SanDiegoInExile

PR is turning 70 years old in May. He shouldn't be the anchor, especially after being gone for most of the past 25 years. I'm not sure KA would come back FT either. It's been pretty clear from the past returns that KA and PR are happier when they aren't sharing a screen. I do think it would be kind of awesome if they somehow wooed him back with a story about Bo Brady taking control over Titan, pushing aside half-brothers Philip and Xander. Bring back Chelsea and Ciara, so all three Brady kids are living in Victor's mansion. Bo could work to re-position Titan as a responsible, environmentally-forward corporation. That would play well into PR's instincts. Then again, not sure that Bo In A Suit, or Bo Holding Meetings, would work for many. Yes, the rest of Victor's family could provide drama. It would be a welcome change from 100s of DiMeras running around (ok, it only seems like hundreds.)

It's interesting how they portray the backdoor pilot as focused on Malcolm. Not a mention of Marty. And they are only doing 20 episodes this year? After only 10 last year?

Honestly, I think it might be kinda funny if a half-dozen female Salemites were all pregnant at the same time. Not sure I would want to watch that for 8-9 months, but it still would be sorta fun.

I don't pretend to understand "soap economics" but the streaming model must be different than what traditional broadcast has. We all see that DOOL is highly rated on the Peacock daily listing of popular series. But transferring the "broadcast" production model to streaming is new territory. And it seems like Corday runs the show as if it were at 1PM on NBC. There's been nothing edgy since the change. There has been nothing remotely modern added to the storytelling. The cast plods along, putting in 1.25 appearances a week. The show gets minimal promotion, and when it does, the info is generally wrong or out of date. Locate the DOOL site on the Peacock webpage. It's horrible. The 30-second weekly preview clips are decent, but they rarely do any fun stuff, even since they have an in-studio room set up for media/PR. I have watched since the 1970s. And I will watch until it ends. I just don't know how to get them out of their funk. There doesn't seem to be anyone in the Corday organization who has any ideas on how to use the 60 years of legacy. Why are old episodes not made available? Why don't aging stars do re-watch videos of their fave scenes? Why isnt Jason47 on staff? I would move the show into more of a telenovela style. No, not the histrionics or faux drama. Play a story very heavily for 20-30 episodes, using maybe a dozen cast members, appearing 4-5X a week. Maybe have another 8-10 cast members play support at 1X a week, maybe also laying the groundwork for the next story, to run 20-30 episodes. In effect they already somewhat do that, but they don't heavily play the A Story. And the A story goes on tooooo lonnnnnng. You can have 30 contract actors, but use them heavily in cycles. Use 10 at a time, and rotate them out. The actors then can book other gigs or just chill or pop in as needed. This would require a lot of planning and scheduling. It would be a different model than what they glommed into a decade ago, when they were on a broadcast network. That structure worked financially.....at that time. It might be time for something different. I think the next ball to drop is moving to only 4 episodes a week, or maybe just 3. But if they keep telling stories the same way, how dreadful would that be.

Billy is a capable actor, who really seemed trapped by bad storytelling. I always felt it was dumb to make him yet another surprise Stefano child. That trope ran its course over a decade ago, yet TPTB keep going back to it. Killing off his mother didn't help. Then we had rotating Abigails (Kate.Marci.Kate.Marci). They threw him back into the Sonny-Will stories, only to have them disappear. He spent years being Kate's surrogate child once all her kids fled Salem. Then suddenly he was All Horton. When Sloane Peterson came onto the scene, my ears perked and thought maybe they would tie her to Chad Peterson-Woods, but that didn't happen. I have no idea what they will have the character do in the next 9 months. I wonder if this means Annalynne is gone too <fingers crossed>. Maybe Vivian and Ivan will kidnap him to add to the DiMera Collection.

Freddie won't be back until the Florida housing market totally collapses. I think Mrs Freddie is a more successful realtor. A few weeks ago, he posted that their podcast was going back into production, although Mrs Freddie wouldnt be joining *that* episode. I am not a tiktok person, but apparently that's where Freddie has been posting his "millenials cannot afford real estate" warnings. Meh Zach Tinker may be a nice guy, but he was a horrible Sonny Kiriakis. Honestly, the show needs to stop dragging out recast legacy characters and introduce some decent newbies who aren't tied to anyone.....yet.

More stellar ratings. https://www.soapoperanetwork.com/2025/01/live-with-kelly-and-mark-season-high-viewers-key-demos ‘Live with Kelly and Mark’ Hits Season High Among Viewers & Key Demos, Sees Significant Year-Over-Year Growth >>>For the week, “Live with Kelly and Mark” ranked as the most-watched and highest rated syndicated talk show, extending its streak to 102 consecutive weeks across most key measures while topping its closest competitor among Total Viewers (2.52 million vs. 1.41 million), Households (1.68 rating vs. 0.96 rating) and Women 25-54 (0.53 rating vs. 0.33 rating). Season to date (09/02/2024-01/12/2025) and for the fifth consecutive season, “Live with Kelly and Mark” also ranks as the most watched and highest rated syndicated talk show, beating its closest competitor in all key measures: Total Viewers (2.17 million vs. 1.33 million), Households (1.47 rating vs. 0.93 rating), Women 18-49 (0.26 rating vs. 0.21 rating) and Women 25-54 (0.44 rating vs. 0.31 rating)<<<

There have been almost 900 hosts on SNL over 50 years. Mrs Consuelos hosted once, over two decades ago. The NBC studio audience was capped at somewhere around 500. It's hardly a shocker that she wasn't there. Regis and Joy would show up at the opening of a doorway. Los Consuelos jet off to spend their millions. Different time, different personalities, different era, different priorities. Yes, Live is syndicated and appears on NBC stations, but ABC is the syndicator. I'm sure ABC brass wouldn't be all that pleased even if she finagled a couple seats. They are all in on promoting ABC and the Oscars, not SNL. Plus, as much as I enjoyed the SNL50 bash show, I'd also prefer a weekend getaway to PS.

