NBC's long-running soap opera Days Of Our Lives is not getting the boot after all. While previous reports indicated that the series could be ending, the network announced that the long-running drama will be returning for Season 52. The "sands of the hourglass," will continue to fall well into 2017, and perhaps beyond! That's certainly great news for a series that has spanned across numerous decades and most recently celebrated its 13,000th episode.
With the renewal comes a fresh start for Days Of Our Lives. A month ago, the series managed to snag Ron Carlivati as its lead writer. Carlivati started out as the lead writer for One Life To Live until 2012 when the series was canceled and ABC moved him to write for General Hospital. Now on Days Of Our Lives, we can assume the hope is that Ron Carlivati will breathe some life into the long-running series.
The task of revitalizing a soap opera, even when you're a legend like Ron Carlivati, is not that easy. The genre has seen a dip in viewership across the board as audiences are turning their attention elsewhere. Soap Opera Network shows overall viewership is way down even on popular soaps like The Young And The Restless where as many as 400,000 fewer women are tuning in during this time of year than they did last year. That decline number is not far off from the 300,000 viewer loss Days Of Our Lives saw that same week, but when you consider TYATR has about double the viewership you can see why there was some worry about the show's renewal. No one would have been surprised if the series would have been replaced with a daytime talk show, which sounds like it could have happened.
Inside sources reported last month that a daytime talk show was considered an option for anchor Megyn Kelly when she left Fox for NBC. With The Days Of Our Lives airing during the daytime, it was speculated the series could be bumped for a chance at better ratings and to appease Kelly as she transitioned. The series prevailed, however, and will not have to worry about a renewal until next year. That isn't necessarily great news, but it's good for now. It buys time for Ron Carlivati to really dig in the series and for fans to keep watching.
As talk shows and reality television are a firm staple in today's media it's much more enticing to throw one of those in the schedule in place of a more expensive series that requires paid actors, writers, sets, crew and all the bells and whistles that go along with making a quality soap opera. I'll tell that to you, but I won't dare tell it to my Grandma who still has her VCR set to record her shows daily in case she's out and about! Maybe I just need to send my Grandma a link to our midseason premiere guide and let her know there's other television she might enjoy more.
