Days of Our Lives is in Trouble (Ratings Wise) For NBC

[Brian Damage]

For the last few ratings cycles we've all been anxiously paying attention to the ABC soap opera lineup, and rightfully so, considering Brian Frons allegedly would be okie dokey smokey with tossing two beloved sudsers for some replacement crapola, however someone really needs to ask the question of Ken Corday: Why on Earth are you letting Dena Higley destroy your birthright?

Days of Our Lives has been on a ratings downward slide for weeks now (Source: Soap Opera Network), and while DAYS isn't in any immediate danger, since it's locked into a relatively recent deal with NBC, do we really always have to wait until an axe is about to fall to point out the obvious?



DAYS is in much worse shape creatively than any soap on the ABC lineup, complete with silly doppelganger storylines and bad, purple sets. I understand they can't do much about the sets from a budget standpoint, but Corday and Gary Tomlin can do something about Dena Higley's terrible storylines. They can fire her.

It is a sad day in Salem when the only watchable storyline features the child actors who play Ciara and Theo. I've mentioned it before, but DAYS is the sudser closest to my heart, so to see my faves like Peter Reckell, Kristian Alfonso, Alison Sweeney and Crystal Chappell suffer through one turkey of a storyline after another is so disheartening. Okay, on to the numbers.

DAYS dropped 133,000 total viewers the week of March 28-April 1, hitting a new low. The sudser was also dead last in households, tying its all-time low in that demo for a third straight week. DAYS fell one-tenth of a point in the all-important women 18-49 demo, tying it's all-time low there as well. The sudser managed to hold steady among women 18-34.

You know, seriously, I don't get off on being nasty about shows I've watched and enjoyed since I was a toddler. I don't want to see DAYS canceled, but it will be if Corday doesn't fire Dena Higley. Unlike with AMC and OLTL, where even though the numbers might not be so hot, there is still potential (loads with the latter), Higley's sorry ass stories are darn near about to put DAYS at the point of no return. I'm talking Another World with babies in a tree. It's time, Ken. Make the hard decision. Tell Dena she ain't got to go home, but she's got to get the hell outta Salem! Thom Racina and Sally Sussman Morina could put this show back together like a jiggsaw puzzle, after a bratty child slung it apart, and that's what needs to happen.

http://daytimeconfidential.zap2it.co...orday-fires-de

[Mr. Television]

I think all the daytime soaps will be gone within a decade. I hope I'm wrong but that's what it looks like.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

..."DAYS OF OUR LIVES" is not only the last soap opera on NBC, it's virtually the last program other than what's left of their daytime schedule these days. This is what NBC's daytime schedule currently consists of [all times Eastern]:

7:00 THE TODAY SHOW {to 11am}
11:00 LOCAL PROGRAMMING
1:00 DAYS OF OUR LIVES
2:00 LOCAL PROGRAMMING


That's it.


As soon as General Electric acquired NBC from the dying RCA in 1986, they began to slowly dismantle the network's daytime line-up (mostly through incompetent executives and decisions). First they got rid of the game shows....then virtually all of their soap operas (save for "you-know-who") disappeared. Then, they got the bright idea of expanding "TODAY" beyond two hours until now it's a bloated four hour "marathon" {with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb headlining the dreaded "fourth hour"}...and even it's in trouble, with Meredith Viera and Matt Lauer wanting to leave.

Everything ends sometime. But for "DAYS OF OUR LIVES" to end after over 45 years at this particular time would be the fatal blow to NBC's daytime schedule....

[catlover79]

Aren't ALL daytime soaps in ratings trouble? Sad but true.

[Mr. Television]

Originally Posted by TV Knowledge Fan

..."DAYS OF OUR LIVES" is not only the last soap opera on NBC, it's virtually the last program other than what's left of their daytime schedule these days. This is what NBC's daytime schedule currently consists of [all times Eastern]:

7:00 THE TODAY SHOW {to 11am}
11:00 LOCAL PROGRAMMING
1:00 DAYS OF OUR LIVES
2:00 LOCAL PROGRAMMING


That's it.


As soon as General Electric acquired NBC from the dying RCA in 1986, they began to slowly dismantle the network's daytime line-up (mostly through incompetent executives and decisions). First they got rid of the game shows....then virtually all of their soap operas (save for "you-know-who") disappeared. Then, they got the bright idea of expanding "TODAY" beyond two hours until now it's a bloated four hour "marathon" {with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb headlining the dreaded "fourth hour"}...and even it's in trouble, with Meredith Viera and Matt Lauer wanting to leave.

Everything ends sometime. But for "DAYS OF OUR LIVES" to end after over 45 years at this particular time would be the fatal blow to NBC's daytime schedule....

I used to love NBC's morning game show lineup. It's sad what's become of it.

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by Stuck In The '70's

I used to love NBC's morning game show lineup. It's sad what's become of it.

Yeah, and most soaps back then were only half an hour long, so there was a lot more room for game shows.

[KurtfromPitts]

I wouldn't be surprised if the soap genre went the way of the western, the dramatic anthology [i.e. Studio One, Playhouse 90], and the prime-time variety show.

[catlover79]

Of course, we'll always have our informercials and crappy reality shows!!

[Marvo301]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Of course, we'll always have our informercials and crappy reality shows!!

This is why I spend more and more time watching classic TV on DVD and less and less time watching what's currently on TV!! That being said I hope Days doesn't disappear from the airwaves. It's the one soap I ever got addicted to!!

[MickeyMac]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Of course, we'll always have our informercials and crappy reality shows!!

For reasons beyond me, people seem to enjoy that garbage.

[Regulus]

And All My Children are Patients at General Hospital, where The Doctors are said to have come from Another World!

[spunkygirl]

The demos are all that matters and those aren't that bad.....

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by MickeyMac

For reasons beyond me, people seem to enjoy that garbage.

I'm just as puzzled about that as you, Mickey!!

[Marvo301]

Originally Posted by catlover79

I'm just as puzzled about that as you, Mickey!!

Me too! I'm Baffled!