My letter to Ken Corday and the other Powers That Be

[I Dream of Jeannie]

Why? Why Mr. Corday is Days of our Lives becoming a stranger to me and to the fans? I’ve been watching this show my whole entire life and yet I don’t recognize it anymore. Days of our Lives is a show about the lives of the people of Salem and their struggles. It is a show that is known for its well-written characters, elaborate plots, and famous for its super couples. This is not the show I have been watching for the last 4 years. This show that comes on everyday is just a ghost of what it once was. The only thing that hasn’t changed is the name of it.

Why are the characters that we have grown up with being written incorrectly? We know them and are not fooled when we see them being written out of character in the name of plot; we are simply disgusted. It’s been 4 long, tiresome years. Days has lost so many loyal viewers. You may be asking, “Loyal, they aren’t loyal if they’ve stopped watching.” You are completely wrong in that assumption. They were loyal probably some of the most loyal. That’s why they stopped watching. They cared so much, and when they saw characters repeatedly being written out of character, couples that the fans strongly hated being shoved in our faces everyday (for example Jope); they just simply had to stop watching. Yes, I know Jope is over but the hated couple pushing isn’t. Mony is being crammed down our throats at this moment. Jarlena fans can only sit and wonder, “Will it ever end?” Most don’t think it ever will and so today Days is losing viewers, again. I know over 25 people who have stopped watching in recent weeks. My mom, two of my aunts, and many of my friends and cousins have all stopped watching over the last four years. I’m the only one who still watches. They ask me, “How can you watch that, John and Marlena are never written in character at the same time and are constantly neglected?” I have no answer for them. I guess it’s just my wishing and hoping that someday the show will go back to its former self. But I lose a little bit of that hope with each day of Mony being pushed. I just hope that all of my wishing isn’t for nothing.
I am a J&M fan and therefore over the course of 4 years, I’ve seen John being written out of character and now Marlena is the one being written way out of character. Is it to much to ask to have them both written in character? I want to know how we are expected to believe that Marlena, who has been hurt countless times by the DiMeras, suddenly forgets all of that and trusts Tony DiMera. It makes no sense and there is no justifying it. The fact that she trusts Tony more than John is utterly revolting, and Tony saying that he and Marlena are soul mates is a stab in every Jarlena fan’s heart. That remark was simply absurd and disturbing. The real Marlena is smart and would never believe, must less trust a DiMera. John is being written in character, finally. Marlena on the other hand is being written horribly. If Marlena is being affected by the pin prick or is working with John on a sting operation, then please let us in on it; before it is too late, before we all stop watching.

Why can’t Jarlena fans ever get the storyline we deserve, the storyline Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn deserve? Haven’t we waited long enough? It’s been 4 years since I’ve seen J&M, the real J&M; both written in character, with a decent storyline. Though I’ve seen glimpses of them during 2002, they haven’t returned for good. We waited over a decade for Jarlena to reunite and when they finally did, we anticipated great storylines about them in which their unsurpassed love was shown and strengthened. We didn’t get that though. So today, I ask for all J&M fans, for all Days fans, “Can we please have what we’ve been waiting for, can we please have that storyline?” If you give this to us, I can guarantee that the ratings will soar and viewers who have left will return.

It seems as though you are trying to get more teen Days viewers, by adding new teen characters and showing teen couples (they are not super couples). You don’t have to add teens or show teens all the time to accomplish that. In fact, all that is doing is turning viewers away. Maybe it is getting some viewers but they are a few compared to the millions of viewers who aren’t happy about it. Not just adult viewers but teen viewers are turned away by this, as well. You may be asking, “Teen viewers, why would that bother them isn’t that what they want characters their own age?” There are thousands of teen Days viewers who have grown up watching this show, therefore they are loyal fans of super couples like Jarlena, and Bope; they could care less about Broe, Shelle, and the Gemini twins. I’m not saying that the teens should just disappear, it’s to late for that, but they shouldn’t take over the show. Adult viewers and teen viewers tune out when the teens are on the whole entire time and are enraged when teen couples get more airtime than Jarlena, Bope, and J&J.

I don’t know what the first episode of Days I saw was. I was way to young to have any memory of it. I’ve been watching this show all my life. I remember the plane scene, and almost all of the scenes of the affair; they are probably my first memories of Days; I was about 3 then, almost 4. That’s probably when I got hooked on Jarlena. I’ve been hooked over a decade. The chemistry between Deidre and Drake is undefinable. Chemistry doesn’t even begin to explain the fire and passion that is Jarlena. They are The Supercouple. I can’t remember not being a J&M fan or a Days fan. That’s why it bothers me that this show is unrecognizable today and that my super couple is, after years of magic, being tossed out and forgotten. Jarlena can’t and will never be replaced. You can push Mony or Jope or any other pairing, but you’ll never get the viewers that Jarlena have. I’m begging you sir, please bring back the real Days of our Lives. Stop the character destruction that is being done to Marlena, stop the years of waiting for a Jarlena storyline in which they work together and then I believe Days of our Lives will become the highest rated soap again.