POP drops Days of Our Lives from its lineup...

[Wendy]

http://www.serialscoop.com/2016/04/pop-tv-announces-it-is-dropping-days-of.html

[Melroser]

That's how I usually watch the show when I watch. 

[YRBB]

Ouch.....

[edgeofnik]

I'm not surprised at all. Y&R provides a huge lead-in - it's almost always POP's #1 show (by a large margin) and DAYS drops significantly from that number. 

[Gray Bunny]

What was DAYS' Nielsen numbers on Pop?  Sad, considering they used to bring in the eyeballs for SOAPnet. 

 

POP is so fickle though. They were building up to be the next SOAPnet, and then they backpedal. They've already dropped Dynasty and Melrose Place. Guess they'll turn into another sitcom rerun wasteland. 

[Khan]

No one really wants soaps anymore (unless they are produced by Shonda Rhimes).  They were fine for POP when they were re-branding and needing the eyeballs.  Once they got all they could out of us, though, they were ready to "expand their brand."  Years from now, we'll be lucky if a soap turns up on one of the Starz Encore networks.

[KMan101]

I'd like to see Retro air soaps on the weekends. They could do blocks. But no one seems to care to rerun them. The Doctors is a rare exception and I believe that's even at 2am now. On an over-the-air network where ratings don't really matter and the lineup they have is fairly pathetic.

[dragonflies]

Ouch not a good sign for the show

[edgeofnik]

Y&R is still POP's #1 show by far on most weekdays. DAYS is a ratings dog - both on NBC and on POP and that's a reflection of the quality of the product. If the ratings held up, POP would keep them. This has nothing to do with "expand[ing] the brand,' as much as poor ratings. DAYS gets benefit of the #1 POP show and can't even keep half of that audience. 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

 

Unfortunately, I feel as if they are following the lead of the soap opera production companies that never seemed to truly value what they had.  I think Bill Bell Sr. probably was one of the few producers who knew the value and probably because he not also came up through the soap creative ranks but he also created his show.

 

I know I keep carping on PGP but they really are the best example I can recall of a soap production company that did not value their TV product as having cultural significance.  PGP only valued their daytime dramas as cash cows, to be leveraged and then disposed of when the shows were no longer making loads of money.  

 

In some ways, I feel like it's their own fault, (the production companies and their executives) that these shows get disprespected.  It's just unfortunate that these production companies didn't band together and pool their resources to fund a Hulu-like operation or a OTA channel, etc.  We know how the  daytime dramas that remained on networks reacted when the TOLN soaps happened, it was pure antagonism masquerading as goodwill.  Instead of using various soap media outlets to snipe about the online efforts to diminish them, what if the companies of the remaining soaps got together with those of the recently cancelled soaps and built an online presence of their own where they could re-run various shows and maybe down the road present original or re-booted shows or even a portal to present the Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony?

Instead of seeing the online shows as competition (which was ridiculous), what if they had seen it as a platform for their legacy as creators of serialized dramas?  They probably would've gotten more respect than they're getting now.

 

[All My Shadows]

This is the part that hurts and blows my mind the most. I just can't understand how something that exists daily for 40+ years straight can just go away and not be seen or heard from again. The quality of each soap at the end of its run should not matter in the LEAST. Show some reverence to the people who devoted decades of their lives to producing these products. Classic primetime shows are celebrated and honored constantly, and yes, those shows attracted wider audiences by far, but there is just no excuse for why the legendary daytime soaps have seemingly been wiped from existence in just a few years' time.

As a television production company, how do you not look at a show that ran for over 40 years and not feel a depth of gratitude towards it and its people? How do you scoff or turn your nose up at any proposals to honor the service those people did for your company/network?