DAYS OF OUR LIVES Renewed for 56th Season!

Days of Our Lives is not going anywhere. The network has renewed its longest-running series for a 56th season, I have learned. I hear Days executive producer Ken Corday of Corday Prods., which produces the daytime drama, just delivered the news to the cast.

NBC and Sony TV had no comment. though I had been hearing for the lastpweek or so that renewal was “looking good.” According to sources, the deal with the network is not completely done but is close.The cost-cutting move came during the annual renewal window between NBC and Days distributor Sony Pictures TV; a renewal for Days typically comes at the start of the year. Negotiations for another season of the show on NBC, which had been underway, likely got accelerated by fan outcry over the news of contract releases.

After a big wave of cancellations of daytime soaps, the genre had been stable for the past few years with the four remaining series: NBC’s Days of Our Lives, ABC’s General Hospital and CBS’ The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful. Like any network programming, soaps have come under economic pressure amid declining linear ratings...

Days of Our Lives, which has aired more than 13,725 episodes, premiered as a half-hour drama in 1965 and expanded to an hour 10 years later. The show has garnered 61 Daytime Emmy Awards, as well as multiple People’s Choice Awards, GLAAD Media Awards and Prism Awards.


Set in the fictitious Midwestern town of Salem, Days of our Lives airs nationally on NBC in the United States and in more than 25 countries internationally. The core families are the Bradys, Hortons and DiMeras, and the multi-layered storylines involve elements of romance, adventure, mystery, comedy and drama.

DOOL is wrapping its 55th season this month. Though NBC has eight months of DOOL episodes in the can, panic recently set in that the actors could be out of work for a while if NBC doesn’t close a deal soon with Sony Pictures Television, which distributes the show. Negotiations, however, were already underway, so the worry over the actors being out of work was unfounded.

Still, it’s rather easy to assume the worst these days when it comes to the health of daytime dramas. Viewership isn’t what it used to be for sudsers, even though fans still love their DOOL, General Hospital, Young and the Restless, and Bold and the Beautiful.
Anyway, Corday Productions continues to build upon the DOOL brand. On Wednesday the company announced that it is launching a new DOOL app series that will reunite nine characters from the 2000 season for new digital series.