September 10-14, 2007

[Toups]

Passions airs new episodes on Direct TV.

And it's really good right now.

[Roman]

Exactly. He is such a great writer and the show was doing so well.....

The only way you cans ee it is on DTV.

If he comes back to Days as a writer of anything other than the ending credits, I'm done with it permanently.

[DaysFanatic777]

Your are so right!! JER dreove away a lot of Days viewers and forever changed the show from a melodramatic, family oriented, romantic soap, into a freak show. The thing is, Reilly did use the shows biggest names in his freak fest.

Go to You Tube and watch some classic Days clips from the 70's and 80's, and tell me who you think gets Days better; Reilly or Hogan.....

I think Neither get the show.

I think HSjust wants to write for his few faves and ignore the rest. That works on a soap like ATWT, where there are few cultural icons. When a writer comes on Days and decides "I think I won't give Dee Hall a Storyline for a year.", he might as well get ready for the day he gets a ratings report that has the show in last place. Plus, most of Hogans run, with the exception of his first three months and a couple of good weeks, has been boring. I mean really boring. The touch the sky think makes me sick. Anyone could have done better.

Reilly ruined the shows base and continuity. Her made it something it was never meant to be. He was all about creating buzz around the watercooler, and could care less about Ted and Betty Corday's Tradition, or the lasting Imprint Bill Bell left on Days. Days was the warm hearted family driven, adventurous soap that everyone would watch once or twice a year for a major event, and about 5 to 7 million people a day watched simply because they loved the Hortons and Brady's. Reilly turned it into a soap driven by plots, outlandish ones at that. It could be boring and reptitive at times too, but it wasn't as boring as it is now.

Reilly was a hack, and Hogan doesn't get it at all.

We need someone like Sheri Anderson or Beth Milstien to come in here along side one of these men to lead this show back. Sheri and Reilly made a GREAT, and I mean GREAT team back in the 90's.

If not, then kick the men overboard and bring back Sheri alone.

In other words, change is needed, and I think we will see it very soon.

We may be surprised at who we get as a HW with Scott being involved.

[DAYSisHOT]

I have to say that Hogan Sheffer is doing a great job brings Days ratings to places its never been. GREAT JOB!!!

I predicted that Days would be last this week, and I'm glad it has happened. I only hope that Ken Corday can wake up and fire Hogan before the show sinks any lower.

The only person who can save this show is James E Reilly, or perhaps Brash/Cwickly.

Please bring JER back!!

[Euclid219]

2007-August Episode Rankings.

Here's how many episodes each actor has appeared in this month (8/1/07-8/31/07), out of a total of 23 episodes. Ties are noted with an asterisk. http://members.aol.com/jason47b

Rank. Actor (Character) # of Episodes

1. Alison Sweeney (Sami Brady Roberts-15/Colleen Brady-4) 16

2. Bryan Dattilo (Lucas Roberts) 15

3. James Scott (E.J. Wells-12/Santo DiMera-6) 14

4. Kristian Alfonso (Hope Brady) 12

*. Rachel Melvin (Chelsea Benson) 12

*. Peter Reckell (Bo Brady) 12

7. Shelley Hennig (Stephanie Johnson) 11

*. Thaao Penghlis (Andre DiMera-6/Tony DiMera-6) 11 9. Blake Berris (Nick Fallon) 10

*. Trevor Donovan (Jeremy Horton) 10

*. Joseph Mascolo (Stefano DiMera) 10

*. Stephen Nichols (Steve Johnson) 10

*. Josh Taylor (Roman Brady) 10

14. Mary Beth Evans (Kayla Brady Johnson) 9

*. Martha Madison (Belle Black) 9

*. Marcus Patrick (Jett Carver) 9

*. Will Utay (Dr. Wilhelm Rolf) 9

18. Brandon Beemer (Shawn Brady) 8

*. Darin Brooks (Max Brady) 8

*. Lauren Koslow (Kate Roberts) 8

21. Deidre Hall (Marlena Evans Black) 7

AVERAGE HH RATING: 2.0

2006 -August Episode Rankings. Here's how many episodes each actor has appeared in

this month (8/1/06-8/31/06), out of a total of 23 episodes. Ties are noted with an

