Not a dream, not an imaginary story, folks.

Like sands through the hourglass, another iconic TV title is switching to streaming: NBC’s Days of our Lives will become a Peacock exclusive starting September 12, Vulture has learned. The move will end the show’s 57-year run on broadcast television and also marks the exit of NBC from a genre it pioneered 73 years ago with the launch in 1949 of These Are My Children, widely credited as TV’s first-ever daytime sudser. It comes as two other major broadcast titles — Thursday Night Football and ABC’s Dancing with the Stars — prepare to shift to streaming this fall.

In the case of Days, there has been industry speculation about it jumping to Peacock for some time now. The series, produced by Corday Prods. in association with Sony Pictures Television, has dodged cancellation multiple times over the past 15 years, with Sony and NBC often engaged in very last-minute negotiations to hammer out deals which make financial sense to both parties. Days has been the least-watched of the four remaining network daytime dramas for years now, making it increasingly difficult for NBC execs to justify keeping the show around absent reduced license fees (which Sony has largely been able to deliver).

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“This programming shift benefits both Peacock and NBC and is reflective of our broader strategy to utilize our portfolio to maximize reach and strengthen engagement with viewers,” Mark Lazarus, chairman, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming said of the decision. “With a large percentage of the Days of Our Lives audience already watching digitally, 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.” NBC will fill the gap left by Days with a new one-hour news program, NBC News Daily, anchored by Kate Snow, Aaron Gilchrist, Vicky Nguyen and Morgan Radford.

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Full article in Twitter link.

 

9 hours ago, Remington said:

The biggest thing I got out of the Erika bit was that Ron said he is staying.  I don't understand how he keeps getting his contract renewed with Days.  

Don't you think he's "in like Flynn" for no other reason than Ken likes him? Ken doesn't seem to be firing on all cylinders. He claimed a first for DOOL going from half hr to hour, which is AW's first, Jan 1975 with DOOL 2nd. And, he doesn't know Canada's same day now. He used to know everything! Something's changed.

15 hours ago, edgeofnik said:

I predict three things will happen:

1. By early 2023, they'll start releasing a week's worth of episodes rather than daily.

2. As we get closer to summer, they'll reduce to 3-4 episodes a week, which will extend the season a couple of months. By then, the show will have adjusted to producing episodes intended to air on Peacock, not over-the-air TV (for US).

3. If #2 is successful, DAYS will be renewed at 3 episodes a week - probably with a more BS or Port Charles-like form of storytelling.

Getting viewers to invest in 5 episodes a week has always been a huge challenge. I think in the 80s/90s, the average was closer to 4, but those numbers have dropped over time. A very simple way to think about it: if the average viewer went from 4 episodes a week to 3, that's a 25% drop.

I mean, no matter how you twist it they'll need to adjust for streaming somehow - soaps on broadcast are constructed the way they are because network heads knew that a lot of people didn't tune in daily, hence why you have certain DAYS of the week where more important things happen and some where there's obvious filler. On streaming that filler to fill airtime is pretty unnecessary if not something that will turn audiences off more than anything. The advantage they have now is that they'll have raw data to analyse - I can only hope they make the most of it; but it's also why it's a shame that they couldn't have given them a year to prepare for this move.

13 hours ago, John said:

Erika was right about AMC/OLTL 2.0 . PP was more interested in pushing the envelope over telling long-term story. 

Sorry but that's what American soaps need: the envelope to be PUSHED! And I never said anything about One Life 2.0, because I actually hated it as much as the ABC 1.0! Only upside was Ron Carlivati wasn't writing it, so there was some improvement.

Edited September 4, 20223 yr by Liberty City

21 hours ago, Liberty City said:

Sorry Ms. Slezak, but what TOLN's All My Children did was better than anything network daytime has done in the past 10 to 15 years. So...

From start to finish. And the proposed AJ (sexuality) and Miranda (paternity) reveals prove they were doing long term story arcs.

Edited September 4, 20223 yr by DemetriKane

If we're keeping it real here, NBC has not been successful in daytime for the better part of the last 45 years. I'm not surprised at all that they are the first network to have all their soaps come to an end. It's quite telling that their longest-lasting soap lineup in the last 45 years has been Days nearly 15 year period as NBC's sole soap.

