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DAYS: November Discussion Thread


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Ms. Hall is fortunate to have such a staunch fan. These fans are undoubtedly who the executives at Days of our Lives wish to bring back to watching the program.

Unfortunately, this has not been a success thus far. In fact, ratings continue to trend downward. Whether Ms. Hall is the cause of this is a moot point for the inclusion of Ms. Hall into the program has neither improved nor stabilised the ratings for Days of our Lives.

In actual fact, the work of Ms. Rogers, an Emmy winner, Ms. Alfonso, Ms. Sorel, Ms. Koslow, Ms. Sweeney, Ms. Zuker, Mr. Mascolo, Mr. Scott and Mr. Reckell, among others, did coincide with ratings stabilisation, for a time, for the program.

In today's soap climate it appears that Mr. Corday and Mr. Meng do, in fact, believe that bringing back vets that haven't been on the canvas in years will all of a sudden shoot the ratings into the stratosphere and keep them there because that is exactly what Mr. Corday and Mr. Meng have done. It would be silly to suggest that the recent hiring of so many veteran performers is to intentionally drive down ratings.

Indeed, the whole point of the reboot was to go back to what worked before. This, thus far, has failed.

Innovation has been abandoned for dignity, familiarity and nostalgic storytelling. The very storytelling that has gutted the genre into a husk of its former self.

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Vets do not = ratings.

Good, long term stories with a pay off centered around characters fans care about is what gets ratings and days has proven that. This is the reason that without the beloved super couples ratings went up. A baby swap was put into motions, Sami at the center of it, and it was fantastic up to the pay off (tho it lasted two months longer, they did it for sweeps, whatever...). The show declined when their plan went away and they started to play it day by day.

The vets are back now, and there is even story for them but it is a bore. Ratings do not depend as much on who is on screen as it does with what is on screen.

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I would say the vets ARE very important for the health of the show. Because you have to attract the audience first. You can have Shakespeare as your HW but people will never notice because they have no reason to tune in. Soaps aren´t able to attract new audience anymore, all they have are the viewers and ex-viewers from past. So using few familiar names/popular couples to try attract some these back is a logical step. It´s the same reason why both Hollywood and television remakes everything with even slightly popular name rather than create new stuff. Nowadays you have to use every trick in the book to even have some viewers notice your show/movie exist and only after you can start worry about the rest.

So Corday and Meng did the right thing, especially when the nuDays mostly fell apart. The triangle with Daniel/Jenifer/Carly didn´t work so bringing back Jack was a logical choice. With Phillip, Stephanie and Nathan all gone they had to scrap their entire twenties age group. And they had no idea what do with Vivian as soon as her initial story with Mel ended. Higley attempted to refresh the show with another bunch of newbies and random rushed pairings who all mostly failed. The show needed something to convince people it´s not over yet. Meng, Corday and the new writers all did an amazing work promoting and selling the show again and people DID tune in. But of course, bringing back vets isn´t enough, you also have to give them stories fresh but familiar to what made them popular so the attracted audience has a reason to stay. That certainly isn´t yet another Jack trashing triangle or seriously written financial scam story where John is completely passive and spends a month doing nothing but watching his children and friends arguing. So that´s where MarDar are failing so far and going the exact same route as all writers before.

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To each his own. I happen to be currently liking days almost (but not quite) as much as I did during the 90s. I haven't enjoyed Days this much in a long long. Some people find it boring. Well, character driven stories are slow at times, especially when you are resetting and reestablishing each character. In todays microwave society, no one wants to wait for things and characters to develop anymore.

