Soap almost always have their lowest ratings on Friday & Mondays are the highest. I notice that almost every weeks, except for maybe the past 2-3. Also Spring time always seems the time ratings go down to new lows for numerous shows.

Yeah Spring has been the worst time for ratings the last few years. I wonder why that is? Spring fever maybe ?

I may be a glutton for punishment, but I'm going to wade into the "Days" debate...

First, why do some people assume that a post-Reilly headwriter would automatically be a recycled writer from a or more soaps? I am the first to admit that that habit of recycling writers is one of the key problems with the soap genre today. Fans almost always list writing as their number one complaint about soaps today.

"As the World Turns" had success when it named Hogan Sheffer as head writer several years ago. At the time ATWT was coming off what may have been its worst period in its history. Sheffer immediately turned the series around and was even rewarded by his peers with Emmy nominations and wins. The series remains well written (but not as well as under Sheffer) since he was unceremoniously and somewhat controversally shunted aside last year. Sheffer had been at DreamWorks prior to his stint at ATWT and came to the show with no soap writing experience.

Before ATWT, "One Life to Live" used non-soap writers Michael Malone and Josh Griffith to generally positive reviews. Like with ATWT, the stories crafted by Malone and Griffith lifted OLTL creatively (even though Malone's second "tour of duty" is widely regarded as a failure). "The Young and the Restless" recently looked outside the daytime arena as well when it named Lynn Latham as head writer. Although Latham had been a consultant at Y&R since last year and worked on ABC's defunct "Port Charles", most of Latham's credits come from primetime.

To suggest that "Days" would suffer and have to settle for a second rate hack in a post-Reilly era is to say that "Days" cannot do any better than Reilly. That is an insult to the many people on and off screen at the show and its fans at home. "Days" can and must do better than Reilly. If not, the alternative may (underline the word "may") be lower ratings, new record lows, and those factors could (underline the word "could") tip NBC's hand and force them to cancel the soap. At this point, "Days" has nothing to lose and everything to gain by either firing Reilly or religate him to the sidelines by bringing in a co-head writer to right (and write) this Titanic while their is still time to avoid the iceberg.

I think that's part of the problem is the way they go about hiring writers. I heard Ken Corday's advice to some young women on how to get into writing on soaps (I happen to be standing with him.) Here it is: Try and get a job as a gofer for one of the writers and work up from there. How lame is that? They have auditions for the actors. Why not writers? They must be missing a ton of talent doing it this way.

Secondly, why do they constantly change direction in the story? Countless re-writes?!! Certainly it can't be to please viewers because clearly they aren't doing that. Listening to viewers means occasionally dumping a storyline that's not working, not changing the direction of a story as you go along based on what you think viewers want or more importantly what you think the viewers may have guessed is going to happen. That's like checking to see if the wind changed directions every 15 seconds. What an insane way to work!

Yes, people want family back on soaps but that doesn't mean having a funeral where 3/4's of your family don't show up or walk out of it in the middle of. Or bringing a character back like Carrie and not have a SINGLE interaction with her parents (meaning the ones who raised her for the most part, John and Marlena) in FIVE months or a single scene with Frankie and Carrie who were so close as kids. It doesn't mean skipping the reunions we viewers always look forward to and then pretending like they saw each other while we weren't looking. It doesn't mean having a wedding (Shawn & Mimi) and not having current cast members attend such as parents and siblings! It doesn't mean having your parents be there only to walk out before the ceremony (Brady & Chloe's). Bringing family back to Days doesn't mean ignoring some of your kids and not letting others breathe on their own and/or treating them as "only" children (Belle). Bringing family back doesn't mean compartmentalizing every single storyline so only the same old people interact on a daily basis. Bringing back romance doesn't mean having a wedding that thrills a fanbase only to have the entire wedding dwelling on a third person. Sorry but that's not romantic. Sure, fighting for your lover is great romance but the characters need not all be dumbed down just to move the story along. It need not be clumsily written so all the characters at some point or another come off seeming to be mentally challenged. Everyone knows that you can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time. However, we should be able to expect intelligent storytelling and dialogue. We need a headwriter or two who is willing to work with his or her writing staff. We need to know that these writers really *know* the characters at least as well as we do.

I agree with you on the funeral/weddings and everyone leaving that drives me nuts. Carrie and Sami left before Marlena's wedding to Alex. After Zack's death, I was hoping for great scene with Kristen Alfonso and Martha Madison. I don't even remember a scene that involved them after Zack's death.

Well, those OLTL ratings suck...but it's not surprising given all the Paige/Spencer/John/Dead Daddy who no one gives a damn about stuff we have been subjected to recently.

That being said, Marcie & Michael's wedding, the birth of Tess/Jess' baby, and the tornado should bring in some higher ratings.

Lynn Latham kicked ass as a headwriter on Knots Landing (she wrote the late 1980s-early 1990s seasons, which were really good ones for Knots). I was so happy to hear her name mentioned as Kay Alden and Jack Smith's replacement.