I don't see any reason to relitigate the PP soaps in this thread, and I'm a dude who could talk about them til the cows come home lol. I already covered this in either this thread or the earlier one wherever Errol and I discussed it a few days ago and it's pretty OT, but I'll just say it again: Yes, Erika Slezak is 100% right that PP didn't know how to produce the show consistently because its owners were pure grifters, but I don't fully agree with her about not liking pushing the envelope or the more racy content, or the change in tone. I thought it was necessary to modernize some of that and a lot of it was done well, it's just that some of the stories weren't fully baked and production wasn't consistent, so style became the order of the day. Erika is entitled to her opinion; she also didn't care for Linda Gottlieb personally and professionally and loved the JFP era, and I still worship the ground Erika walks on despite vehemently disagreeing on that. I do certainly agree some of the stories at OLTL 2.0 needed work, but growing pains aside I think it was a pretty strong start for those short-lived shows overall. And that's the last I'm sayin' about it in here.

Edited September 4, 20223 yr by Vee

1 hour ago, DemetriKane said:

From start to finish. And the proposed AJ (sexuality) and Miranda (paternity) reveals prove they were doing long term story arcs.

Yes i think both soaps were finally gelling with the new writers just hired but Jeff & Frank had no idea how to produce the shows and Ive heard they could rival Frons on micro management

Eric Nelsen told the Bay about AJ coming out as gay on AMC & when PP stopped the soaps, The Bay did that Story with his character Daniel

More begging. 

 

I love Greg Vaughan.  Swoon.  I could watch him read the dictionary.  So I don't mind this promo, LOL.  Although I found myself just looking into his eyes and ignoring the content of his words.

Cool fact:  Greg Vaughan is in TWO promos released a few days apart:

This promo for DAYS being exclusively on Peacock starting Sept 12.

The other promo is for Queen Sugar Season 7 starting Sept 6 - I put that promo on the Queen Sugar thread. >link<

Edited September 5, 20223 yr by janea4old

Watched today and still no real promotion about it leaving NBC.  The show is leaving daytime tv on a whimper. 

On 9/4/2022 at 6:57 AM, Dylan said:

In 2010 it was 150k an episode. I imagine it only got lower in 10+ years.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/daytimeconfidential.com/.amp/2010/10/14/shocker-are-episodes-of-days-of-our-lives-being-made-for-150000-a-piece

Thank you for that info! I just did some research and Peacock's spend for content in 2022 is $3 billion according to MoneyGeek. When you compare the budget for Days to the average streaming/broadcast series on the lower end, even if it's budget was $37 million per year, that would be decent. Broadcast/Streaming shows cost around $2-$3 million per episode so they're spending the same or more for an 8-10 episode season of a show than they would be on an entire season of 250 episodes of Days. With cuts, I wouldn't be surprised if Days' budget is under $30 million per year and in that case it's basically a steal for them if people watch it.

Spending $30 million on a show that can drive year round subscriptions is better than spending $30 million for 8 episodes which will get some attention, but die down once it's run ends.

57 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

Watched today and still no real promotion about it leaving NBC.  The show is leaving daytime tv on a whimper. 

When I was watching today there was a chyron after each commercial announcing the move to Peacock, it took up the bottom third of the screen and kind of distracted from the dramatic scene between Jennifer and Maggie

Edited September 6, 20223 yr by j swift

2 minutes ago, j swift said:

When I was watching today there was chyron after each commercial announcing the move to Peacock, it took up the bottom third of the screen and kind of distracted from the dramatic scene between Jennifer and Maggie

Hmmm.we didn't get that here. All we got was the tag promo at the end of cast credits with Marlena, Will, Kayla saying you better sit down announcement.

47 minutes ago, Chris B said:

Thank you for that info! I just did some research and Peacock's spend for content in 2022 is $3 billion according to MoneyGeek. When you compare the budget for Days to the average streaming/broadcast series on the lower end, even if it's budget was $37 million per year, that would be decent. Broadcast/Streaming shows cost around $2-$3 million per episode so they're spending the same or more for an 8-10 episode season of a show than they would be on an entire season of 250 episodes of Days. With cuts, I wouldn't be surprised if Days' budget is under $30 million per year and in that case it's basically a steal for them if people watch it.

Spending $30 million on a show that can drive year round subscriptions is better than spending $30 million for 8 episodes which will get some attention, but die down once it's run ends.

 

How much money did Peacock spend on sports @ChrisB ? That is what I am wondering as a lot of that airs on the streaming site.

 

Edited September 6, 20223 yr by ~bl~

1 hour ago, ~bl~ said:

 

How much money did Peacock spend on sports @ChrisB ? That is what I am wondering as a lot of that airs on the streaming site.

 

They paid $1 billion for exclusive rights to WWE. That, like Days, is something that can drive ongoing subscription which is what they say they’re looking for.