What if... DAYS pulled a "The City"

[Aaron]

In light of the budget cuts at DAYS, what if they decided to take a page out of ABC's book and do a "The City"-esque remodel of the show.

Picture it...

The show would still be DAYS OF OUR LIVES, but the action would revolve around Sami and Lucas's attempt at starting a new life in a new town. (Or anyone else, I'm just spitballing here...)

Let's say Kate gets an option to open a new branch of Basic Black/Titan/Mythic/Whatever in NewTown and invites Lucas to come work for her. Lucas tells Sami he's leaving Salem for good and Sami realizes this is her last chance to finally do right by Lucas, and asks him to give her one more chance. He agrees and they set off for NewTown with the kids in tow.

EJ faces the possibility of living far away from his son, so, to everyone's chagrin, he also moves to NewTown to start up a Dimera business that will be at odds with Kate's company. So, right off the bat we have a familiar triangle and a corporate drama and four key characters are saved.

Bo receives a job offer to move to NewTown and take over the new Police Academy there. When Hope learns that Alice will have to be put in a permanent care facility in NewTown, she also agrees to move there to be close to Gran and look after her. She, Bo and Ciara move there. Doug and Julie recur to help the family settle into the new house. Bo and Hope begin a new story of their own that challenges their marriage (maybe a new third party spoiler or a mystery of some sort involving the new house.)

Chelsea and Stephanie represent the younger crowd, and they share an apartment and get new love interests as well.

Everyone else on the show is reduced to recurring and is left behind in Salem. A decent marketing campaign could be pitched, advising viewers to "start watching now" and the show could do a final Friday episode where everyone in Salem gathers to have their respective happy endings and wish the NewTowners good luck. Starting the following Monday, the show would get a tweaked opening and basically be presented like the first episode of a new show. This could be a six month experiment to get new viewers. If it doesn't work, the focus could shift back to Salem. If it does, the show could gradually add in more faves, like maybe a Carrie/Austin return or John/Marlena return.

[MarkH]

I had similar ideas for GL. I thought if they did "old GL" on M-W-F, and "new GL" (current production model on Tu-Th), it might have eased the transition. Gradually, they could reduce the frequency of "old GL" and increase the frequency of "new GL" (as audiences got more used to the new format), until "new GL" took over all five days.

Note, though, that this would take planning--several years in advance--for the transition.

I don't see ANY show planning like that, which is ridiculous.

A simple "The City" style switch won't work, I don't think. After all...where is "The City" today? The transformation has to occur more slowly, over time, so the audience has a chance to embrace it.

AND---something that is good about your model--is that you have some veterans and fan faves going to the new show. That is clearly essential. It can't be all cheap newbies.

[Aaron]

More than anything, I think the show needs a focus and a direction, not to just flounder around going from one failed storyline to another. It needs something drastic, but focused.

[Ilovedays]

I want Days of our Lives, not a condenses watered down version. Im done after 27 years!

[Aaron]

I think we'd all like that, but with a 40% budget cut, it's not gonna happen.

[AMCHistory]

I think a big finale would be better suited for a show that does not have network support, and is loosing its major stars. Let's hope for one last Horton family Christmas. Maybe Frances can make that one last appearance and facilitate the show going off the air with the dignity and grace it deserves.

[MarkH]

But Corday has already nixed this. Rather than walk away from the table, he settled for 60%, and now the chips will fall.

From a certain lens, it makes sense. He can still employ (roughly) 60% of the cast and crew that he always did.

But, of course, it impoverishes the show.

I remember the final seasons of Knot's Landing (not the strongest). They dealt with this by negotiating new contracts in which the actors appeared in only SOME of the episodes of the season. (They missed quite a few each...I forget how many). The function of this was to "rotate" the storytelling amongst different characters.

I think there could be other, creative ways to tell the story without this kind of massive bloodletting. But Days confronts this new reality with a very weakened position: Mismanaged by weak TPTB for a very long time, it was not prepared for this.

It's kind of like being in your 70s and having a heart attack. Your ability to withstand it depends on your level of fitness, nutrition, etc. BEFORE the attack. If you are already sick, your ability to recover is worse. So it is with Days.

If you take a strong show (are there any??), they would still suffer from this 40% cut...but they'd reinvent from a stronger position.

For those shows that are currently investing in actively strengthening themselves (IMO: AMC, Y&R, maybe OLTL, and indirectly GH [via the NightShift experiment)....I think they might be in a stronger position to withstand the next licensing fee cuts to come.

[Ilovedays]

I would rather see Days go off the air than to sink to the level Guiding Light is at. I cant sit by and watch it happen so, like i said i'm done. Let me know when the finale is.

[Adam]

I think NBC should have come out and said, ok this is the last renewal and pump a hell of alot of money into it these final 18 months to give the show the send off it properly deserves... honestly. I mean shows can survive cast changes, but one as major as Marlena and John being gone and possibly more to come? Will it be worth it to have another 18 months with no big send off.

NBC just needs to come out and admit they are finished with soaps and give this show and the fans a proper send off.....

[DeeeDee]

Pretty much.

[Ponz]

My fantasy would be a spin-off involving the Hortons: Bo/Hope as the cops, Jack/Jennifer as the reporters, Lucas/Sami opening a PI firm and Doug/Julie as the new matriarch/patriarch. EJ/Nicole would be the villianous couple causing trouble for everyone else. I'd kill off Mickey but give Maggie a prominent role. The younger set would be centred around Nick and strong recasts of Abby and Will. The show would be 30 minutes and initially focus on light adventure/mystery type plots with an eventual segue to more serious family drama. Much of the bad writing on DAYS can be traced to the absence of any consistent identity since the early 90's. IMO, rebuilding the show's core family offers the best corrective.