Salem Romance Report: Where Is The Love On Days of our Lives?

Once upon a time, Days of our Lives was known for having an overabundance of supercouples who fans could root for, but lately, it feels like there is no pairing to become emotionally invested in, and that leaves a hole in the canvas that can be filled with that right supercouple magic again.

Days of our Lives Didn’t Plan Ahead

The two pairs with rooting value and dedicated fanbases over the last few years were Chad (Billy Flynn) and Abigail Deveraux DiMera (Marci Miller) and Ben (Robert Scott Wilson) and Ciara Brady Weston (Victoria Konefal). DAYS knew that Miller and Konefal didn’t want to be on contract anymore, so it would be losing one-half of each of these couples, but the void wasn’t filled before they left.

While we still have solid supercouples from the 80s around, like Steve Johnson (Stephen Nichols) and Kayla Brady Johnson (Mary Beth Evans) and John Black (Drake Hogestyn) and Marlena Evans Black (Deidre Hall), they are established pairs without the romantic angst that newer couples endure as they strive to be together.

It’s hard to become invested in pairs like Allie Horton (Lindsay Arnold) and Chanel Dupree (Raven Bowens) when Chanel has been married to two different men in the course of a year and Allie couldn’t make up her mind about who she wanted until right before she was possessed by the Devil.

Other Pairs Aren’t Quite There

Brady Black (Eric Martsolf) and Chloe Lane (Nadia Bjorlin) seem like a forced pairing with very little conflict except for the presence of Kristen DiMera (Stacy Haiduk), who acts as more of a plot point than an actual foil in their love story. Eric Brady (Greg Vaughan) and Nicole Walker Hernandez (Arianne Zucker) still have that angst, but Eric seems to be moving on quite quickly from Nicole, hopping into bed with Jada Hunter (Elia Cantu) after only two dates.

There is potential on Days of our Lives for Gabi Hernandez DiMera (Camila Banus) and Stefan O. DiMera (Brandon Barash), whose love story was cut short in 2019 when Stefan was shot, but he only just returned to the land of the living and Gabi doesn’t know he is alive yet.

There’s still more potential with newly-cast legacy characters Alex Kiriakis (Robert Scott Wilson) and Stephanie Johnson (Abigail Klein), but that is just getting started this week, and it might take time until fans become invested. Plus, they’re also cousins (though not by blood, we realize)…so there’s that. Time will tell if either one of these couples can become the love story fans have been waiting for.

Days of our Lives (DOOL) airs weekdays on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes. 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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