Part 2 of 2
While some fans welcome the move as a vital lifeline for their beloved soap, many other longtime viewers, particularly older ones, are outraged. They balk at the idea of paying for something that was once available for free over the airwaves. They may be intimidated by new technology or lack the funds for a smart TV or tablet. They feel as though after decades of unstinting loyalty, they are being abandoned by entertainment conglomerates desperate to woo elusive younger audiences. And, perhaps most of all, they resent the disruption of a cherished daily ritual during a time of dizzying change.
Trish Hobbs, 60, has been watching “Days” since she was 9. (Her German grandmother, a soap fanatic, got her hooked.) As a stay-at-home mom, she timed her kids’ naps so she was free to tune in each afternoon to hear Macdonald Carey’s voice in the iconic intro: “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.”
Until Sept. 9, Hobbs, who lives in North Carolina, continued to plan her days around “Days.”
“I’m divorced. I live alone. It’s like friends coming over,” she said, likening the show to a comforting plate of macaroni and cheese. Through her cable provider, she was able to get a free Peacock subscription and has been watching the show on her desktop computer the last few days — “but it’s not the same,” she said wearily. Hobbs, a cancer survivor, is not able to work and can barely afford to see her doctor, so she’s not sure what she’ll do when the free subscription runs out.
“I already have to pay for cable to get my TV. Now you want me to pay to watch my show on an app that I don’t fully understand, that I don’t have the money to pay for and I probably won’t watch anything else on?” she said. “They’re discounting the people that made the show what it is.”
Yolanda Viviani, 83, has been watching “Days” since she was a young mother in New York City in the 1960s. When she and her husband eventually moved upstate and opened a bar, she’d sometimes flip the TV over to “Days,” irritating customers who preferred sports.
“I’m really disappointed with what they did. It’s unfair,” said Viviani, who now relies on her daughter or grandchildren to turn on Peacock using several different remotes. “A little more independence taken away.”
Producers have been promoting the move with short clips on social media featuring favorite cast members. One, starring 97-year-old Bill Hayes and his 79-year-old wife, Susan Seaforth Hayes, was squarely aimed at older, technophobic viewers.
“We need to tell our loving and loyal fans, ‘Come on, we’ve got you.’ Take them by the hand and bring them over,” said Deidre Hall, who began playing Marlena Evans, a psychiatrist who has endured enough trauma to spend a lifetime in therapy, in 1976. “Nobody’s saying it’s not a change, and we’re all a little uncomfortable with change. But it’s a good thing.”
Daytime TV is inherently habit forming “because we never give you any relief,” Hall said. “There’s always something you’ve got to know the answer to.” But “Days” is unique in the way it has followed the same families — the Bradys, Hortons, Dimeras and Kiriakises — for decades. It may be bonkers, but it’s a familiar bonkers.
“We’re having such hard years lately. So many people have been stuck at home, and our show is a tremendous comfort. They know us, they love us, they trust us,” Hall said.
In its early years, the serial was known for its bold yet intimate storylines, including a groundbreaking interracial romance in the 1970s. Over time, “Days” embraced more outrageous plots involving doppelgängers, brainwashing and characters that came back from the dead with alarming regularity — a campy streak that “Friends” spoofed via Joey’s breakout role as a neurosurgeon revived by a brain transplant.
