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

[dragonflies]

Wow for some reason I thought he and or his parents, at one time he owned some portion of the show

[teplin]

Even if the show were somehow able to buck the odds and increase Peacock's subscriber base, it's extremely unlikely to keep luring in new subscribers as time goes on. There's a reason Netflix cancels the majority of its series after three seasons -- the numbers show that a show has basically exhausted its ability to attract new eyeballs at that point. So even an initial burst of new subscribers (which I find highly unlikely) is not going to add much life to the 'ol gal. 

[pdm1974]

This is such a missed opportunity. They should have announced this months ago, and planned an "NBC finale" episode. The people that have been watching it on TV for decades deserved that. They could have brought back some old faves at the end and gotten a little boost to the ratings as all the other shows got when they started to end. Then, mostly wrap things up and leave the viewers with a couple of cliffhangers, sort of what was attempted with AMC and the move to PP. After that, reboot the show on Peacock. Smaller cast, better production values, more modern storytelling (for the sake of God, no more masks, Dr. Rolf bringing everybody back from the dead, etc) while still retaining enough of the show to pull in some of the older viewers while attempting to attract new ones on Peacock for the reboot. But, oh well.

[JoeCool]

They co-produce but they have no ownership rights at all. It is SONY owned, distributed and co-produced with Corday Productions.

The Bell family owns B & B. SONY is the major owner of Y and R. ABC owns GH.

[Soapsuds]

 

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[Cat]

This is my feeling also. And your last sentence illustrates why streaming on a paid Peacock platform may not work out for Days in the long-run.

I feel sadness about this, and it's interesting how much of that sadness is echoed in the 22 pages (and counting) of this thread. Last year, when the first Beyond Salem mini-series was announced, people were thrilled that Days was getting this extra mileage on Peacock, and some believed that Days eventually belonged on the streaming service permanently. Today, that sentiment appears to have changed. Maybe it's the shock of experiencing the news like this. We perhaps anticipated that it was 'sometime in the future.'

Or maybe it's the paying aspect of Peacock. If Days were offered free on Peacock, would we be this disheartened? Or would we believe that Days had a fighting chance? Someone mentioned on the Beyond Salem thread last year that Days' demos on Peacock catch-up must be pretty good (i.e.: a lot of young female demos might be logging on to watch).

Anyhoo, just asking the question -- I don't really know the answer, and it would be great if Days had a second life in streaming.

[Michael]

I think it's a combination of the suddenness and the fact that it'll be on the paid tier. If it were moving onto the free tier, I suspect the uproar or pessimism would be a lot less.  

I agree that the lack of lead time and the fact that we won't get a big NBC finale "event" is a huge missed opportunity. 

Frankly, though, I just don't think they're that concerned about losing the passive viewers who are out of the target demo. Which is obviously sad for the longtime viewers who won't continue on with the show, but in terms of business, I get the tradeoff. The streamers want active eyeballs who are appealing to advertisers, and it seems like the Peacock specials have brought those in.

[Soapsuds]

Once the garbage that is in the can is released...the last few months need to go back to beyond Salem style of storytelling. Focus on three or four stories for a month and end it and start another set of stories with different characters the next month. Don't focus on the same boring nonsense drivel the whole time you have left.

[Jdee43]

Totally agree with all that's been written. 

So the final broadcast episode, after 57 years, is going to be some normal crappy episode? Is that really going to inspire people to pay to see more crappy episodes online?

You really have to wonder about the future of the Peacock app if they are depending on Days of Our Lives to move the needle. I wonder which announcement will come first, the folding of DAYS or Peacock?

And shame to whoever negotiated the contract for DAYS with NBC, that they didn't include a clause to prevent NBC from doing something like this. DAYS negotiators should have gotten a guarantee that DAYS would be on broadcast TV for the life of that new contract.

 

Edited August 4, 2022 by Jdee43

[te.]

I think the issue here is the suddenness of the move - it doesn't seem planned or well-thought out; we won't get a broadcast finale that will point viewers towards it going to streaming. It'll just unceremoniously make the move. It doesn't seem to be driven by affiliates having had enough of airing DAYS on broadcast but more of a desperate move to attempt to save Peacock as a streaming service - something that's quite the burden for DAYS to bare and arguably the chance seems bigger that DAYS will sink along with Peacock rather than act as catalyst for new subscribers to save the flailing streaming service.

We'll see how it works out. As I said, it's already exclusively on streaming in some markets and I've always gotten the impression that DAYS always had a much younger demographic following than the other soaps, which is part of why it fell quickly to the bottom of the ratings as they already consume the shows in patterns that isn't on broadcast. I do think DAYS is probably the soap that could possibly thrive on streaming for that reason alone, but the hand its been dealt in the Peacock move isn't great.

I don't think it's a death sentence, but it's an uphill struggle. If it gets renewed next year I do think they should reduce episodes to ~20-22 minutes and cut the cast. Soaps work better in the half hour format any way.

Edited August 4, 2022 by te.

[lucaslesann23]

If if if if if it does well enough and they renew days for another year, how long do you all give it until ABC is like, ohhh GH is going to Hulu!

If it is renewed, how do you think it'll be aired? I don't think it'll be 5 days anymore.

[DaytimeFan]

Yes, Corday is an equal owner in the show. 

That is incorrect. Corday's litigation against Sony made it very clear that Corday is an owner of the show and that the only soap Sony is the sole owner of is Y&R: https://deadline.com/2019/02/days-of-our-lives-lawsuit-producers-sony-tv-distribution-fraud-1202554627/

[DramatistDreamer]

Oh wow, I just read about this. I am not anywhere near a regular Days viewer, but as a fan of the genre, I hope Days can buck the cancellation trend of the last decade and a half and somehow find new life online. 
 

NBC will have no daytime dramas on their terrestrial network. Just wow.
 

This also makes me wonder, how Days will be placed in future Daytime Emmys categories? 

[JAS0N47]

Yes, per Ken himself in his autobiography, he fully owns Days:

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[JoeCool]

I stand corrected. Then why is it moving to Peacock then?  Corday Productions own 1% of Y an R too.