April 17-21, 2006

[KevC1980]

i would say that John is fighting to save Marlena and be with her..and hopefully we will see that very soon..and Belle was recently fighting to be with shawn..but besides that your right in your statement..

[PhoenixRising05]

Well soaps in their heyday were all made up of triangles. That is what soaps were I think the problem is people want their couples together now no matter what but doing that is almost like a death wish story-wise and airtime-wise. Like I said, I don't know what to tell people not liking Days right now. I honestly think a new writer would do the same thing because there is not much else that can be done without going down the "woo woo" path again or doing some things that will really make fans madder then they are.

Yeah I do too. There are things JER could so to spice things up but I think he will come May. Days needs new day to day writers and the flashbaks are annoying.

I like Billie/Bo/Hope this time because of what started it but if it weren't for that I would despise it. I just say get it over with and get to the good stuff.

Thanks alot Steve for the post. I learned my lesson today and I am just grateful most of the regular posters here are very nice and reasonable. I will just have to pick and choose my battles but I am not gonna stop with my Days love .

[Ponz]

I don't know about other soaps but Days in its heyday certainly didn't revolve around triangles. Interlopers did exist but the primary focus was on internal conflict between couples and character driven love stories. Contrary to perception, a couple does not have to be placed on the backburner if it's not involved in a sordid triangle.

[Jane1978]

Well, yeah, breakdown and daily writers are bad. But maybe you need to ask himself why they are so bad? JER is known for his very strict and almost arrogant way he is treating his co writers. He even admitted it himself, they have no input and no knowledge of what the story really is. That´s crazy. How they can write any meaningfull scene if they don´t know the larger picture about where the scene is going? I believe any writer who have any ambition or takes his profession as a creative process simply cannot work in an enviroment like that. And interestingly, when Reilly came back many writers who had worked for the show for years left and we got bunch of nonamers instead.

The thing is, even if we forget about stories which disgust people and plot driven characters, there is still a bunch of much smaller things which annoys people as much. And most of these things (neverending days, fake cliffhangers, useless flashbacks, dream and fantasy scenes going through more than one segment) appeared soon after Reilly had returned. Of course, beside that there is this huge problem Reilly is not able to write any story which has constant and visible movement each week. He is merely creating situations which promises interesting progress and next spends months or even years creating stupid substories which exists only to remind viewers again and again how interesting the progress is going to be when he finally decides the time is right.

[SteveFrame]

I think the biggest problem that I see (and not just with Days but will all soaps) is that we as viewers are constantly comparing them to their heyday. Everything revolves around what a show did or was in its heydey.

I do the same thing all the time with Days except for I compare it to the 70's when I think it was in it's heyday and others compare it to the 80's or 90's.

I did the same thing when I watched AMC and quit watching partly because of that. The biggest reason was that I felt AMC drifted from it's original premise too much.

All of us OLTL watchers who complain compare it to it's heyday.

One thing we need to learn and I am talking to myself is that in this day and age no show is going to be as good as it was. No show on the air right now is good as it was. As much as I enjoy Days it will never be the same as it was in the 70's. GH will never be as good as it was in the 80's. Y&R will never be as good to me as it was in the 70's (the period of its greatness to me).

We need to try to get the shows to strive to be better, but unless we can do something to help them get more money in their budgets things will never get any better. I feel that the budgets of both Days and GL are the reason they have such a poor writing staff. I think they have the 2 worst day to day writing staffs out there. Days has a larger budget than GL does but the majority of Days budget goes to their cast of veterans. GL just can't afford better writers and I would imagine are lucky to have the ones they have. Hopefully someday P&G and CBS will be able to give GL more money or if they are able to continue saving by casting newcomers they can free up some more to hire better writers.

I don't see it happening on Days at all. We have Patch and Kayla coming back and I'm sure they didn't come cheap. And unless we see some long term vets fired or leave, Days budget has to be tighter than ever. I hate to lose a vet but if we could get better writers I think I could live with it.

As to the heydays of all the shows, I would love to see all of them rise to them again. But even at their best now, I just don't see it happening. All we get now are recycled writers who have already been on a number of shows. And already written their stories there and they just rework them a little and recycle them on the next show. Until some brave network exec decides to break the current mold, I just see things staying status quo.

[Jane1978]

Noway it is a budget thing. Read my post above. Reilly is an egomaniac, even his fans know it. He wants total and full control over everything and doesn´t allow to anyone to oppose him. So any writer who has any ambition or wants to work in a creative environment is not able to work under him. Instead, we´ve got a bunch of yes-men who are happy for their steady paycheck and do anything he wants without arguing, but don´t feel any connection nor passion for the show and it shows.

[Angela]

I think the problem with DAYS is the head-writer's story decisions...they suck and I dont mean normal suck, I mean no consideration for fans most of the time suck. It's one thing to be ballsy and want to do things your way, I have respect for that, it's another thing to be destructively single minded (to almost relish doing stuff very contrary to what your audience wants). I doubt JER is cheap, but the guy had his hey-day and it has already long gone by, they need to fire him from DAYS and let him just focus on Passions. JMHO, again. I think just about any half-respected writer in daytime would be an improvement.

