These are the Days of our Lives but maybe not for long.
In the last two days, actors Victoria Konefal and Greg Vaughn have announced they are done.
They join what has become a gang of actors as well as executive producer Greg Meng– there for 31 years– who’ve said goodbye to the ailing soap.
Last week Kristian Alfonso, who’s played Hope for 37 years, announced she was leaving and not coming back. She was asked by producer Ken Corday to take a four to five month leave of absence. She was insulted, rightly so, and declined.
Soon only Deidre Hall be left, playing all the parts. Corday might pay for that but still ask for a pay cut.
These departures won’t be the last. Late last fall Corday cancelled all contracts, then made everyone renegotiate. He’s low balled even the longest running regulars as NBC and Sony squeeze him, respectively, on licensing fees.
But if NBC were to cancel “Days” what would they replace it with? No one wants to see more of the “Today” show, please, anything but that. And talk shows aren’t so easy to put together. Look what happened with Nick Cannon. A Kelly Clarkson or Tamron Hall are very hard to cultivate. But maybe they could bring back the Farm Report, or the guy who taught sketching.
All of this is no doubt a blow to headwriter Ron Carlivati, who takes his orders from the top. On Twitter as each actor leaves he Tweets a very lovely goodbye and asks them to consider returning one day. In the movie “SoapDish,” Woopi Goldberg– the headwriter of a soap– is asked to write for a character who was once decapitated. “I can’t write for a man without a head!” she cries. You can’t write for characters who aren’t there, either.
