Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Good News for Soaps for a Change: “Days of our Lives” Renewed for 56th Year, Jane Elliot Returning to “General Hospital” for the Holidays

Share

Good news for soaps despite lackluster ratings and crazy rumors.

NBC, Sony TV and Corday Productions are ironing out a deal for “Days of Our Lives” to keep going. They just had their 54th anniversary, and now they’ll hit 55. (It will be the 56th season.) In the last couple of weeks, “Days” released its cast and announced an indefinite hiatus, which made a lot of people think they were cancelled. But really, what would NBC replace it with that wouldn’t irk the remaining 2 million fans? The answer: nothing. So they’re safe again, to tell stories of amnesia, paralysis, and switched babies. God bless.

At ABC, “General Hospital” ratings have been dismal, and there’s been no sign of life in a while. So somehow they got former long time star Jane Elliot to return for the holidays as Tracy Quartermaine. She’s been with the show on and off since 1978. All I remember is that when I was in college, she left her father for dead when he was having a heart attack. So a family reunion seems just about right. No word on how long she’ll stay. Eliot “retired” a couple of years ago at age 70 but she must be bored. She’ll stir things up and maybe get the ratings going.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

Read more

In Other News