DAYS: 2 weeks of preemptions for 2016 Summer Olympics

[JAS0N47]

"DAYS OF OUR LIVES" TO BE PREEMPTED FOR TWO WEEKS NEXT SUMMER FOR 2016 SUMMER OLYMPICS...

Although it's still a year away, it's now been confirmed that "Days of Our Lives" will be preempted for two straight weeks for coverage of the Summer Olympics in August 2016. After the Friday, August 5, 2016 episode of "Days", the show will be preempted until the Summer Olympics conclude, and "Days" will return on Monday, August 22, 2016. This will be the third time in the show's history that it's been preempted for two straight weeks, which also happened for the Summer Olympics in 2004 and 2012.

[cassadine1991]

That's insane 

[Sindacco]

Why is it insane? Like Jason posted this has already happened two times before.

[reallyhateskateonlost]

2 weeks is a long time for this soap.

 

[jo.frank88]

Thanks Jason! 

I fully approve of NBC's decision to air Olympics in daytime instead of regular programming. First, the Olympics (even in daytime) will pull in much higher ratings than Days. Second, I think it's good for me (and the show) to get a little break occasionally. And thirdly, this will hopefully force writers to create an epic cliffhanger storyline for the hiatus which equals at least several weeks of great shows! 

[edgeofnik]

Unfortunately, with DAYS five- to six-month filming in advance, they can plan on cliffhanger on 8/5, but if there is even one pre-emption between it would end up on the return date, which defeats the purpose. The cliffhanger would have to be filmed in Feb/March(!) for August 5. 

And yes, NBC paid a ton of money for Olympics, they are going to fill every hour they can with that product. No need to pay for a show.

[YRBB]

OMG, so they'll end up being 8 years ahead of airing!

[jcar03]

DAYS won the 2013 Emmy for the DAYSaster story they did leading up to the 2012 Olympics.  Being in Rio next year many of the main events can be live.  I looked it up the other day and living in the central time zone Rio is only 2 hours ahead.  I remember being annoyed during 2012 that some of the big events were still held off until primetime though we knew the winner since London was 6 hours ahead.

[cassadine1991]

I'm talking about it being a year away

[Sindacco]

You thought the Olympics was this year?

[cassadine1991]

I know it's next year. But just knowing Days schedule that far in advance 

[Gray Bunny]

It's not insane that NBC would plan ahead and already know their scheduling plans for the Olympics a year ahead. I'm pretty sure we already knew the details for 2012 by mid-2011.

 

What does stink is that DAYS would be at the mercy of fate to plan a huge DAYSaster, only to be pre-empted a day or two randomly in July for a press conference or some random coverage of a big news event.

[Taoboi]

I liked that DAYS planned cliffhangers for both of those times if I remember correctly. And weren't the ratings up when it came back?

[Gray Bunny]

2004 was Melaswen, with Bo & the rest of Salem discovering that they're all still alive. 2012 was the explosion in the Salem tunnels.

 

One only knows what their pace in storytelling will be like, once this 3.0 reboot goes into effect, but if it's anything like it is now, they could easily edit down a few episodes, if they get pre-empted a day or two.

 

P.S. They ran into the same problem when they aired their 1994 primetime special, "Winter Heat," where the show was pre-empted during the week of, and they had to do some heavy-duty last-minute edits so that it would all match up for when the primetime episode aired by Friday night.

[Toups]

They could write 2 or even 3 straight episodes with a cliffhanger, so that way they can still end with a cliffhanger if the show gets pre-empted once or twice.