NBC announced today that it has renewed daytime soap-opera stalwart Days of Our Lives for 2 more seasons. The announcement comes on the show’s 45th anniversary. Fans of the genre (their numbers ever dwindling) should be especially pleased with this news, as the climate for daytime soaps has been anything but certain in the last few years.
The cancellation of CBS’s Guiding Light in September 2009, followed by As The World Turns this past September, proved that no daytime serial—no matter how long running—is safe. Days’ renewal, in the least, gives the genre hope of survival and that declining viewer numbers might stabilize, if not rebound (which seems unlikely).
According to USA Today, Days executive producer Ken Corday “broke down” this past Friday when given the news by outgoing NBC programming chief Jeff Zucker. Corday’s father, Ted, is credited as one of the show’s creators.
Days of Our Lives currently averages 2.6 million daily viewers.