Days: Actor Leaving!!

[PhoenixRising05]

Drake will stay and Dee will stay and Corday will make sure of it. He knows how much fans love them-he learned that when Dee was locked in the castle and went MIA on the island. I remember him saying to people to calm down and that she would be back when the other stories were set up and JER could write her story as it should be. Corday knows he can't lose them-even he isn't that stupid. If Dee walks, and I will be shocked if she does because she loves the show and said she is here to stay, then there is some other reason we don't know about. It will have nothing to do with this hiatus IMO>

[Ridge]

How have Deidre and Drake suckered money out of the show? Give me a break. And if every actor that had a big story that was making big money deserved a break afterwords, what would happen to the show? Heck Melissa Reeves and Matthew Ashford were on DAYS for the past 6 years with fricken NOTHING to do and were getting paid for it. Sucky, huh? BS.

This is by far the stupidest move DAYS has ever made. I'm not even a big J&M fan and their last story was terrible but it is disrespectful and stupid. DAYS spends so much money on the teens who have brought absolutely nothing to this show. Absolutely nothing, and especially not ratings. And if they can do it to J&M, whose to say Bo and Hope, who I am assuming are next in line in terms of salary, aren't next? What's the point? This is stupid and it's going to hurt DAYS more IMO.

[SteveFrame]

I love everything you said. I am not a big supercouple fan at all. I guess the closest to a supercouple fan I am with Days is my love for Bo & Hope, but I see this as a big mistake too. For many reasons that I have stated.

And as to the thing of those who have suffered because they had to watch John & Marlena I guess the same could be said for those who have had to sit through Jack & Jennifer (who are probably my least favorite couple on the show and sometimes have even hated together) or those who sit through Shawn & Belle and don't like them or Bo & Hope or Abe & Lexxie or Shawn & Mimi, Phillip & Belle, etc. We all have the ones we don't like, and consider it suffering to have to watch them.

It is a fact that Days is a Supercouple show filled with Supercouple fan bases but no one fan base is more important than the other. Days will not survive by angering one of the big supercouples fan bases while catering to the others. They need to just mix things up. I love what Bree said in another post about Days needed to start writing stories for the show as a group and not focusing on couples. I agree with that so much. But while they are making that transformation they do need to keep all their big couples around (if possible). Because it won't work if they anger one of the big fan bases and lose those viewers. Then they have to start all over and pick up new viewers to make up for the ones they lost.

[sungrey]

The way Hogan writes his couples is actually pretty good, provided he brings this formula to Days. On ATWT, while Tom and Margo may have been split apart and are working their way back together, Holden and Lily were headed toward a rocky road and Hal and Emily were happy.

What he does is stagger stories so that some couples are good while others are undergoing conflict. It's what most soaps do rather than throw all of their couples into turmoil at one time so no one's happy.

As for paycuts, I think you'll find most actors/actresses willing to take them if it means they still have jobs. There's still so much dead wood you can sweep away on Days, but no one would likely pull a Zimmer (not even Dee, who if she sticks this out will find Hogan giving her better material over the long haul than James ever did, but that's just IMO.)

[JERSoapsFan]

Oh, TELL ME about it, SweetNY!!

Don't get me wrong, I love John and Marlena (in theory), but I cannot EAT and I get severely GROSSED OUT whenever Drake takes a long, noisy inhale (idiot!) and lifts the eyebrow. It's SOOOOO gross!!! And don't even get me STARTED on when the camera frame shows his gorilla-hairy hands. Ew, ew, ew!!!! :(

PLEASE, Days. Don't get rid of Jarlena. Just DO NOT show John's hands and demand that Drake cut the eyebrow and deep breath bullshit.

[King]

RB, backburnering Marlena and John for 5 weeks is NOT the dumbest move DAYS has ever made! I wouldn't even place it in the top 20!

[dawn9476]

LMAO. Back burning vets in common play in daytime. All the soaps do it either by granted their long vacations requests or by just not using them.

[Keith]

It is definitely one of the shows more recent dumb moves.

[Andre]

I totally agree on that point.

AND they are still getting paid! Unless you're recurring, and actor's contract guarantees they get paid for a certain number of episodes per week--most likely around three episodes.

[Actor87]

What a shame that Jason Cook is leaving. I really don't want to say anything though due to the fact that no official announcement from NBC or Cook has been made.

I bet they'll recast, though.

[dawn9476]

And I don't know what Diedre is going to do if she leaves over a pay cut. She will probably have to move out of daytime because I doubt another soap will go after her. All the soaps are pretty much asking their casts to take pay cuts going into negotiations. Kristoff St. John was at Y&R. Robin Strasser at OLTl. NLG admitted on soaptalk that she makes less at GH than she did at Santa Barbara.

ETA: The same goes for Jason Cook if his sudden departure is over the paycut.

[DaysFanJean]

Personally, I don't see that Marlena is worth the amount of money Dee is reportedly making and if Drake receives near as much for John, then Days wrote their own ticket into the poorhouse. There are too many other beautiful, talented people who could have been much less pricey and given the show more dazzle and more surplus money for sets and location shoots, heck, they could have even got a babylike doll for Claire instead of the rolled up blanket. Nope, no actress is worth that much to a show. If she has that many fans then she should get her own show and let the fans follow her there.

[Ridge]

True, DAYS has done many stupid things. But this is their most recent very stupid one. But regarding the pay thing, according to the news report, the reason they are going to be off for 2 months, according to Carolyn Hinsey, is because of the $$. The show is freeing up the cash by having them off our screen.

[JERSoapsFan]

I fail to understand that. Like someone else in this thread said, don't they get paid anyway, based on contract requirements? You can't free up funds by stealing earmarked money.

[Keith]

JSF is right, that makes zero sense unless there's something they're not telling us.