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It isn't Deidre Hall's fault ratings are not what they were when she had a front burning story in 2005 anymore than it is Allison Sweeney's fault ratings are not what they were when she starred in stories in 2005. I find this topic so odd, this begrudging of vets. The complete discarding of vets has been the bane of ABC daytime and people complain in those threads about the treatment shown to Julia Barr or Jackie Zeman or whoever. This is like a parallel universe thread where it's off with the vet heads (except for Maggie)

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Maggie, Victor, Stefano, Sami, Bo, Hope and others are all vets as well. This isnt just begrudging of vets and nobody is calling for the complete discarding of vets. It is just being stated that D. Hall nor Marlena IS Days of our Lives. The show went on and did well without her and could contentue to if the writers hadnt lost their way. I dont think she hurts the show at all, and i love marlena. However, simply bringing her and other once loved couples back will not bring ratings up and this is what her fans have claimed. This is what the show was expecting. It didnt work - because of the story.

I could argue that with marlenajohn, jackjen, etc super couples at this point the interest might be there but the investment is not. All the fans know they will end up together, and their stories have been done and done and done again. The show isnt offering us anything new, even tho John is actually in a different istuation because its more of the same old story. The dimeras are out to get him nad ruin he and marlena. JohNMar will overcome it and be happy until the next plot point.

What happened when the show let them go was interesting. Suddenly forgotten characters were focused on, other older people got stories, new friendships were made.

And yes, of course this is all in the writing. Its a tv show, what doesnt come down to the writing? I dont think anybody is really blaming D Hall herself. Just disputing the fact that she somehow IS the show and there is no show without her.

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The thing with "Nostalgia Stories" is they are only as good as the fans who want that kind of nostalgia. Those stories/actors tend not to appeal to newer viewers (and they do exist) nor do they appeal to fans like me who watched it once and that's enough. I don't see anything appealing about this Austin, I see nothing newsworthy about yet another story where John's brain has been screwed with, I see nothing enlightening about Jennifer Rose stuck between men, and the list goes on. About the only thing interesting at the moment is Alice's series of secrets - and they are so retconed it's only in the acting of the principles that the story even begins to work.

The b*tch of it is Days finally has some stories that were working and could have been really interesting: Carly involved with Vivian's Son. That's never been done before and could have put a whole new twist on that relationship. Chloe and Brady finally finding their way back to each other. Even Maggie and Victor could have had some real struggle because of Melissa or something else one of them had done. What we have now is certainly a "return to the 90's", and my friends - that's NOT a good thing.

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I think One Life to Live makes the best use out of their sets and lighting with their budget. DAYS? Oy, the worst.

This Horton Town Square is merely a better looking version of Guiding Light's Main Street circa 2005-2008, just as I had feared. It's very cardboard-looking, usually blandly lit (although that one episode with Will & Marlena having a heart-to-heart, I did see shadows of light, like sunlight rays. That was the only time though).

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Bo/Hope should've gotten a divorce when he started dating Carly again.

Really intrigued by today's ending. I wonder who that baby is (don't tell me).

And from yesterday's episode, I was surprised that it was Victor who gave Maggie's eggs to Daniel's mom, and that he's not going to tell Maggie the truth.

I don't understand what's so bad about the Town Square set. It's nice and big, and now the Pier is not the only "outdoor" set.

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Please don't tell me that mystery adorable baby is EJ e5028380.gif Did Alice and Stefano have an affair in the past or something? God! I see this story being a huge letdown for some reason any way it goes!

Madison's hair looked like crap. Kate looked fab. I don't care what anyone says, I love LK/Kate's style (most of the time)! Something different needs to happen w/her hair soon though.

Sami looked really good today, I loved her outfit. Everything else about her, just no. She was all over the place! I wish AS and the writers would both tone it down a notch with Sami!

I don't like when PR/Bo shaves off part of his beard on the top, I think he looks 10x older and kind of a mess. Yeah I'm critiquing everyone's looks tonight! LOL

I got a kick out of Rafe searching for jobs laugh.png

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I'm behind because I can only watch Days on Demand, and it's always one or two days off. So has Victor actually said, on screen, that he was the one to give the eggs away? I saw Henderson say it all and Victor look non-plussed, but I have yet to see all of this "Victor is guilty and knows the truth" that is being suggested. Arguably I've missed a day here or there, but has confirmation come from Victor himself?

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