How Days of our Lives Was Disrespected During Its Final NBC Broadcast

Days of our Lives had a nearly 57-year run on NBC. Its final episode on the network aired on Friday, September 9, 2022. The long-running soap opera, which earned millions of dollars over the decades, got disrespected even on its last day with NBC in the most blatant way possible.

Days of our Lives: Historical Importance

Days of our Lives first aired on NBC on November 8, 1965. For almost 57 years, the show drew viewers to the network with stories ranging from Julie Olson (Susan Seaforth Hayes) falling for conman Doug Williams (Bill Hayes), to the action and adventure love stories of Marlena Evans (Deidra Hall) and Roman Brady (now Josh Taylor), Bo Brady (Peter Reckell) and Hope Williams (Kristian Alfonso), Kayla Brady (Mary Beth Evans) and Steve Johnson (Stephen Nichols), and Kimberly Brady (Patsy Pease) and Shane Donovan (Charles Shaughnessy), to the Salem Strangler, the Salem Stalker, and, oh, yeah, the Devil himself.

With five minutes left in the final episode DAYS would air on NBC prior to moving the soap’s original episodes to Peacock’s premium streaming service, NBC chose to pre-empt the show and prevent loyal fans from seeing what cliffhanger The Powers That Be cooked up for this historic airing. Did they do it for a declaration of war? A pending hurricane? Vital election results? News on the Covid pandemic?

No. NBC chose to pre-empt the show and prevent loyal fans from seeing what cliffhanger The Powers That Be cooked up for this historic airing because the Queen of England was…still dead.

This wasn’t even an announcement of her death. It was her son, King Charles III, saying something about it. He wasn’t even saying it live. The message was pre-recorded. Which means that if it was pre-recorded, it could have been pushed back for a whopping five minutes to let DAYS finish airing.

What You’re Worth

Canceling Another World and Santa Barbara and Passions made it clear how little NBC cared about its soap-opera audience. But this was the last straw. To express their displeasure, viewers should make DAYS a hit on Peacock — where they’ll never get interrupted by a breaking news alert again. That’ll show ’em!

Days of our Lives (DOOL) airs weekdays on Peacock+ in the U.S. and The W Network or Global TV App in Canada. For more about what’s coming up in Salem, check out all the latest that’s been posted on DAYS spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.

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