all these fanbases want. Storylines are secondary to them. They don't want to go for the ride to see how the storyline turns out. They want their couples and they want their couples NOW and they're not going to tolerate any interlopers interfering with their couples, especially not after JER. If Sheffer writes some nice male bonding scenes or family interaction scenes, these people could care less. If it doesn't involve their couple, then it doesn't matter to them. They are not loyal fans of the show. They are loyal fans of their particular couple/character and it makes a HUGE difference.

Days' people if you're reading this, you need to find people to watch the ENTIRE show. There's a reason why Y&R has maintained its' #1 spot throughout the years, despite not having supercouples and all the rest. They have viewers that are loyal to the ENTIRE show so the show's ratings are consistent even if X character leaves or X couple breaks up. There's family bonding and relationship building etc that is integral to the show's success, no matter which couples are paired together. I know that network honchos want a quick fix to Days' problem with instant high ratings but that's not going to work. They would be better off if they can get CONSISTENTLY loyal viewers rather than short-term viewers who are just invested in certain couples/storylines then leave when their fave character leaves or their fave storyline ends....

[darraholic]

I disagree. The majority of viewers don't even look at spoilers.

[GBB]

I don't think detailed spoilers have much of an effect on the ratings, if only because most of the spoilers are posted online and it's the heavily-invested internets fans who are reading them. The internet fanbase makes up just a small percentage of the overall audience. The average viewer is just going to set their TiVO or try to remember to turn the TV on at 1p or catch Soapnet before they go to bed. It's just those who spend waay too much time on this stuf (i.e., "us") who seek out the detailed online spoilers. Most of us aren't going anywhere and it would barely be a blip on the radar if we did.

Well, first of all the neckalce thing never came out ahead of time as a spoiler. Fans only found out about it when it happened on the Canadian day-aheads. There hadn't been a whiff about it in any of the spoilers ahead of time.

Secondly, I think you're painting with an awfully broad brush when you're talking about the couples fanbases. Certainly every board has examples of the kinds of fans you're talking about but they tend to be a few extreme voices. I know I frequent the largest S&K fanboard in addition to several generic Days boards (SON, the sony board, soap central) and it seems to me that you have a few of those extreme voices on every board. They may be the loudest but they certainly aren't in the majority. You also have the fans who only ever post about their couple, but I tend to skim over them after awhile.

Actually I think improved writing is the best way to combat fans who are solely focused on a single couple. I know that when I first came back to Days back in June, I was only interested in Patch and Kayla, and the writing was so godawful that it was very easy for me to focus pretty much only on them. Over the course of the summer, as the writing began to improve, I found myself pulled into other storylines and characters. One thing I think Sheffer is doing an excellent job of right now is finding ways for several of the stories to intertwine with other stories. He's also doing a lot of theme repetition where you can watch similar patterns being explored across different characters and couples. It's becoming more and more difficult to watch with an eye focused on one single couple and anyone who does so is really missing out on the full picture. Giving viewers a reason to want to watch is far more important in the long run that limiting spoilers.

All of that having been said, I really wouldn't mind if they did limit spoilers, only because I think the spoiler-free see the stories play out with no expectations and have a much better viewing experience. Since I have absolutely no willpower and can't go spoiler free, I wouldn't mind if they gave us less upfront info about what's coming up.

[ademption]

I think there was a spoiler from about.com that said that Steve gives Billie a gift. You're right that spoilers never discussed Hope procuring the necklace from Steve until the day before the episode. My point was that people saw the spoilers with Steve and Billie and immediately got upset instead of waiting to see the scenes play out before reacting to them. Same deal with the upcoming scenes with Billie and Bo. I just think that it would be better if Days/NBC suits just did NOT post spoilers/talk about the interloper's involvement with characters, especially when we know that it's not going to be the endgame. We already know that it's going to be a 1 or 2 day storyline since Steve/Kayla and Bo/Hope end up together. So why even put these blips in the spoilers? It doesn't really serve a purpose IMHO.

I may have been painting the fanbases with a broad brush, but I'm getting really frustrated with what you call the few extreme voices that IMHO don't really care about the overall show just their faves. B/c of their couple-centric attitudes, they've missed out on some wonderful family bonding in the hospital scenes for instance with Bo/Shawn Sr; Bo/Shawn; Frankie/Shawn Sr.; Frankie/Caroline; Frankie/Max etc. Or wonderful buddy/male bonding scenes b/w John/Bo and John/Bo/Abe. Soaps are not just about couples but families and friendships too!!

