Variety: PASSIONS Heads to DirecTv

[Vanguardian]

"Whitney" has been a central character from the beginning but at this point, who needs her? If her husband's gayness remains constant then Whit might as well pack up and along with Miles, head for the hills! Chad goes on being his true gay self and HIS storyline goes on without her! But I would love if Brooke stayed.

[nassaunew]

The main actors and actresses who have been on Passions for 3 years or less probably would stay and would be the least expensive to retain

1 year - Jared Stevenson, Adrian Bellani, Mark Cameron Wystrach - Jared could be cut easily

2 years - Dylan Fergus and Emily Harper - May makes 2 years since they've been on PSNS

3 years - Cathy Doe, Silvana - I think the show would keep Paloma but say bye to Simone

Juliette Mills would stay if the price is okay. So would Lindsay, imo, unless her hubby convinces her to get out of dodge

I think Mckenzie Westmore would stay also. Eric Martsolf, yep

Once again, though, question comes down to which 12 characters or show are definite and maybe 5 more recurring with 1 or 2 making guest appearances occassionally

[JackPeyton]

im not a fan but good for passions and good for soaps.

will it last? will it work? who knows... but its at least some sort of someone/something out there trying to do something with soaps. as much as i love them, i do agree its a dying buisness. the ratings kep going down, and i dont belive its all due to quality. it has to do with a llot of things.

but needles to say at least its something new that could work. tho i predict it will be like My Network TV and fail.

[Ponz]

This could be good news for soaps, especially DAYS. If Passions can find a new home while drawing 1.5's, Sony shouldn't find it that difficult keeping DAYS alive when NBC dumps it. Sony also makes more money airing DAYS in international markets than NBC does from Pass so that's another incentive to keep it going. There would be need to be further cost-cutting measures (eg. cutting DAYS to 30 mins) but it should be feasible.

On the other hand, there's the danger that Pass bombs horribly on DTV...thus discouraging future experiments like these.

[bleu]

I watched occasionally when Days partnered with DirecTV a few years back. If I happened to miss an episode or the VCR didn't tape, I had DirecTV as a backup. It was a completely different experience watching the soap on satellite. No commercials. The visual quality was excellent. There was just no reason for me to watch it since I could usually see it for free on my local channel.

I would pay for it, though, if it was the only means available of seeing it. I think Passions people might be pleasantly surprised about this partnership.

[Andre]

And it still is dead, in my view. This is bad news, especially for those who live in Canada or don't have DirectTV. I was looking forward to the show's finale, but it doesn't look like they will do the big finale I've always wanted.

[ATWTCarOn4Ever]

Lol Passions is still dead if you ask me. This is just putting it on life support. Very poor life support at that. Unless you expect 3 million teens to get their parents to sign up for Direct TV just for Passions the ratings will probably be worse than ever before. At least on NBC it reached a national audience. Its not going to do that on Direct TV. I think it would funny if it went to .5 million in its first month there.

Plus I highly doubt Lindsay would stay on the show. I mean this girl has to know that there are a ton of jobs better than the one she has at Passions. I don't know how much they're paying her but no amount would make me want to go thru the misery of working for JerK.

[Mason]

I'm pissed about this. Not only do I not have DirectTV (and I sure as hell don't intend to get it just for PASSIONS), but now, I'm sure we won't get a proper finale on NBC. And it will all be for nothing too, because there's not a snowball's chance in hell that PASSIONS will last long on DirectTV. This is pure idiocy. This doesn't mean PASSIONS is saved, it's just prolonging the inevitable.

[Laurie]

I don't like this. IMO, they should just let PSNS go to t.v heaven in Sept.

[PhoenixRising05]

I so agree Ponz. The scary thing is I don't see this working at all, for reasons I mentioned and others reiterated.

Days has a better chance at survival whether it be cable, syndication, or whatever simply because it's a household name having been around for 42 years or so. Plus, if the numbers rebound, it makes it more profitable then other options. Yeah there would have to be budget cuts and all but it could work. I do think someone will at least take a chance on them, providing they perform a bit better. Although, like you said, if Passions can find a new home getting 1.5's...

It is nice to see that NBC fought to keep Passions alive and found something but this is nothing that will help it. It may do more hurt because we probably won't get a real finale and most of the fans can't even see it. Lame and stupid if you ask me. Of course, NBC is washing their hands of it so they could care less. They can save face and say their tried to save it. I hope they do the same for Days because God knows they did nothing to save Santa Barbara, Another World, Sunset Beach, and others.

[RogerNewcomb]

I see this as a huge positive. DirecTV will be another network/outlet interested in and producing soaps. To me, this bodes well for future acquisitions, possibly even same day airings of soaps not on Soapnet. It also shows DirecTV's interest in producing original soaps which none of the networks seem to be interested in.

I said before that it would probably air on The 101. They have been doing more and more original stuff on that channel. It will be interesting to see how the show changes. My friend's Mom, a 60 year old woman in TN, loves Passions and she has DirecTV. I can't wait to tell her the good news.

[psychofan]

No...no....NO!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

This has to be the worst thing EVER!! I don't have DirecTV :(

[sheilaforever]

Interesting. Good for its fans.

We'll see how it plays out. I wonder if DirecTV might be acquiring more soap licenses???

Brad Bell, B&B's exec, recently mentioned he's seriously considering/in talks for opening additional revenues...

[sungrey]

Good for its fans, but count me in as one who also thinks this won't work in the long run. MyNetworkTV tried a format similar to this and it failed miserably. I don't know how many subscribers DirecTV has in comparison to MNTV, but you'd have to really trim the budget and do a lot of cutting elsewhere.

I'll be interested to see how this flies, but I hope for one that those who watch it on NBC get some sort of closure.

I think DirecTV has the right idea, but they should try creating soaps of their own that can fit within their budget.

[bellcurve]

I think the big differences between PASSIONS on DirecTV and the telenovelas on MyNetworkTV is that the former will only be available to dish subscribers whereas the latter was available to about 95% of the country.

I'm not sure what DirecTV expects, but if the numbers for its first month are 0.5 in the Nielsens that sounds like a fantastic number to me for an exclusive, can't get it anywhere else dish network.

But I wish DirecTV and NBC would get it: PASSIONS anywhere will lose its luster if Jimmy Reilly is still in charge.