I love Suzanne Rogers, but no, she can't. It's too late to restructure that role for Maggie. She has been marginalized for too long.

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It's never too late to restructure a role on soaps. Especially, if you play up Maggie as the new matriarch of the Horton family and tie her into scenes with Bo, Hope, and Julie. I'm just throwing ideas out there, but there is tons to work with. What if Kate becomes jealous of

Maggie's close relationship with Lucas, and a fued begins? What if Sara Horton returns to Salem, becomes involved with Daniel, and we learn that

Sara had an affair with Austin off camera that broke up his marriage with Carrie, thus adding to Kate's animosty towards the Hortons, also being upset about the end of her relationship with Daniel

Guding Light thrived in the early 90s when Newman, Zimmer, Alexander, O'Leary, and others jumped ship. They focused on the underused characters and magic happened. It can happen again

Edited November 17, 200817 yr by MikeGoldy

I am shocked. I don't know how DOOL is going to function without Marlena, John, and also Belle and Shawn. Almost the entire family is gone. Where does this leave Stefano?

I never thought i'd see the day that Days actually fired Deidre Hall, its just insane and such a huge risk...But i'm not too phased by the news, mainly because I don't really care much about the show anymore..I'll still watch on occasion, but i'm not addicted or hooked on it like i've been for the past 20 years..

I really hope that Days does end in 18 months and has a huge finale with John, Marlena, Jack, Jennifer, Shane, Kimberly, Vivian, Ivan, Eugene, Caliope, Doug, Julie, Carrie, Austin and our other favorites all returning...

I don't mean leading lady so much as I mean tent pole character like Alice Horton or what Marlena has become in the last few years. I hope Suzanne survives the contract purge, my understanding is that her contract is very valuable to her because it provides health insurance...Kristian Alfonso is the lead, no question.

Thank you, that is what I meant and you said it a lot better

There are so many variables involved here that we don't know about. Do I think that firing Dee and Drake is going to hurt the ratings? No. Say you cut not only Dee and Drake, but also Stephen and Mary Beth. Do I think that will hurt the ratings? no.

I don't think your train of thought holds up. The problem is when you let go of so many characters at one time it stops being the show people watch and way too abruptly. Look at what happened a couple years back when 10 characters were let go over a relatively short period of time, ratings plummeted. Yes if you had time you could build up new characters into being the ones people want to watch, but to lose John, Marlena, Philip, Nick and who knows who else tomorrow just leaves you with a sense of "what soap am I watching?" It will be like that horrible summer when Shawn and Belle were on everyday on that island with the old coot and his daughter. It might have been great, it might have been horrible, but it wasn't really DOOL.

On the bright side, a soap that isn't Y&R will get the SOD cover for the first time in 5-6 week (I assume), heh.

What I don't understand is why SN/MBE weren't the first big names fired/put on haitus. Do they even still air on DAYS? lol

I don't think your train of thought holds up. The problem is when you let go of so many characters at one time it stops being the show people watch and way too abruptly. Look at what happened a couple years back when 10 characters were let go over a relatively short period of time, ratings plummeted. Yes if you had time you could build up new characters into being the ones people want to watch, but to lose John, Marlena, Philip, Nick and who knows who else tomorrow just leaves you with a sense of "what soap am I watching?" It will be like that horrible summer when Shawn and Belle were on everyday on that island with the old coot and his daughter. It might have been great, it might have been horrible, but it wasn't really DOOL.

Yeah, but John, Marlena, Steve and Kayla have hardly been on to begin with lately. If you feature Abe, Lexie, Kate, Victor, Sami, Bo, Hope, EJ, Nicole, Stefano, Maggie, Chelsea, Max, Stephanie (sorry for those last three lol), it's still DAYS. I think the ratings suffered in the winter and spring of summer 2007 because the stories were a complete boring bust, not because Bo, Hope, John, and Marlena were missing.

I don't think your train of thought holds up. The problem is when you let go of so many characters at one time it stops being the show people watch and way too abruptly. Look at what happened a couple years back when 10 characters were let go over a relatively short period of time, ratings plummeted. Yes if you had time you could build up new characters into being the ones people want to watch, but to lose John, Marlena, Philip, Nick and who knows who else tomorrow just leaves you with a sense of "what soap am I watching?" It will be like that horrible summer when Shawn and Belle were on everyday on that island with the old coot and his daughter. It might have been great, it might have been horrible, but it wasn't really DOOL.

Oh, and I meant to say it breaks my heart to lose Philip, or rather, lose Jay Johnson. HE could have driven future story during all of this turmoil

Unless Deidre could be relied upon to bring new viewers to Y&R, there are a lot of their own veterans they should be bringing back before spending the cash on her.

What I don't understand is why SN/MBE weren't the first big names fired/put on haitus. Do they even still air on DAYS? lol

Exactly - Thaoo should be put on recurring. I hope they don't fire him and LeAnn. I like those two.

I'll miss Marlena, but I don't think it will matter to the ratings. When John & Marlena were off the canvas for a month in Beth Milstein's stop-gap stint, the ratings didn't flinch (in fact they may have risen, although the reasons why may be argued). OTOH, Dena isn't Beth...

OK, regarding DAYS' budget. When DAYS was renewed in 2003, the budget was $1.7 million a week for production costs. However, the terms of the deal were renegotiated in 2006 and DAYS' budget was slashed to $1.3 million a week, so that can't be how much the show costs to produce per week now. I'm guessing it's now in the $900,000 - $1,000,000 range now - a HUGE blow for a show like DAYS.

Edited November 17, 200817 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

"The couple will be happily reunited after a long period of angst and separation and will be off-screen after January for an unknown period of time

this is the part that gets me. They got themselves an out when they decide at a later point to bring them back, which I believe they will do, because really, when have they actually fired someone?

Forgot my other thought--I think DAYS is one, like a few other posters have said, that could benefit from heavy recurring characters, especially their vets. A pay when you work or recurring contract is about the norm now.

Edited November 17, 200817 yr by baller

Guding Light thrived in the early 90s when Newman, Zimmer, Alexander, O'Leary, and others jumped ship. They focused on the underused characters and magic happened. It can happen again

No. It can't. GL was a wonderful show at that time, I agree, but conditions are different now than they were in the late '80s/early '90s, especially at DAYS with the shape it is financially and ratings-wise. There is no longer room or space for that kind of total reinvention. The best we could hope for was for airhogs like the DHs to have their own roles restructured so as to keep the audience tentpoles in place. DAYS can't throw caution to the wind anymore. The time for that was in 2006 when Sheffer took over. And that's gone. That was the last chance to affect some major change to the vet canvas. Ratings have gotten worse since.

Days survived The Loss of Hall and Alfanso and Reckell back in the 80's im sure if the writing is good which it isnt and WONT be under this hack writer it could have survived...