DAYS: Looks like the soap might be in trouble.

[PhoenixRising05]

I think 2:00PM. I think they would want Days to have a strong lead-in so it would be Y&R, B&B, and Days.

[R!ck]

SFT lasted a little over four years and EON lasted nine. Not to bad IMO

[Soapsuds]

Gawd if Days goes to CBS, I am done with soaps! NBC can have Days.

[Chris B]

Yes and the other two soaps weren't nearly as successful (at that point) as DAYS. My Three Sons switched networks and is currently the longest running sitcom of all time. Buffy is another successful move. It can work!

[sungrey]

The switch to ABC did work for Edge, better than it did for Search going to NBC. The problem Edge ran into was the audience loss. When Donald May was killed off as Adam Drake, the show lost about one-third of its audience. Back then, yes, the numbers were higher, but that's still a big loss for one show to suffer.

Up until about late 1982, Edge was actually ranked above Another World, Search, Texas and The Doctors in the Nielsens. In big markets like New York, Chicago and LA, Edge did very well. The problem was the audience loss from stations in other markets that aired Edge at 10am, 10:30 am, etc (on a one-day delay, as this was before the era of same-day satellite feeds) or chose not to carry the soap at all.

Having said all that... I wouldn't put it past NBC to be doing something like this.

[Mason]

This is all so damn depressing. Things just seem to be looking more bleak by the day.

[SteveFrame]

SFT lasted for several years after it moved to NBC but it lost half of its ratings with the move.

And SFT was still very popular. In it's last year at CBS it still had a 6.8 and ranked 8th out of 15 soaps on the air for the season.

The next year when they moved to NBC they dropped to 14 out of 15 and 2.7 rating.

EON did better for ABC but still lost much of it's ground from CBS to ABC.

Capitol also suffered esp. during it's first season from CBS fans who were mad at CBS cancelling SFT for it. They were not even able to achieve in their first 2 seasons the ratings that Search For Tomorrow had for it's last season. Their second season they only finished with a 6.0 average. In fact they never finished a season as high as SFT did.

So cancelling one show for another - no matter what the show might be is not a good thing.

Another thing that CBS will definitely think about. No matter what people say about GL being a ratings loser - the show makes money. Just this last year they had the article that the show had saved so much money with the cuts they had made that they could now afford to bring some contract players back and do some other things. GL is making money for them and saving them money because of the budget they operate off of. They will definitely have to think about that and weigh it against the cost of producing Days.

I hope Days is picked up because I don't want to see it end either, but I am trying to look at it realistically too. I just don't see the picture the same as it was when ABC wanted it a few years back. ABC and CBS are experiencing pains of their own now - more than then. And all of that will definitely factor in and if CBS starts losing money on it's big money maker The Price Is Right they will have to make up for it somewhere and they won't do it with a costly soap opera. They have said many times that TPIR is very cheap to produce because of the product placement on the show.

[Brandeis]

That's how I see it too. I'm royally pissed off, I feel like crying, but it's just not there for DAYS. The whole genre is hemmoraging. DAYS' only hope on CBS would be if ATWT and GL were cancelled right now and whatever is put in their place didn't work. Two years later CBS might be more willing to give a cheap version of DAYS a try.

I still cling to the hope that a lot can happen in two years.

ALL WE ARE SAYING IS GIVE DAYS A CHANCE

[bellcurve]

For some reason this does not surprise me. Corday seems like the kind of guy that doesn't know how to deal with budget issues. Wasn't DAYS at one point, the most expensive soap on the air to produce?!

I could see DAYS ending before 2009 as well if these issues are going on and he can't pony up the money to the cast. Uh, DVD sales anyone? LOL.

Also, if DAYS did move to CBS, consider both ATWT and GL finished. PGP won't juice revenue from a one-soap entity, neither will they sell to CBS.

ALSO, DAYS, even though it comes with an expensive pricetag, is an LA show, therefore making it way cheaper to produce than a NY show.

The mags will heavily promote DAYS shifting to CBS because they don't want to lose their readership. GH and DAYS are the biggest magazine cash cows followed by Y&R.

[SteveFrame]

Oh you are right Bellcurve that the mags will promote the hell out of it.

I'm sorry as much as I love Days I don't see it as a good thing if any show is cancelled to make room for it. If it is 2 shows then it will be really bad. We would go from 8 shows to 6 in no time flat.

Right now I know that even though I love Days I would take it personally if ATWT or GL were cancelled for it. And I think a lot of fans would too.

And the damage to the genre as a whole would be bad too. IMO

[SpiritualJunkie]

While I think Days is decent right now...I will be PISSED if it moves to CBS and leads to ATWT and GL's cancellation. Especially GL. That show does so much more with its crap budget than Days. And all those talented actors definitely do not deserve to lose their jobs.

[Brandeis]

These network switchovers are nearly 30 years old! That's more than my whole lifetime, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks this.

Don't get me wrong. I WANT days to survive. Sometimes I wonder if all the crazy stunts DAYS has pulled over the years (starting with JER's first run and Marlena's possession) were mandated by NBC to kill the show but caught on in spite of it, so NBC had to stick with it. I wonder if the NBC decision being changed is DAYS' best hope.

[Evan]

I've watched DAYS since the 1980s. I'd hate to see the soap cancelled.

Unfortunately, the rot set in with JRE's second tenure as headwriter(2003-2006), and while I think Hogan Sheffer is doing an admirable job, much of the damage is sadly irreversible.

I'll be unpopular for saying this, but my remedy would firstly involve writing Marlena and John off DAYS: both actors are expensive, losing them would help the budget problems.

I'm not a fan of the younger characters: most of them would go, if I was in charge.

I'd rather focus on the remaining vets(Bo/Hope, Steve/Kayla, Victor, Caroline, Maggie, Alice), and DAYS needs Jack back - Matt Ashford would willingly take a pay cut.

[KMan101]

This may sound silly, but I personally think, to save a few bucks, soaps should stop spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on clothes and start buying off the rack.

I know it sounds silly and probably wouldn't even help much at all, but still, the budget for wardrobe must be through the roof on each soap. It's ridiculous.

I personally want to see ATWT and GL get new writers and a new direction. Neither soap is downright horrible (although some say GL is -- I disagree to some extent) and I don't think they should be canceled for DAYS, as much as I love DAYS. I think eventually we might see some cable based soaps. Sounds silly now, sure, but I think it could work, on some level.

[RionPassions]

That's simply not going to happen. Marlena is Days.