Mouths around the soap world collectively dropped this weekend as the
unthinkable happened. The recently-renewed Days of Our Lives, fired its biggest
supercouple Deidre Hall (Dr. Marlena Evans) and Drake Hogestyn (John Black). In
this special episode of the DC podcast Luke, Mike and Jamey invite veteran soap
journalist Nelson Branco (TV Guide Canada's The Suds Report) and former Days
writer Tom Casiello to weigh in from the perspective of industry
insiders.Reactions to the shocking news are gauged from the panel,
including: Branco, who reveals Days of Our Lives was the first soap he ever
watched and how he first fell in love with the ravishing Hall even before
discovering Andrea Evans and One Life to Live; and Casiello, who during his last
few months on the soap before the Writers' Strike, was part of a team under
Hogan Sheffer that was forced to script out the soap's "Big Four" (Hall,
Hogestyn, Kristian Alfonso and Peter Reckell) due to their reported astronomical
salaries and ultimately made the decision to kill of the wildly-popular
character of John Black— since they were prohibited from using Hogestyn— only to
see executive producer Ken Corday panic about fan response and order them to
bring the character and actor back.The DC gang also give their
perspective based on their varying histories with the show. Jamey, who has been
watching the show for the better part of three decades, reveals his dismay that
lower level stars like Molly Burnett, Shelly Hennig, Josh Taylor, Thaao
Penghlis, Leanne Hunley and Shawn Christian weren't cut first before the show
even considered touching the Big Four; Mike, who watched in the early 80's and
only recently tuned back in, conveys he still can't believe the show hired Josh
Taylor, who once played Roman and Marlena's pal Chris Kositchek as a recast for
Wayne Northrop's Roman, with Branco adding that move was a "Jump The Shark"
moment for him as well before noting that Taylor is good friends with Corday;
Luke, who has watched Days sine the 90's, speculates the brass could be moving
to strategically weed out most of the show's veteran performers to repackage
Days for an eventual sale to ABC or SOAPnet.The discussion then moves to
what this means for the future of Days of Our Lives and the genre as a whole. If
an international superstar like Hall isn't safe, who could be next? Reckell?
Alfonso? Sweeney? Taking it a step further, will other soaps start to think
their top stars are expendable? Could we see a day when the headline is "Susan
Lucci Out", or "Eric Braeden Axed"? This is an episode of Daytime Confidential
you don't want to miss.