OLTL is having a tornado too? I wonder if it will be as good as AMC's.

At this point, "Days" has nothing to lose and everything to gain by either firing Reilly or religate him to the sidelines by bringing in a co-head writer to right (and write) this Titanic while their is still time to avoid the iceberg.

And PASSIONS would be better served with Reilly fired from DAYS. IF Reilly remains at DAYS much longer, I'll start believing this is NBC's secret plan to get out of the soap business, it just doesn't make sense for Reilly to remain at DAYS getting record low ratings with his own creation: Passions in its current state.

OLTL is having a tornado too? I wonder if it will be as good as AMC's.

Yeah they are - I am looking forward to seeing how technically well done it ends up being. I hope it shows the actors flying back and being jolted with debris flying everywhere like AMC's.

From reading the spoilers though, the stories and plots that spawn from this tornado SUCK - and are no where near as exciting or worth watching --especially for 3 better known characters

QUOTE(jpoliver78 @ Apr 27 2006, 10:12 PM)

At this point, "Days" has nothing to lose and everything to gain by either firing Reilly or religate him to the sidelines by bringing in a co-head writer to right (and write) this Titanic while their is still time to avoid the iceberg.

Why would they fire him? the show is doing just fine for the season? One weeks bad ratngs mean squeat to the higher ups. It's the seasonal averages that they look at.

DAYS Season to date Rankings

18-34 #1

18-49 viewers #3

18-49 #3

HH #4

Viewers #5

If were calling for the head of every HW that wrote boring material at times, and gets the lowest weekly rating to date, EVERY soap would have a new HW since EVERY soap has hit lows in the last couple years.

So I just noticed AMC was first in Teens...not that it means anything bc that demo changes drastically week after week...still kinda cool to see AMC at the top of something. Wonder what drew the teens that week...JR/Babe romance in France maybe? I can't see too many teens that were watching back in the Tad/Dixie heyday - so the encounter wouldn't have drawn them...maybe it did though - who knows.

Why would they fire him? the show is doing just fine for the season? One weeks bad ratngs mean squeat to the higher ups. It's the seasonal averages that they look at.

DAYS Season to date Rankings

18-34 #1

18-49 viewers #3

18-49 #3

HH #4

Viewers #5

If were calling for the head of every HW that wrote boring material at times, and gets the lowest weekly rating to date, EVERY soap would have a new HW since EVERY soap has hit lows in the last couple years.

I agree Rick-NBC can look at that and see growth and I am sure days was expecting crappy numbers in April based on all the filler and such. Both Days and Passions are banking on the summer with the big returns and vendetta. I think both will be fine and by end of summer will have pretty good numbers, although I expect alot bigger numbers for Days. Days will rebound as soon as next week IMO.

NBC and DAYS should be thanking their lucky stars that GL did not go up to a 2.3.....

I agree Rick-NBC can look at that and see growth and I am sure days was expecting crappy numbers in April based on all the filler and such. Both Days and Passions are banking on the summer with the big returns and vendetta. I think both will be fine and by end of summer will have pretty good numbers, although I expect alot bigger numbers for Days. Days will rebound as soon as next week IMO.

Sorry, but I suggest you prepare yourself for some awful sweeps numbers. The Hatrick/Bollie sex, Carcus pregnancy and Frankifer proposal will NOT pull up the ratings.

They should have brought SN and MBE back a month earlier.

Sorry, but I suggest you prepare yourself for some awful sweeps numbers. The Hatrick/Bollie sex, Carcus pregnancy and Frankifer proposal will NOT pull up the ratings.

They should have brought SN and MBE back a month earlier.

I agree. They better make sure all their male actors 51 and under have their shirts off every episode or else a lot of people will lose interest in keeping their eyes glued to the screen. The May sweeps spoilers sound very bad except for the ending of the Dr. Alex story and the return of Jack.

NBC and DAYS should be thanking their lucky stars that GL did not go up to a 2.3.....

I know! Damn it. Maybe next week since GL was much better. Let's hope they can recover and get out of their 2.2 funk.

Let me just say that it almost seems as if JER is trying to ensure that during May sweeps all fans will be throwing their sandwiches at the televsion. I believe the Bo/Hope fans will be outraged - as far as I know Hope has never slept with anyone other than Bo (not counting when she was Gina) - so Hatrick sex is major to that fanbase; and since Days gets off on tormenting a wounded bull you have such upcoming memorable moments in the next week or two like Abby catching Jenn/Frankie in bed and Jenn proclaiming her eternal love to Frankie while planning their wedding to just thrill those J&J fans.

I predict there will be a major shortage of white bread nationwide as sandwiches are tossed and viewers decide to shut off that old TV for awhile!

I predict the next two weeks ratings will continue to fall, probably being passed by GL, then they will level off mid-may and hopefully rise a little with the return of Jack and Steve/Kayla. But for the next few weeks I think it is going to be an extremely bumpy ride ratings wise.