Li had a scene alone where he alluded to telling Wendy the truth, or something like that. I don't recall that he was explicit about what truth. I think it was a day or two before he was killed.

I'm not sure that Li was ever coming back. There was speculation because he was in one of the cast photos long after he was killed. (Was it the 15K photo?) Everyone was like, oooh, ahhh, he's still taping. I think we got snookered because of DOOL's erratic taping schedule. I think Remington was there for one of Connie's last scenes (as the Li Ghost), which aired weeks (months?) before Episode 15K. Since they tape so far in advance, in a given week, they could tape scenes set to air in 8 months or scenes set to air in 4 months. I have heard that scenes are often filmed way out of order. That's probably why we saw Li and Connie in that cast photo. Perhaps there were plans to build on the Wendy - Li relationship. The show certainly seemed to lay out the strong probability that Li was actually Wendy's father, but it appears that the producers opted (for now) to make Li Shin dead-dead.

That's exactly why she should stay. It's so infuriating when newcomers instantly get attached to a romantic interest. And we spend weeks of only seeing them in scenes with that person. That's not how life is. It's not how DOOL used to be. She is also a fresh gene-pool, as the Wesleys are not biologically attached to any existing Salem family. Put her to work at the Brady Pub. Brady Black was her brother-in-law, so hire her to work at BasicBlack/Titan/DiMera. Or maybe a clerical job at the hospital. Let her interact with half of Salem. And I guarantee there will be one scene with someone where the sparks fly. Then the writers can pair her up.

Yes, the tunnels run all over Salem. It's possible that much of the maze has been sealed off, after all it has been 40+ years since everyone became aware of them. Andre wore the Roman Brady mask to attack women, then used the tunnel system to escape. If the tunnels were still open and passable, there would likely be a major Salem Crime Wave. I'm OK with the DiMera staffer tasering Rafe. The scripting of the scene, and the execution of the scene is what was bad. It easily could have been written/taped that a frantic Rafe appeared and as he heads racing for the door, Connie 2.0 could have called his name and tasered him as he turned. Instead, they have the ex-FBI agent just standing there as she rambles on and pulls items from her purse. Makes it more of a cartoon than a drama.

<<<But as for Stephanie, it wasn't her who changed Parker's paternity result.>>> OOPS. That's right. I think the nerd became stalker-ish too.

>>>Who is Jeremy Horton? And how old is Stephanie anyway....? Is she like Melanie, who nearly got married 20 years ago to Philip but is still young somehow?<<< As someone else already noted, Jeremy Horton is the son of Mike Horton and Robin Jacobs. Robin was hired by Tom Horton to be Chief of Surgery, and there was a yearlong romance, with all the typical soapy intrusions. Robin was devoutly Jewish and was insistent that Mike had to convert. Alice was not pleased by that. Robin briefly married pharmacist Mitch Kaufmann, while Mike was focused on Ivy Jannings and Diana Colville. Robin and Mike were trapped in the tunnels during a collapse. She was shot. They reunited, but eventually broke up again. Dr Jacobs left Salem and returned 16 months later with surprise child Jeremy in the late 1980s. Mike was involved heavily with April Ramirez, so Robin decided to move to Israel and raise Jeremy. At that point, Michael T Weiss exited the show and so it was easy for Mike Horton to move to Israel as well. Fast forward to 2007/8 and Jeremy shows up in Salem. In his mid-20s, he hatches a scheme to launch an airline with service between Salem and Vegas. Touch The Sky airlines is born. Stephanie gives up racing cars, dyes her hair from red to black, decides to skip college, and becomes a flight attendant with Chelsea Brady on TTS, while romancing the pilot/owner Jeremy Horton. That puts Stephanie at about 23 or 24 years old, only slightly SORASed at the time. Jeremy Horton turns out to be a bad seed, even physically dunking Stephanie in a hot tub when she "makes him mad". He claims he is misunderstood. TTS airlines goes bust and Jeremy leaves Salem to avoid the law. Stephanie and Chelsea vie for sexing up their Uncle Max. Chelsea wins that lottery and they leave Salem. Stephanie enrolls at Salem U. By this time she is not aging at all, getting raped by Ford Decker, hiding his dead body at the sorority house, dating Philip Kiriakis, being kidnapped by an EJ henchman, and getting stuffed into a morgue drawer by the DiMeras. Philip moved on to Melanie. Stephanie dated Dr Nathan Horton, Melissa Anderson Horton's son. Chloe Lane got pregnant via Philip and Stephanie used her computer skills to change Parker's paternity. (I recall she also changed some other results, and Grandma Caroline Brady lied and accepted the blame, knowing she wouldn't get jail time.) Shelley Hennig got a network pilot and left. So Stephanie was gone. At this point she was roughly 27-28. Fast forward to Abigail Klein showing up in Beyond Salem, about a dozen years later. That would push her to 40. But the SORAS machine has slowed down. Instead of 40, she seems to be playing roughly her own age, which is 36.

https://wornontv.net/days-of-our-lives/gabi-hernandez-days-of-our-lives/