When it comes down to it most if not all producers and writers of the soaps have forgotten what a soap is really about. It is about family, romance, intrigue and suspense. Paul having those stupid visions is not what I consider intriguing or suspensful. RH acting is horrid. The faces he makes during those flashes is horrible. There are so many other stories not clicking for all the other soaps but TPTB dont care!

if it were not for Paul's huge fanbase, we would not even be seeing this dumb storyline, this storyline is only being shown because the writers have no clue what else to do with Paul right now, but to make the fanbase happy they still make sure to air him no matter how stupid the story, the spoilers are even worse when it comes to Paul, it's like they are just going to repeat the same storyline we just had early last year again, again just so Paul can be on and make his fanbase happy, same thing for Katie, what is the point of this character right now, nothing, yet to keep her fanbase happy we will put her on screen with a filler storyline and then shove it down our throats. The only reason Gwen keeps on getting storyline is because Jen Landon won a [!@#$%^&*] emmy, big [!@#$%^&*] deal, it does not mean the fans what to see her mug every [!@#$%^&*] day of every week and it sure has hell does not mean I want to see four characters destroyed just to give Jen Landon another storyline, sorry but for me Gwen, Maddie, Adam, Casey, Will are not even in character at all anymore and it is only becuase of this storyline. Enough already, I have beyond had it with these characters they mean nothing to me anymore.

Here is the thing about ATWT sometimes for me, I feel like the storylines are good most of the time, but it is the characters that are in the storylines that suck, because it is the same characters over and over again, all we see is Gwen, Katie, Paul, Emily they are always featured in a storyline never backburnered and shoved down our throats, if I have counted right Gwen has been on 8 straight shows, fans don't want characters shoved down there throats, I think this storyline of Gwen and Maddie's would have been great if it would have been over characters that are not seen on a normal base. I really like Emily's storyline but again, I wish it was someone else in that storyline. Of course there are still crappy storylines no matter who plays them(Paul's storyline for example). As for Katie what is the point of always having her having a man, it is the only storyline she ever has, and it is just plain boring we watched Mike and Katie have sex for almost 2 years and that is it, now that Mike is gone, Katie is on to her next adventure Brad, which again will be all about sex. The only way to fix ATWT is to backburner all of JP's characters and give storylines to other people, I would love to see Dallas get a story, Luke get a storyline, Barbara get a storyline, Bob, Lisa, Kim, Nancy get a nice simple storyline about them, Tom and Margo to get a storyline about THEM not the teens. There are tons of characters on this show yet the only one's that get any airtime are Gwen, Katie, Will, Paul, Emily and that is the problem with this show, same characters non-stop. Why JP CG, or Barbara Bloom think fans only want to see these characters all the time is beyond me, only thing I can come up with is these [!@#$%^&*] fanbases that won't stop pimping there [!@#$%^&*] actors and characters non-stop. Go to the PGP messageboard, only thing on that thing is Katie this Katie that, Paul, Paul, Paul, Gwen, Gwen, Gwen, Meg, Meg, Meg, Emily this Emily that, Brad this Brad that, no wonder this is all we get, that is the board TIIC read.

I agree with you and have said basically the same thing.

As I said in the ATWT thread the other day though that backburnering them is not the answer either. You are just creating another set of problems. These characters obviously have fans and if you backburner them you anger a part of the fans of the show. There just needs to be a better balance. Every story doesn't have to involve them or be all about them. The show just needs to balance out.

The same thing can be said about Days. I don't want any of the current ones to be backburnered. You just create another problem when you do that. They just need to be evened out as well.

I find no reason that any one character should ever be on every episode in a month. And that happens way too often these days or if they are not on everyday they only miss one. As I said before there is always too much of anything. Leave some mystery - leave fans wanting more - don't overkill them. None of the writers these days have much faith in the "absence makes the heart grow fonder" saying except for when it comes to vets of course.

Damm Days is sinking faster than the titantic...Hogan what have you done to the show? Giving John, Marlena, Bo, and Hope frontburner stories immediately needs to be his first line of defense...Fans are clamoring for less newbies and more of the familiar past faces...

WOW. That's just sad, DAYS LOWEST RATINGS EVER. DEMOS, HH, everything. How pathetic.

I didn't think last Friday's episode was good at all, I know many did, but there was still overblow with the same characters and lack of development in any of the stories. Steve's storyline is going around in circles, over and over and over again. There is no good resolution in sight, no real justification as to why they wanted Steve and honestly it doesn't seem like there will be a big "payoff" to his dissappearance.

People (well the DAYS postivers) may say that all the soaps dropped but DAYS has been constantly dropping for the past what 3 weeks? And it is reaching record lows. If Days was HALF as good as it SHOULD be then yes, the ratings may have dropped bu tthey wouldn't drop to 2.1 or record low demos. That's bad and that can't be overlooked no matter how much all the other soaps are dropping. Whatever the "vision" is for the future of DAYS, whatever Corday and Hogan had planned it is not working and has not t been working for pretty much 2+ months now.

And I don't think it is the stories at all completely. The unbalance combined with the stories is what is causing the large drop. Wasn't there some development in Nick and Chelsea's story on Friday, that's a "big event" (especially considering that they have SOOOO many fans, rite?), why weren't they tuning in? And that storyline honestly was written pretty well through out. Their romance ain't half that bad for one that is being shoved down our throats...

But seriously I think this is probably the last of DAYS drops, there is no way it can get to a 2.0... At least I hope not.

The lack of John/Marlena and Bo/Hope has REALLY REALLY REALLY hurt DAYS' numbers!

Hogan better get them a storyline STAT or DAYS could drop even lower.

