DAYS OF OUR LIVES Moves to Peacock From NBC on September 12

[John]

It seems the actors were told today

[Soapsuds]

Well Days is screwed then. 

[te.]

DAYS has been online where I live since 2015 - here they dump a week worth of episodes on Mondays at 9AM and has presumably worked out well since they've kept it there and even when the streaming service was bought out by PlutoTV. It's pretty much the show that seems to keep the streaming service afloat - I'm not saying that the same thing will happen to the dwindling Peacock (and of course, there's a big difference between just licensing it vs producing it), but there is precedent to DAYS going entirely online in other markets.

[Joseph]

Right! Now how do I send a bomb to Ron as a thank you gift

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[BetterForgotten]

I really hope Corday and team are secretly planning the finale/ending of this show on the down low, so when NBC/Peacock cancels it with little notice, they're prepared to go out with some dignity.

All soaps, please reference how Neighbours ended last week in Australia/the UK! 

Edited August 4, 2022 by BetterForgotten

[Joseph]

They probably are or will be in the near future with an enormous pain in my heart I have to admit Soaps are not meant for streaming, Here in Brazil we recently had an Attempt at one with all the liberties mentioned, swearing nudity Semi-pornographic sex scenes and it still didn't work out

[All My Shadows]

Yikes! Like many have said, this isn’t a surprise, but the fact that the move is happening in just over a month’s time is the shocker. My bet? “Soft cancellation” is right. This show is not going to light up Peacock’s subscriptions, and I don’t care how many “old faces from the past” they bring on (and, to be clear, I highly doubt they’re ever going to do that!). It will either not get “edgy” at all because TPTB don’t give enough of a sht to do something new or it’ll be super edgy because they know it ends next year regardless. They certainly won’t make those changes for the good of the show because…since when do soap people do anything for the good of the show? Peacock ain’t gonna all of a sudden breathe talent into these people.

 

And, let’s be real. Not one article or headline has referred to this as “the new plan to save DAYS,” and the mere utterance of the phrase has kept the show on thus far.

 

Re: affiliates, local scheduling. In the south Louisiana market, Sept. 12 will be the first day ever (or in an extremely long time) that no two soaps will air against each other.

[DaytimeFan]

I certainly hope so too and concur about how Neighbours did it. That is how a soap should go out.

Corday should really have two finales - one for the NBC broadcast and another for whatever transpires on Peacock. 

[Vee]

I think streaming is the only future a soap can have now. But it's the way this is being done that makes it look like a death knell.

First, as so many have said, there should've been a lot of build-up and a public plan to move a soap to streaming - it should get a big, splashy PR rollout to keep the audience well informed, storylines should climax and resolve, and there should be a big finish for the network version of the show before the move. In their own way, AMC and OLTL both got this. And just like those examples, you can then give a new iteration of the show a clean slate, a cut-down or revamped cast, etc. and do the move to the streamer with a new style and focus. (Ideally, all of this is what GH could do in the process of moving to Hulu and yes I've been workshopping it for years in my spare time, sue me.) This isn't happening here, AFAIK. It's tossed off. It seems like at the very least many of the performers only just found out. I wonder when Corday and Carlivati knew.

Second, and most important: Unlike Hulu or Netflix, Peacock as a service is not strong enough to attract new paid subscribers solely for DAYS. Putting aside DAYS' creative issues, the service simply does not have a large enough crossover content base. I do believe NBC/etc. genuinely would like to use DAYS to boost Peacock's numbers, and have genuinely been pleased with Beyond Salem's results. I think they were willing to invest in DAYS with the spinoffs. If it was on the free tier it'd have a shot. But IMO they're delusional if they think that translates to people being willing to pay $7 or whatever for Peacock Premium nonstop vs. an occasional miniseries. DAYS cannot singlehandedly bolster Peacock's numbers, and Peacock subscriptions cannot be the only metric that keeps DAYS alive. I think it's something they legitimately are hoping will work, but it won't; it's a doomed premise. It's the right idea for a soap's future being done the wrong way, and it's probably the end of DAYS.

For OLTL at least, most of those tapes do not exist and were wiped. Any surviving material from before the mid-late '70s is largely in the hands of random affiliates, museums and private collectors.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Vee

[DRW50]

This is probably the only part that almost amuses in this whole sick joke. Jamey Giddens and his pals at  DC went out of their way to badmouth PP and the AMC and OLTL revivals. They were desperate to make sure those shows never had a chance (not that they had much of one anyway). Now, after  all that self-promotion and hype, and a flop show elsewhere, Giddens is on a soap being dumped into a situation similar to AMC and OLTL 2.0,  only with much less notice, care, or fanfare.

I hope all the people in the industry who got the knives  out for their little fiefdom are taking this moment to feel proud of the end result.  

[Soapsuds]

Where will Jamey Giddens now write his clever lines like bye bitches?

Or do a redux of Alexis and Krystal?

[Wendy]

Dead classic soap writers would have probably done a better job at Days than this clown and his buddy, Ron, ever did.

[Broderick]

I agree that it's a "soft cancellation", and it was more-or-less announced publicly back in 2021, when the show received a 2-year licensing agreement, rather than the 1-year licensing agreement that had been in effect since 2014.  

Ken Corday, based on his comments in 2021, knew exactly what was in store.  

"Network television reaches a certain audience but not necessarily the same audience that streaming platforms reach," said Corday in 2021, "and I think Peacock is doing quite well.  It's flourishing at a time when network television may not be flourishing.  The show is doing very well on Peacock, and I see the future of Days of our Lives in the decades that will come will be more of a streaming appointment than a network appointment.  However, it's important that people watch network television.  It's less expensive to subscribe to, and advertisers need network viewers."

Reading between the lines, NBC basically told Corday in 2021, "We're going to license the show for two years this time.  But here's the deal -- if your ratings are still in the toilet by the summer of 2022, we plan to cut our losses by taking the six months worth of garbage that you've already taped for Season 58 and dump the mess onto Peacock, where not a blooming soul will ever see it.  And for your remaining six months beyond that, you better get your Guiding Light/Peapack shaky-cam ready, because we're slicing your budget down to about 30 cents per episode, and after THAT six months, you're finished, buddy.  Nice doing business with you." 

Corday likely said, "Please don't embarrass me publicly", to which NBC responded, "Don't worry, we'll have Mark Lazarus give a meaningless word-salad statement such as 'moving Days to Peacock is reflective of our broader strategy to utilize our portfolio to maximize reach and strengthen engagement with viewers'.  Which is a nice way of saying that you're cancelled."  

To which Corday likely responded, "But that statement doesn't MEAN anything", and NBC said, "What it MEANS is that we're dumping the sht you've already taped to Peacock, but we'll dress it up by having Mark Lazarus say, 'this move enables us to build the show's loyal fanbase on streaming while simultaneously bolstering the network daytime offering with an urgent, live programming opportunity for partners and consumers', which means we're planning to replace you with some lame news show, or maybe something stupid like, 'The Chew'."    

 

[Soapsuds]

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I'm not a writer and never intended to be one but even I could've written better material.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Soapsuds

[DaytimeFan]

You have likely summed up exactly what happened.
 

Probably verbatim.