And I really don't get how in the heck DAYS/NBC/Corday can afford this (badly used) cast!

[KBT]

Ratings for the week March 27-31, 2006

Total Viewers

1. Y&R 5,462,000 (-121,000/+127,000)

2. B&B 4,202,000 (-159,000/+289,000)

3. GH 3,375,000 (-284,000/-427,000)

4. ATWT 3,333,000 (-89,000/-45,000)

5. DAYS 3,101,000 (-563,000/+182,000)

6. OLTL 2,984,000 (-365,000/-475,000)

7. AMC 2,977,000 (-414,000/-536,000)

8. GL 2,955,000 (+100,000/+110,000)

9. PSNS 1,820,000 (-467,000/-498,000)

Ratings for the week April 17-21, 2006

Total Viewers

1. Y&R 5,363,000 (+63,000/+361,000)

2. B&B 3,961,000 (+29,000/+288,000)

3. AMC 3,477,000 (+202,000/-83,000)

4. GH 3,389,000 (-71,000/-267,000)

5. ATWT 3,219,000 (+104,000/-38,000)

6. OLTL 3,161,000 (+30,000/-89,000)

7. DAYS 2,928,000 (-158,000/-157,000)

8. GL 2,860,000 (+124,000/-4,000)

9. PSNS 1,972,000 (-83,000/-396,000)

Just 3 weeks ago AMC was in 7th and now AMC is in 3rd overall, thats how close soaps #3-8 are these days.

[SteveFrame]

I agree with some of that but not all. I think JER has a lot of good story ideas. And there is consideration of what fans want. Even magazines have talked about that. That to me has been one of the biggest problems is that they have made way too many rewrites to the stories since JER returned. I mean many know that the Stalker story did not end as it was planned. Fans were way too unhappy about the deaths. That is the reason we got the sudden change and the bad Island story which was way beyond bad. I don't think until the last few months that JER and Corday have done anything they wanted to do for awhile. I feel that after the Island story wrapped up and they started making this turn. This is what they wanted to do and I for one hope they stick with it and not give us a sudden very unsatisfactory wrap up and change in directions again.

Higley tried to give fans too much of what they wanted and tried to keep the couples together and it was just awful. She was terrible.

As to your comment that the cast is badly used I disagree with that too. There is not any soap on the air right now and esp. not AMC that uses it's cast the way that Days does. The only contract players that are not seen at least 1 time a week or every 2 weeks are Suzanne Rogers, Melissa Reeves (but she is now), Billy Warlock (who is being used more now), Frances Reid, Josh Taylor and the actors who play Abigail and Max. Even John Aniston who is recurring appears alot lately.

Right now all of the following are in their own stories and appear several times weekly: Lexxie, Abe, Bo, Hope, Patrick, Billie, Chelsea, Shawn, Mimi, Belle, Carrie, Austin, Lucas, Sammi, Alex, Marlena, John

And appearing quite a bit are Kate, Bonnie, Philip, Caroline, Celeste and Tek

The show uses it's cast of contract players and even their recurring players quite a bit. The cast is not underused or used badly.

[Jane1978]

Thanks. I don´t understand why is it so hard to understand the problem is not just in stories. I fully believe any different writer could make exactly the same stories much more interesting. I have to admit even Langan was better writer. He had the same destructive ideas as Reilly and he loved to write for characters nobody had cared about, but his execution and daily story progress were much better.

[Toups]

Exactly.

I will start to worry if DAYS is constantly #7, but they're not. I'm satisfied with the season-to-date numbers. They're a more accurate way of looking at ratings over a long period of time instead of week-to-week. But, I do get happy if DAYS improves week-to-week.

[Adam]

Way to go AMC! LOL Megan I bet is wishing now she'd drag that reveal out to sweeps. She always misses sweeps! But man we beat GH in total viewers and tied them in HH/ AMC had an awesome week. And well deserved as well.

[KevC1980]

Way to go AMC, your getting those ratings because you brought Dixie back...Because i caught some of the show today, and that was the only good stuff..The rest of the show was really bad..

If dixie can bring ratings to AMC, patch and kayla should be a godsend to Days...Hopefully this proves to the soaps that fans want to see beloved characters back on their soaps..Like Anna, Robert, Holly, Dixie, Patch and Kayla..

[Angela]

WOW, AMC also beat two of the B&B episodes with their Monday episode, rarely does any show's dailies do that.

[Evan]

DAYS: the ratings are terrible! You can make all the excuses in the world or blame certain fanbases(Jack/Jennifer fans in particular always seem to be bashed here), but it all comes down to the writing in the end. I'm prepared to give DAYS another chance if Steve/Kayla's return SL is a good one and Jack returns to the show in a big way, but it's a big IF where JER is concerned.

Reilly needs to go. Surely there are some hot new writers out there who could rescue DAYS and make better use of such a talented cast? What sort of hold does Reilly have over Corday and NBC?

You have to wonder where Ken Corday's head is these days? Now he wants to hire an acting coach!

Gee, wouldn't hiring a writing coach be a better move at this time?