I probably see Corday and Sheffer having a meeting today or tomorrow after these numbers.

DAYS is #6 in 18-34, that is a demo they were dominating up to a month ago (and years and years before that).

DAYS truly doesn't deserve these numbers....it just all around a sh*tty deal!

ITA King and Hogan. NBC does want Days to fail so they can cancel it. And it makes me so sad to see the fans allowing them to do so.

Why should FANS stick around when whats on is not pleasing them? I'm not going to support DAYS in its current state, there is no appeasing to this fan? Shows need to realize that they need to maintain a fanbase while building another one not just drop one and try to start a new one. DAYS has sucked before and I've stopped before, and if any other soap does what DAYS is doing, like OLTL or GH I'll drop them in a minute too.

NBC has nothing to do with what we are seeing. Corday, Hogan, the writing staff, they are responsible. Even if DAYS was getting record highs, it did not seem like any one was going to change their mind about cancelling it in 2009 anyways. And honestly there have been many opportunities for DAYS to get record highs and they all went out the window mid January when the focus shifted.

IMO, DAYS needs to hire Joseph Mascolo back RIGHT NOW!

Get Steve back to his normal self....get John back to his normal self. Get Bo/Hope/Marlena off the backburner and send these 3 couples (along with Jack when he comes back) and send them to Europe on some adventure storyline that will involve them getting revenge on Stefano for what he did to Steve, finding out IN DETAIL what happened to Steve and have some major secret revealed.

We need another Aremid or Maison Blanche! We need something BIG!

And I don't think it is the stories at all completely. The unbalance combined with the stories is what is causing the large drop. Wasn't there some development in Nick and Chelsea's story on Friday, that's a "big event" (especially considering that they have SOOOO many fans, rite?), why weren't they tuning in? And that storyline honestly was written pretty well through out. Their romance ain't half that bad for one that is being shoved down our throats...

This week's ratings prove that the unbalance is a MAJOR factor. In terms of writing, the show was better last week and there was some plot movement. And yet there was still a -2 drop in HH's. I cannot see there being much improvement until the core characters are restored to the frontburner.

IMO, DAYS needs to hire Joseph Mascolo back RIGHT NOW!

Get Steve back to his normal self....get John back to his normal self. Get Bo/Hope/Marlena off the backburner and send these 3 couples (along with Jack when he comes back) and send them to Europe on some adventure storyline that will involve them getting revenge on Stefano for what he did to Steve, finding out IN DETAIL what happened to Steve and have some major secret revealed.

We need another Aremid or Maison Blanche! We need something BIG!

I would LOOOVE a story like that Mitch! Plus Hogan seems like he can write it, what he wrote in December seemed like it. Mystery, intrigue, romance... it could be amazing.

Soaps are not going to get millions of new fans. If they want to stop the bleeding they need to appease their current and former fans, even though there's no guarantee any old fans will tune in. You watch these shows to see familiar faces. New characters are a must for soaps, but the inmates are running the asylum. Two years ago, Gwen and Maddie weren't even on ATWT now there are whole episodes about them. If I were a casual viewer who tuned in looking to see what Lily or Barbara or Lisa were doing, I'd just flip it off. It's like watching a new show sometimes.

I don't watch Days very much but when I read spoilers about characters name Willow and Jed, I don't even bother. They're not Hortons or Bradys so why should I care?

I wish I could combine all the vets from all the soaps into one hour long all-network soap so I could actually see characters with depth that I give a care about.

I have a feeling JER has a big on his face right now!

Soaps are not going to get millions of new fans. If they want to stop the bleeding they need to appease their current and former fans, even though there's no guarantee any old fans will tune in. You watch these shows to see familiar faces. New characters are a must for soaps, but the inmates are running the asylum. Two years ago, Gwen and Maddie weren't even on ATWT now there are whole episodes about them. If I were a casual viewer who tuned in looking to see what Lily or Barbara or Lisa were doing, I'd just flip it off. It's like watching a new show sometimes.

I don't watch Days very much but when I read spoilers about characters name Willow and Jed, I don't even bother. They're not Hortons or Bradys so why should I care?

I wish I could combine all the vets from all the soaps into one hour long all-network soap so I could actually see characters with depth that I give a care about.

I think we can say this until we are blue in the face but no one is listening. Thus, the crashing ratings for all soaps!

I keep hoping a new network head or show producer will come along and do things right but I don't see it on the horizon. Perhaps a cable network will produce a new soap that is cutting edge yet well-done with traditional elements that will show them all how it's done. It may be too late by then for most of the current shows.

I have a feeling JER has a big on his face right now!

And rightfully so....

JER's averages for the first 10 weeks of 2006

Total Viewers: 3,400,000*

Households: 2.7

Women 18-49 Viewers: 1,270,000*

Women 18-49: 2.0

Women 18-34: 2.0

And Hogan's averages for the first 10 weeks of 2007

Total Viewers: 3,288,000 (-112,000)

Households: 2.5 (-.2)

Women 18-49 Viewers: 1,115,000 (-155,000)

Women 18-49: 1.7 (-.3)

Women 18-34: 1.5 (-.5)

* (Based on 9 weeks, since we don't have all the #'s yet)

And this time we can't use the old faithfull "But all soaps have dropped since last year" Not True! half of the soaps have gained

ITA King and Hogan. NBC does want Days to fail so they can cancel it. And it makes me so sad to see the fans allowing them to do so.

Whoa, wait a minute. Viewers shouldn't be held accountable when a soap opera is putting out a crappy production. DAYS fans have been let down and given false hope for years now. I am not surprised that jaded DAYS fans didn't tune back in when Reilly left and it looks like they had the right intuition because the show is BORING and full of newbies.