asterisk. http://members.aol.com/jason47b

Rank. Actor (Character) # of Episodes

1. Alison Sweeney (Sami Brady) 19

2. Martha Madison (Belle Black Kiriakis) 18

*. James Scott (E.J. Wells) 18

4. Austin Peck (Austin Reed) 16

5. Farah Fath (Mimi Lockhart Brady) 15

6. Kyle Brandt (Philip Kiriakis) 14

*. Christie Clark (Carrie Brady Roberts) 14

*. Jason Cook (Shawn Brady) 14

*. Rachel Melvin (Chelsea Benson) 14

10. Bryan Dattilo (Lucas Roberts) 12

*. Julie Pinson (Billie Reed) 12

*. Peter Reckell (Bo Brady) 12

13. Renee Jones (Lexie Carver) 11

14. Kristian Alfonso (Hope Brady) 10

15. Drake Hogestyn (John Black) 9

*. Shayna Rose (Stephanie Johnson) 9

17. Ashley Benson (Abigail Deveraux) 8

*. Darin Brooks (Max Brady) 8

*. Lauren Koslow (Kate Roberts) 8

*. Stephen Nichols (Steve Johnson) 8

*. Melissa Reeves (Jennifer Deveraux) 8

*. Billy Warlock (Frankie Brady) 8

23. Mary Beth Evans (Kayla Brady Johnson) 7

*. Deidre Hall (Marlena Evans Black) 7

AVERAGE HH RATING: 2.7

When I quit watching a month ago, it wasn't the Lumi fans who were getting robbed, it was Ejami fans. As of August, Sami was married to the man who nearly killed her twice and took his mother's side over hers 99% of the time, both her twins were the momma's boy and EJ was trying to murder the judgemental prick. I had watched DOOL since birth, and while I love the vets and would have preferred seeing them to the airplane crew, it was watching a neutered Sami crying in her hankie for the hundredth time in a month while EJ was being written as a homicidal lunatic to pimp worthless Lucas that did it for me. Apparently from the ratings, I am not the only one who tuned out. The above episode counts for August 2007 and August 2006 show that it isn't too little airtime for the vets or too much airtime for EJ and Sami that has cost the show viewers, it is absymal stories. (I highlighted the names of vets with 10+ years and James Scott's name, since his airtime seems to be a sore point for many.) On this board last September I read about Hogan's plans to change Sami from a "take no prisoners" bitch to a "good girl", to saddle her with Lucas, the perennial loser, and to make EJ into the new Dimera villain/Black Glove. I said then that Hogan was making several huge mistakes and it was implied by several posters that I was a fool. Guess I wasn't so foolish afterall.

[Kubla Khan]

Lorraine Broderick left AMC (as a staff writer) before Megan McTavish was promoted to HW. They never headwrote together.

Credits from May 1992

LB gone, AN still sole HW, MMT staff writer

[Angela]

I found the old SOD's. 2 seperate issues.

One calls Lorraine Broderick a long-time head writer of AMC (it's a Kate Collins article) and mentions Wisner Washam was a long-time head writer for AMC as well. She wasn't sharing the title with Agnes until she (LB) left some time in 1992? I don't consider one year a long time.

But yeah, reading the Megan one again they don't say she was co-HW, they just state that she's been a writer with the show for 5 years. They call the 1992 stint her first head-writing job.

[juppiter]

How many writers in this business have NOT been fired from a show before or had a show canceled under them? Only one I can think of is Bradley Bell.

[Roman]

And how many of these writers created a show only to see it stay at the bottom of the ratings and get cancelled in less than 9 years? Now, JER can write, but a year ago he was being vilified for runing Days. So, what changed?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I don't think ALL of Days' current problems can be traced solely back to JER, did he contribute? Surely! However, Hogan and especially Corday more than had their hands in the cookie jar this time around. Fact is, Days' ratings didn't implode in this fashion at anytime during JER's last run. However, 90% of Hogan's run has been marked by all time lows and Days either being the last ranked soap or second to the bottom. Say what you want about the condition of the ABC and CBS soaps, but they've never imploded this badly ratings-wise.

