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DAYS co-executive producer Greg Meng sounds off with TV Guide regarding the decision to fire its head writing team, the future of the soap and the “epic” firings on the way.
TV Guide’s Michael Logan released his interview today with Meng about a variety of topics, most importantly the recent changes at the show:
TV Guide Magazine: Word is, NBC instigated this writer change. Is that the case?
Meng: We spoke with the network and collectively felt we needed to take a pause, make a change with the writing and the style of the show for a while and see if that will redirect things. The ratings situation is very complex and difficult, and we have a tremendous challenge with that right now. Everybody on the Days team, and that includes NBC and Sony, our distributor, wants this show to succeed and we’re doing everything we can to make it work. We all have different visions as to how to achieve that success but the good news is that we’re all in synch on the future. No one wants cancellation. Even though we brought in Darrell and Marlene to reset Days last September, it was always our feeling that the show needed to constantly be nurtured with smaller resets. This isn’t the end of the world. We’re just resetting it again in an effort to get it right.
On the Will Horton storyline:
TV Guide Magazine: Or just straight romance? Could it be possible that the mainstream Days audience does not want to watch the gay storyline and where it might be going? ABC claimed that was the case when One Life to Live suddenly dropped the Kish romance.
Meng: I don’t know. I think it’s a beautiful story and we are committed to it. But probably it’s not the story that most women are going to tune in for every day, the one they don’t want to miss. I think it’s a story everybody likes, but the women want to see romance. Our goal is to get back lapsed viewers — our family of viewers who stopped watching altogether or aren’t watching us every day.
Of course with any behind the scenes change, cast cuts are expected. Earlier today it was reported that four stars — Patrick Muldoon, Christie Clark, Matt Ashford and Sarah Brown — had been let go. According to Meng, there’ll be more to come and well…see for yourself:
TV Guide Magazine: Is that “next step” going to involve some major actors going away?
Meng: Yes. We’re looking at weaving people in and out, and bringing them back later if we can.
TV Guide Magazine: Will it be as shocking as, say, the time you axed Drake Hogestyn and Deidre Hall a few years back? Will these firings be epic?
Meng: Yes. And that’s all I’m going to say about that right now.
Epic firings? Who could be more epic than Drake Hogestyn and Deidre Hall? Would DAYS really anger the fans again by firing such beloved vets?
What do you think about Meng’s interview? Did DAYS make the right decision by changing its writing team? Who do you think should be cut? Sound off in the comments below!
For more of Meng’s interview with Logan, visit TVGuide.com.
i’m a woman & i’ve tuned into DOOL just for this story & there’s many more that are, so to say that women won’t watch the gay storyline is false thinking or they’re not reading the posts on the Official DOOL FB page or reading the emails & such that are being sent to them letting them know how many of us are watching.
i just hope that they don’t backburner this story or take it so slow that people tune out because it’s not going anywhere.
I like Will and Chandler. I think this is a beautiful story and true to real life, I hope they don’t mess it up.