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Nine axes Days of our Lives after 45 years

Time runs out for iconic daytime soap, axed from Nine's schedule after 45 years.

2013-04-14_1738“Like sands through the hour-glass, so are the Days of Our Lives…”

Time has run out for the long-running US soap, set to be dumped by Nine after 45 years on the network.

First broadcast on Nine in 1968, the daytime drama will have its last-ever episode on Friday April 26.

Nine is revamping the timeslot. A Nine spokesperson told TV Tonight, “We made a commercial decision not to renew Days Of Our Lives.”

Yet last week it won its 2pm timeslot, averaging 126,000 viewers and pipping  TEN’s Ready Steady Cook (124,000) and Seven’s Dr. Oz (118,000). It ranked second the week before.

In 2007 Nine dropped The Young and the Restless after 31 years for the short-lived panel show The Catch-Up. Fans flooded Nine’s online forums at the time. Foxtel wasted no time in snapping up the show, which now airs on Arena.

The last few years have been tough for US daytime soaps with  The Guiding Light, As the World Turns, Passions, All My Children and One Life to Live all axed before the latter two received a lifeline to be produced for online.

Days is still one of the longest-running scripted shows in the world and one of the longest-running television shows in Australia.

It was recently renewed by NBC until September 2014.

Sony Pictures Television is understood to be pursuing other broadcasting opportunities in Australia.

Nine is yet to announce a replacement show.

www.facebook.com/DaysOfOurLivesAustralia

89 Responses

  1. I can’t believe channel 9 executives are so arrogant. It is the only show I watch on channel 9. After getting rid of The Young and The Restless in 2007, they have nothing left that I’m interested in. They have lost me for good.

  2. A gay kiss is very different to actual gay lovemaking, especially to the type of audience Days is targetting. You’re making it sound like it’s not a big issue, well I think it’s a very big issue which resulted in a huge backlash, falling ratings and the sacking of the writers responsible for this storyline.

  3. Well Queer As Folk is obviously aimed at a very certain audience on an SBS channel late at night and not exactly exposed to the masses. Neighbours is on Eleven, a new age youth skewed channel and they certainly wouldn’t have featured actual gay lovemaking which is what is coming up on Days.

    But what I was getting at is it’s very rare, most often censored and may not be suitable for the supposed “grannies” who watch this show, so could very well be a reason it has been axed just before the storyline is about to start.

    All sorts of things have been shown on Tv throughout the years but doesn’t mean the masses have seen it. And don’t forget Days is a mainstream show and there was a big controversy when this storyline came about which resulted in the writers associated with it being axed a few months later.

  4. “…the first male to male kiss to be shown in Australia.”

    What? You can’t have watched much television in the last 40 years. There have been literally scores of occurrences since the first one that I’m aware of on Chequerboard in 1972.

    Queer as Folk (US) featured it prominently in every one of its 83 episodes and I think it was even on Neighbours last year.

  5. Prior to 2004, DOOL’s was screened out of sync, a legacy from the pre-networking days. Memory serves that Sydney was 3 months ahead of or behind Brisbane, with Melbourne being a few weeks ahead of Sydney. That changed in 2004 when nearly 5 years was skipped and the whole network was brought into line so as to help save costs. Now DOOL’s will be gone for good, thus leaving the Bold as the only daytime soap on Oz FTA. To think Nine’s daytime schedule was full of US Soaps once, including other titles like General Hospital, The Young and The Restless and Another World. How times change, now the daytime is full of rubbish cheap infotainment dressed up as news and advertorial type programming. As such, DOOL’s does look out of place on Nine’s daytime schedule nowadays. Bet your bottom dollar, some kind of infotainment advertorial program will eventually take DOOL’s place. Now, here’s Moira…

  6. @ Anthony Mai just a thought but it does seem a bit more than a coincidence that Nine is cancelling it after 45 years only just before a major gay storyline is about to start in what was to result in what is probably the first male to male kiss to be shown in Australia. I seem to remember they censored something along those lines between a couple on some reality show a few years back.

    I would understand its axing if it wasn’t performing but with it coming first in its slot and according to news reports actually getting 20,000 more viewers than The View last week shows the popularity is there so it defies belief and really makes it inexcusable.

  7. @KFed and others talking about GEM. No, they won’t buy it for Nine so why would hey buy it for GEM? They’re not buying it anymore as Sony Television want too much for it, as a daytime soap.
    Nine dropped their output deal with Sony recently. This could be payback by Sony.

  8. I can’t believe it. I have watched days on an off for years. The memories. It will be sad not to have it on. Just another example of channel nines bad treatment of a show.

  9. @ jennome

    Not really, if you watched todays episode, and all those up to the 26th, you might be close to getting the full 45 year plot.

    Please do not think I am a DooL nark, and frankly this decission by Nine, has simply bought back some sentimental teasing memories between my deceased parents and myself, and I always respected and understood that DooL commenced in an entirely different era of speed of life and expectations.

  10. @ David Knox April 15, 2013 at 2:56 pm –
    Now making entertainment news in the US.
    Wow!!!1….You have gone international…1st with the news …yet again…well done….

  11. No no no!! I’m haven’t been a regular viewer, but I very recently got into it! And it’s a real shame that Aussie viewers have been about 14 months behind the U.S. and we’re yet to see the soap’s first gay couple/storyline between Will and Sonny. A real shame now that we won’t ever get to see it!

  12. This just seems to be such a senseless move by nine. If if is competive in its timeslot then surely the alienation it is going to cause is surely not worth the grief it will cause .. But maybe if the switch is going to be rude then maybe they just don’t care. It is an amusing show to watch as do remember seeing it now and again and yes story never changes – that Sammy always getting herself in trouble – although on recent viewings (I was looking for question time honestly) surprised to see it is getting a little racier and also modern with Internet start up company story lines etc. just doesn’t seem right for Salem.

  13. I used to love Y&R and it went,so eventually got used to DOOL. Now that guilty pleasure will also be taken away.Doesn’t channel nine want any viewers left? As other comments have noted,surely room could have been found on Gem. Don’t let it go to pay tv!

  14. Last time I looked wasn’t Days doing even better than The Morning Show? As for the latter, the last thing we need is more tryhards on our television screens, Nine should axe that.

    They have made a big mistake for axing a 45 year old institution with so much history. I mean there’s characters that have been in it since the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, what other show has that?

    Many a time I have watched Nine’s primetime shows because of this one show but not anymore. Channel 9 should learn from Channel 10’s history: alienating viewers will never make you number one.

  15. I’m so sad about this. Yeah I’m another person that has watched DOOL with my mother since primary school. The storylines are getting very interesting and today’s episode was great. I really hope Arena or other foxtel channels pick it up. I don’t think Ten will.

  16. I don’t have time because I work now but when I was at school and it was school holidays my Nanna would watch young and the wrestlers and day of our lives. My nan will be upset she has to watch something else in the time slot now. You can’t move the show to foxtel because not every one has money to get foxtel.

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