Days truly needs to redefine itself and get back to basics. No more of this cartoon feuding and triangles for a while. Focus on multi-generational storytelling, incorporate socially relevant topics, and most of all try to be as REALISTIC as possible. Sure, add some camp and humor, but don't let it take over the whole damn show. Days needs the type of reinvention GH got in the early 90's through Wendy Riche and Claire Labine, but sadly, I don't see it happening anytime soon.

[ChiTownBoi03]

I have to agree, for the most part. JER was a ton of things, good and bad, but one thing he could do was build suspense. I think his second stint was influenced a lot by Corday(Melaswen...) and the fact he was writing two shows a week. I wonder if he was not writing Passions, would it have made a difference. True his stories dragged, his characters sometimes swam around in the plot devices. But you know what? The vets were all up and through my screen, Marlena was definitely front and center, and there was a sense that there was a long-term goal in mind. There was also some sort of dramatic build-up to things.

Nowadays, there really doesn't seem to be a long-term goal, story points just seem to fall out of the sky. The build-up to events(when there are actual events) doesn't seem to be there. I totally thought Roman being buried alive would be different from what I am seeing on the screen, to where now I forgot he was even buried alive. I don't care, and...I really should. With JER when events happened, it would be this really big deal for something so mediocre. A secret coming out would mean that half the town would have to be there and make this spectacle of it, and it made it entertaining. No matter the mistakes JER made his second run, Sheffer is the one who apparently made things worse when he came on to "save" the show. He certainly made my viewing experience a lot tougher than spring 2003. Quality has improved, acting has improved, but the stories are boring and inconsistent. The show still feels the same as it was back in spring, only with better lighting and music. Even the vets aren't doing much of anything, especially Stefano's return, which has been totally underwhelming thus far.

At this point, I don't think DAYS can do any worse than last place short of cancellation. These safe, simple boring stories(many about newbies and teens no less) are not gonna create buzz or higher ratings, IMHO. JER can't do a lot of things, but he can create a stir and he can build suspense and execute an event, so I wouldn't be opposed to him returning, at least long enough to get DAYS out of this lull. Again, just my personal opinion and roundabout way of saying "cool post".

[billyjill]

Y&R, great post.

[dtchicago]

These ratings are depressing beyond belief. I havent kept up with DAYS in several years; however, I watched when it was the number 2 soaps for several years and to see it ranked at the lowest rated it soap is beyond belief. Its actually kind of scary... I would say that 5 of 8 soaps right now could easily end it up in DAYS position if not careful! Ugh!

[dtchicago]

And one more thing, I am wondering with Passions gone out of the 2 PM time slot (in most markets) if the new syndicated show that replaces it will steal viewers from OLTL and ATWT. That would explain some of the viewer drop for OLTL in a week that was actually pretty darn good.

[whyamcwhy]

WOW!!! What a shock it is to see Days in last place. I really expected to see GL in that spot. It is so sad to see the show that just last year around Oct-Dec. was actually close to GH in terms of ratings. How quickly it has fallen. I don't know what the answer is for Days anymore. The fact that the vets really don't have much in the way of storylines has to be hurting the show somewhat. Marlena has been a central character for so long and for them not to be featuring her much is a huge mistake, IMHO. The focus of the Stefano vendetta storyline should have been on Marlena/John instead of Sami/Lucas/EJ. HUGE mistake, IMHO. If Days keeps struggling like this, NBC really will be without soaps after 2009.

Sadly, I see AMC heading down the same path that Days is. I really think that they have a lot of the same problems Days has. The new HW's are underwhelming. The show has lost/fired so many key characters that it is practically unrecognizable. The show is still heading down the same path that McTavish was going in. They should have completely changed the direction of the show. They focus on newer characters that the audience doesn't really care about and certain characters are on all the time. The new writers said they wanted to focus on the history of AMC but there aren't very many characters left that have any history with the show. And the ones that do really don't have strong storylines right now. I can see them losing so many viewers that they will be close to last place or even in last place. I don't see AMC changing for the better until Carruthers and/or Frons are fired. If Days is gone after 2009, I can see GL and AMC switching back and forth for last place.

Congrats to CBS for maintaining or gaining viewers. They must be doing something right. Maybe the other networks should follow their example.