It looks like the final grains of sands have fallen through the hourglass for long-running soap Days of Our Lives, as the series leaves NBC after almost six decades to its new home on Peacock. The daytime drama premieres on Peacock on September 12.
Days of Our Lives debuted in 1965 and quickly became one of the leading daytime dramas. The number of soap operas has dwindled steadily over the years, leaving ABC with General Hospital and CBS with The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful.
Vulture first reported the move, noting that NBC was the first network to air soap operas over 70 years ago. When Days of Our Lives departs, it will leave the network without a daytime drama entirely. Days of Our Lives has struggled in the ratings against other daytime dramas, but both NBC and Sony Pictures Television have managed to work out a deal to keep the show going in a new home.
NBC did a trial run for the idea when they debuted Days of Our Lives spinoff Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem exclusively on Peacock in September 2021. There was also a movie, Days of Our Lives: A Very Salem Christmas, that aired over the 2021 holiday season.
The big question with Days of Our Lives, of course, is whether or not the audience will make the jump with the show. The goal among studios and networks in the current climate is to build an audience for streaming platforms and the hope is that Days of Our Lives fans will find other content on the streaming platform to them engaged.
The move comes as Thursday Night Football and Dancing with the Stars also make the jump to streaming, with Thursday Night Football heading to Prime Video and Dancing with the Stars sashaying over to Disney Plus. Again, these moves signal a shift as networks and studios reconsider the value of their network lineups and the ability to move eyeballs to their streaming platforms to increase subscribers and viewership.
When the show jumps to Peacock on September 12, Variety reports that NBC will debut a new one-hour news program, NBC News Daily, in its place. Anchored by Kate Snow, Aaron Gilchrist, Vicky Nguyen and Morgan Radford, the news program will also air live on NBC News NOW and Peacock.
