‘DAYS’ bloodbath on the horizon!

[brimike]

I really can't believe this is a surprise to anyone, or that anyone thinks Days will survive what Guiding Light will eventually NOT survive. It's like the SuBe fans who looked down their nose at AW when it was canceled and they were spared... for all of six months.

None of these shows stand above the others. If Y&R had fallen to the bottom years ago, they'd look just like GL does too right now.

To think that what befell one soap can't befall YOUR soap? It's absurd.

I still say these shows should go out with their head held high. With dignity. The way Alan Ball sent the Fishers of Six Feet Under off into the sunset. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - when a show like this ends, you want to be sad and heartbroken - but also feel like you just completed the greatest novel of your life. You should feel fulfilled. Satisfied. Complete.

Not like you crawled on your hands and knees with your final breaths to a finish line and then were kept alive by a respirator for two years.

[DaytimeFan]

Too true, what could happen to one could happen to all. I hope it never befalls Y&R or B&B. I'd rather they be canceled than lose their luster.

In retrospect, AW getting canceled when it did was a good thing. The show never had to stoop like GL. AW, for better or for worse, was still AW. When it ended I did feel fulfilled, satisfied and complete. It was a grand show and it went out the right way at the right time.

I feel the opposite way about PC, that show became an abomination and I just thought "Ugh good riddance, what a waste of 6 years" when it went off the air.

Essentially, wait and see what happens to DAYS...but if it hits GL level. Give it a mercy killing!

[MikeGoldy]

DAYS is essentially getting the same ratings as AMC, OLTL, GH, and ATWT. All is not lost for DAYS. I still believe they can pull this one out. They aren't in GL territory yet. If someone smart was in charge, they could still salvage the show, even with having to make the cast cuts. Concentrate on the characters

that are the true focal point of the show, and then build the show around them and the characters that revolve around them.

[rangethatrover]

YES YES YES. And the woman looks phenomenal!!! I saw her on a talk show last week- some fan got to go meet and interview all of the days actors- I could not believe how great she looked. I loved her as Lindsay Wells on Y&R (Well what I saw on Youtube)lol

I really feel bad for DOOL- It has never been a show I watched (I did tune in during Eileen Davidson's 5 character storyline) and I feel bad for you fans.... I think the show is going to end up as sparse as Guiding Light. What a cast of 18 or so characters...

Hopefully the show can survive. And its pretty scary because Days is currently back up to #3 or 4 in viewers, #3 or 4 in 18-49 and #1 in 18-34!!!!!!!

And no offense, but I don't want Frons buying DOOL in 2 years and canceling OLTL- which I could totally see happening.

[rangethatrover]

I still say these shows should go out with their head held high. With dignity. The way Alan Ball sent the Fishers of Six Feet Under off into the sunset. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - when a show like this ends, you want to be sad and heartbroken - but also feel like you just completed the greatest novel of your life. You should feel fulfilled. Satisfied. Complete.

SFU is my favorite show of all time. That last episode was THE BEST episode of any drama, ever. Including of my second favorite The Sopranos!!

And you are right Brim-

I think in 5-7 years, we will be lucky to have 5-6 shows left.

It does seem that time has passed these shows by.

They have lost their heart and souls. It is a different world now, but these networks made SO MANY bad decisions....

But then I look at a show at the top of its game, like Y&R is right now, and the occasional brilliance of OLTL- and I think maybe these shows can survive in a different way- if not on network tv...

Who knows...

But Days gets pretty good demos generally, and look at the situation it is in!!!! NO SHOW IS SAFE.

I think the next two in trouble are obviously GL and ATWT due to P&G... What are people predicting for GL? 1 or two more years?

[KateW]

If Days is going to switch networks I have a feeling it will go to CBS, considering the Columbia/Sony connection with Y&R. If that occurs, I predict one of these three scenarios:

1. CBS cancels Guiding Light and replaces it with Days.

2. CBS cancels Guiding Light, expands B&B to 1 hour, picks up Days but reduces it to 30 minutes.

3. CBS cancels both Guiding Light and As the World Turns, expands B&B to 1 hour, and picks up Days. The remaining half hour will either be given back to the affilliates or be filled with a new show created by Bradley Bell.

So CBS could possibly have a soap lineup of Y&R/B&B/As the World Turns/Days, Y&R/B&B/Days, or Y&R/B&B/Days/new Bradley Bell show.

[SteveFrame]

Big difference

YOU ARE NOT DEALING WITH THE SAME TYPE OF SOAP FANS.