I think we're on the same page regarding how improved writing will combat single couple focused fans. But that assumes that people won't fast-forward the rest of the show when their fave couples do appear on the show rather than watch the show. I'm glad that Sheffer is mixing the cast together in various scenes and hope that this character mixing will eliminate some of this one character/couple focus.

A couple of weeks ago I would not have been as harsh with the fanbases, but after reading some of the messageboards (both couple-centric and general ones) lately, quite frankly I've really become dispirited. They complain that the show hasn't addressed a particular issue, but b/c they haven't watched the entire show but just their faves, they don't realize that the writers actually did cover that issue OR they're going to cover it in the next day's episode or in the weeks ahead. It's like the writers particularly Hogie can't win regardless of what they do!! To sum up, they're close-minded about the direction of this show and if these "extreme voices" don't get what they want, they're bailing....

I want Days to go back to the time, when it was more family/friendship/couple-based rather than just couple-based. It might not get the huge ratings as ABC Daytime by going that route, but the show would be better off in the long-term if it went that route....

[EricaKane4life]

120 million Americans have the internet in their homes or offices.

Even if only 100,000 people are visiting online soap sites,

it only takes MINUS -50,000 viewers to go from 2.7 to a 2.5

So let's get real.

[EricaKane4life]

Ademption, you certainly are off the mark when it comes to a lot of DAYS fans (like my Aunt)

who could care less about "super couples", but for those who do, that's the fault of DAYS

because they spent the last 25 years promoting their show as a "super couple-oriented"

soap. I still, however, don't believe that's the main problem.

You would be surprised at the number of soap fans who read Daily Recaps and Spoilers for

all of the shows. These people tune in maybe once every two weeks.

People just have very busy lives and if they can be told what's going to happen and what's going

on, then they feel like they're keeping up just fine and don't need to tune in.

I actually watch DAYS, but I keep up with several shows by spoilers and recaps.

300,000 soap fans per day visit Soap Opera Central, so how many visit Spoiler Sites?

Just -25,000 viewers can affect the ratings.

[ademption]

Well, my mom has watched the entire show through thick and thin. I'm not discounting viewers like her or your aunt. I'm just wondering how many viewers are like those that I see on various message boards who only watch the show when their favorite characters/couple appear. I wonder if there was a way for the show to quantify that number. Maybe I'm getting a distorted view of Days' audience by reading various message boards, but that's the impression that I'm getting with some (not all) of them....

[EricaKane4life]

I still say that it's "DAYS" fault.

They spent 25 years establishing themselves as the "super couple" show.

Luke and Laura started it all of course, then came Bo and Hope.

Most soaps don't have that problem.

[ademption]

No, most soaps don't have the super-couple problem. I'm kind of curious to see how Sheffer deals with it. I don't think that he liked happily married couples too much on ATWT. Now that he's on Days, he like the preceding headwriters are limited in what storylines to create for Days which would also be acceptable for supercouple fans. Since they are a supercouple, the only way to break them up is to create a former identity, have one of them get kidnapped/go missing, make one of them have amnesia etc. Having supercouples on a show must have sounded great to Days' people back in the '80s, but they didn't think about the effects of having supercouples on the show for the long-term....

[Ponz]

I don't buy into the argument that supercouples 'limit' what the writer can achieve. There are plenty of ways to create conflict for supercouples without relying on plot driven gimmicks or interlopers. It just takes a bit of imagination on the part of the headwriter. Zack's death is a case in point. This had the potential to be an awesome character-driven story for Bo and Hope. But Reilly took the easy option and used it set up another Bo/Hope/Billie triangle and WTD story. He is not alone, however. Soap writers in general tend to be clueless when it comes to writing for established couples.

I also think it's a myth that supercouple fans are opposed to all conflict. Granted, there are certain "extreme" voices who want instant romantic payoffs but the majority just want good, character-driven stories for their favorites. I agree that some have been too quick to jump on Hogan's back but DAYS has been brazenly ignoring the wishes of viewers for 15 years now. Back in the 80's/early 90's, viewers would have been more patient because they knew the payoff would be forthcoming in the end. It will take more than a change of headwriter to restore that trust...particularly when you've still got incompetent buffoons like Corday and the NBC execs lurking in the background.

[Pest Spray]

Doug and Julie started it all, then came L&L, then came Roman & Marlena. But yes, it is DAYS' problem. They spent years establishing their supercouples, until Corday decides he doesn't care about supercouples anymore (well, besides Bo and Hope) so they just say "screw it".

IMO, being a supercouple just adds to the ways a writer can write for them. IMO, if you write a character driven story, you'd be surprised at how much fans will deal with.