Wow for the first time ever (going back to the radio days) there’s not going to be a soap opera on NBC
My dear departed mother would be hurling things violently as she was an avid watcher from when it started until the mid-90s when she passed …
My grandmother was an avid soap fan, and DooL was one of her “stories.”
The move leaves only three daytime soap operas on the broadcast networks: General Hospital on ABC, and The Young and the Restless and its sister show, The Bold and the Beautiful, on CBS.
That news definitely caught my eye! My mother is a longtime fan of the show, and although I didn’t join her in that, I couldn’t help but absorb a little interest in whatever Bo and Hope or Patch and Kayla or Marlena and Satan were doing just by osmosis. I guess I’m not entirely surprised that this happened. It seems like the show has been fending off cancellation concerns in recent years, hasn’t it? At least it’s going to be sticking around, albeit on a platform that isn’t quite as prestigious.
It’s just moving to Peacock, not going off the air. I was a Days fan for one summer I was in high school. Never watched any other soaps.
Oh, the headache they’re handing NBC affiliates! They’d be better off just cancelling it outright, wrapping up the story lines and giving it a fond farewell, as they did with “Another World.” (Cancellation has been rumored for years.) Having worked for an NBC affiliate, I can tell you that on a day in which DOOL is pre-empted for any reason whatsoever (an NBC or local Special Report, a weather emergency, Olympics) the phone lines don’t stop ringing. (“I don’t care about that tornado warning! I’m missing my story!!!”) The typical DOOL viewer will have no clue as to how to access Peacock and affiliates will be tasked with spending hours, days, weeks trying to explain it.
I’m glad I’m retired. I would have probably been asked to help man the switchboard. They will need it.
I thought the only reason to have children or grandchildren was to help with things like accessing a streaming service like Peacock. (Though if my mother can figure it out, I think anyone can.)
Which is hilarious because soap opera plots advance at a snail’s pace. You could probably miss a week of shows and not have any trouble getting caught up.
Days of Our Lives hasn’t been any good since they dropped Dr. Drake Ramoray anyway 
Ditto. In terms of setting records and such, this is a smaller change than going from radio to TV.
My question is what they plan to replace it with. It always seemed to me that the whole point of soap operas that they needed something to fill in the slot. Even today, I have a hard time imagining what they could put on that would bring in viewers for over-the-air TV.
The normal tactic of running some cheap show that doesn’t need many viewers to make a return wouldn’t seem to work, as that’s still one more show than they’d be running than if they’d left Days running in that slot.
I guess OTA TV is more popular than I thought.
supposedly a noon news report
In my experience, daytime TV is an endless series of talk shows, so the network stations can just schedule another of those.
When NBC expanded the Today Show, first to the 9am (Eastern) hour and then again to the 10am hour (which had been local affiliate hours), they had to give an equal amount of later time back to the affiliates, which make their daytime dollars by running syndication (Kelly Clarkson, Tamron Hall, Dr. Phil and the like) and in most cases a local midday newscast. This resulted in the cancellation of the afternoon soaps NBC was running, like Another World. DOOL was NBC’s way of holding on to that 1pm hour. I assume CBS and ABC have similar affiliate agreements. This NBC News Daily will probably be similar in tone to syndicated chit-chat fare, with the addition of some hard news.
My observation has been that people who watch daytime TV are of two types. One is the person who tunes in for specific shows. The other is the person who turns on their TV when they get up and leave it on all day, as background, occasionally watching something that interests them. I know people who do this. Their TV is on constantly from morning til night. They turn it off if they leave their home but turn it back on immediately as soon as they come back. I find this weird, but some people just need that background noise. Lucky is the TV station that gets that kind of viewer. Their daytime ratings can go through the roof.
Obviously, a lot of these people are retirees or people working night shifts who are home in the daytime.
NBC runs the Today show from 7-11am? I had no idea.
News/talk shows like that are comparatively cheap to produce, and draw sufficient eyeballs. Because a lot of viewers tune in and out, they can often recycle content several times over the course of the morning.
WGN, which is an independent station here in Chicago (and which used to be a cable superstation) runs news programming on weekdays from:
- 4 a.m. until 10 a.m.
- 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.
- 4 pm. until 7 p.m.
- 9 p.m. until 11 p.m.
(And, that one hour break in the morning, at 10 a.m., is filled by a locally-produced light talk show, sort of like the “Live! With Kelly and Ryan” show on ABC.)
They’d probably try to run it all day if affiliates let them get away with it.
The third hour (9am Eastern) was launched in 2007 and the fourth hour (10am Eastern) in 2019. These hours have had various hosts and formats but are less newsy and more chit-chat. A few years ago they tried something a little more serious with ex-Fox anchor Megyn Kelly at 9am and it bombed, badly.
Since Today airs live Eastern and Central, I doubt people in California watch Today “live” at 4am. The East Coast version is probably repeated with live news updates for the West Coast.
Just out of curiosity, does General Hospital still have anything to do with a hospital?
Try several years! I’ve watched DOOL off and on since I was a kid when my grandmother and mother watched. I’ve gone years between watching and then caught up within a few days when I tuned back in. Some of the actors have been playing the same character for 50 years, a lot of them for 30 or so.
I starting watching again when I retired a couple years ago. I think it’s hilarious. They recently finished the Satan possession storyline (which really wasn’t as fun as the original one in the 90s) and this week someone has returned from the dead, thanks to the resident mad scientist. This happens so often that it’s an inside joke on the show. It’s definitely not what soap operas were originally.
Anyway, the news made me sad. As much fun as it is to watch, it’s certainly not worth paying for since I’m not interested in any other content on Peacock. Apparently the show only has one more year on their current contract with NBC so this looks like they are just putting it out to pasture. Oh, well, it entertained me off and on for over 50 years. Can’t ask for much more than that from a TV show.
I remember reading somewhere that there are characters on soap operas who interact with their great-great-great-great-grandchildren. (I forget the exact number of greats.) Kids grow up fast on soaps, then have kids of their own, who grow up just as quickly, etc. Meanwhile, the family matriarch is played by the same actress for decades.
Does anyone know a cite that might have examples of this, alone with the exact number of generations?
On Days of Our Lives, the late, great Peggy McCay played Caroline Brady, who begat Roman, who begat Samantha, who begat Will, who begat Arianna. Caroline interacted with her great-great-granddaughter before the actress and the character both died. She even interacted with her great-grandson Will after she died. Because it’s Days of Our Lives.