Back then soap fans waited around for pay offs to come even if they were months down the road. They don't and won't anymore.

Back then soap fans even gave people like the recast Roman or the recasted Bo a chance. Today they wouldn't.

Back then they allowed Bo to move on without Hope - today they wouldn't.

Fans today think just like the Sheri Anderson quote of 2005 I think it was. At the end of the day they want to know that John or Roman is still in love with Marlena and as long as that is there then everything is okay.

Fans don't accept change with who their fave is tied to and they don't accept recasts.

If you can get fans of today to change then I say it would work. Even in the 80's with the big massacre it survived because there were fans who allowed it to change and didn't give completely up. But it was also only after Gary Tomlin came and refocused the show back on the core characters away from all the newbies. He blended the new characters into stories with the main cast and did not completely change the whole show as had been done before that.

But again I stress the fact that fans have to be willing and with so many who say they only tune in for certain characters and the like I see it going the same way today as GL has.

And to bring up the past changes. Remember too that GL went through tons of changes in the 80's and 90's - at one point losing Grant Alexander, Judi Evans, Kim Zimmer and many others - not counting all the ones that were written out and stuff when Pamela Long and others restructured the show. GL survived all those changes but they sure haven't survived this bunch of changes.

[Sedrick]

The big difference is that DAYS is not as profitable to NBC as the ABC-owned shows are to that network. The ABC shows are still turning a healthy profit for Disney...it won't be too much longer before the notoriously evil NBC affiliates start to demand the timeslot of DAYS for themselves...

[MikeGoldy]

Reading the soap magazines during that time as well as being on the soap boards at the time, the ire that was directed towards the show for lettting Ashford, Sabatino, and Chappel go, certainly mirrors anything that goes on now. Heck, I remember there was planned protests at the NBC studio because they let Michael Easton and Shannon Sturges go lol

[SteveFrame]

There has always been ire and wrath over firings and recasts - hell even all the way back to the 50's and 60's with even deaths (i.e. the deaths of Kathy Roberts (GL); Jeff Baker (ATWT); Sara Karr (EON)) - but the big difference was that there were enough general fans of the show that outweighed the loss of those that even then may have watched for a few. Back then there were more fans that watched for a whole show than they did for one actor or so.

In the 70's fans were outraged over the firings of Reinholt and Courtney on AW and even over the loss of Denise Alexander at Days and many of those fans followed all 3 of them to ABC but AW and Days ratings didn't go down.

For the most part back then people watched for the show. There were the few that were attached to certain characters and actors. Today those type of fans are the norm while the general fans who are loyal to the show are the minority.

I mean just look around at other boards today who are all in an outrage because of the 2 firings on Days already. And just yesterday some of those same fans were saying "Well whatever is best for Days is what has to be done just as long as it stays on the air." And now today that their fave has been fired or possibly been fired, it is a whole different story. Now Days should just be cancelled.

[sungrey]

Hell, I remember when Donald May left Edge of Night in 1977. Edge had gotten some of its audience back that it lost when it was on CBS, but I remember seeing something that Edge lost half its audience in the next six months. People were THAT devoted to Adam and couldn't believe the show would actually kill off the character.

Edge eventually got some of that audience back from 1978 through 1981, but the really big damage had been done.

[Rakesh]

No way! I don't want any show to be cancelled for Days. Days is all Corday's fault. He's the one who hired that hack again.

Have it ever occurred to you that maybe Days, GL, ATWT and AMC should go back to 30 minutes? I really think think these 4 soaps will benefit at 30 minutes per episode.

[SteveFrame]

Add to that the fact that Edge lost a lot of affiliates during that time too. Many ABC stations ended their soap opera viewing with GH and didn't carry EON. So the loss of Adam plus the loss of affiliates hurt the show alot.

Plus here in our market in Tennessee both ATWT and Days aired opposite EON in the 3:00/4:00 time slot at the time.

[Evan]

I'll never forgive DAYS for the bad way Matt Ashford was treated, on multiple occasions.

[dragonflies]

Ratings were also alot higher for ALL soaps then as well. Now they only have a few really big names, and it would be idiotic to cut them. Say what you want about Peter or Kristian but I think DOOL would lose ALOT Of viewers if they were cut

Yeah don't see that happening. Frons would truly show what an idiot he is if he brought Days to ABC. I mean shelling out big money to air a soap, yet cancelling one that was making them some type of profit and they OWNED. Nope, no way.

Don't see it going to CBS either. I think when it's gone from NBC, it's gone