Three months was the longest that lead time should have been allowed to get.  That still gives you time to course correct and have impactful sweeps because you could still shift things around.

 

8+ months is just crazy for a daytime soap.

20 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

Three months was the longest that lead time should have been allowed to get.  That still gives you time to course correct and have impactful sweeps because you could still shift things around.

 

8+ months is just crazy for a daytime soap.

Exactly. I don't understand how taking more frequent breaks to keep them around the 3 month mark is less cost-effective than getting themselves 8-9 months ahead by doing the same thing.

At the VERY least, an eight-plus month lead time should prevent NBC and Sony from interfering with story, which they are clearly doing.  Not that Ken Corday can resist sticking his own fingers in the pie, but if he were any kind of decent EP, he'd tell them, "Nope, sorry, if we have to tape this far ahead in order to save money, then you don't get to offer any 'notes,' or dictate to my writers which characters they should write for, and how."