‘Days of Our Lives’ Boss Teases ‘Bright Future’ of Soap & ‘Great Surprises’ Coming in 2025

Like Sands Through the Hourglass…

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Days of our Lives is marking its 59^th anniversary on Friday, November 8, and this year, there’s additional cause for celebration — the show just received a one-year pickup from Peacock. “It’s great news that we’ve been renewed until September 2026,” enthuses Executive Producer Ken Corday, “That’s a way down the road but there’s much to accomplish between now and then. As I said to the cast and crew on the stage last Friday when we announced the news, ‘Let’s stop focusing on Season 60 or 61. Let’s start thinking about Season 65 because I believe it’s a reality.’”

Corday, whose parents, Ted and Betty Corday, and Irna Phillips created the show in 1965, admits he wasn’t completely confident about Days’ future when it unexpectedly moved to Peacock in September 2022. “Well, I was feeling 50/50 on it,” he concedes. “I couldn’t understand why NBC Universal was removing it from broadcast, but the numbers added up in subscriptions and our subscriptions have increased. We continually test consistently in the Top 10 of Peacock’s shows, which shows that our viewers didn’t totally stray. When we migrated, almost half of them stuck with us and it’s a delightful surprise that the show thrives on a new platform.”

One that he feels his parents would be firmly behind.  “I’m sure my mother and father would be thrilled because he was the true pioneer, to leave radio for television and leave East Coast soap opera for West Coast TV and start a show that wasn’t your typical soap opera back in ’65,” offers the exec. “There’s always been this, ‘we’ll go first pioneering spirit’ about the show, so why not? I like being the tip of the spear.”

Corday adds he “feels fantastic” about the state of the soap, which has endured some turmoil over the past two years with the very public exit of former co-executive producer Albert Alarr in 2023 followed by the show’s head writer, Ron Carlivati, nearly a year later. Regarding Carlvati, Corday notes, “I just felt it was time for a different look at the show, a different foundation for the show, and a different story push. Our previous head writer had a wonderful, long run, but change is a constant and sometimes change is called for and this was a case where it was clear to me it was.”

Todd Williamson/Peacock

Those changes Corday references will take shape more fully in 2025. “There are powerful moments coming next summer, and just judging from the demeanor on the set, which is the best barometer of the show almost as much as the viewership is, everyone’s very excited about what we’re doing and where the show is going.”

That includes the team he has in place to make that happen. “I’m proud to say that I’m working with three women in positions of power,” declares Corday. “I have two female head writers [Paula Cwikly and Jeanne Marie Ford] and a female co-executive producer [Janet Spellman-Drucker] and it’s just wonderful. This is the first time in my run of 40 years as producer on the show that I’ve had this luxury. I think it’s important to dig into the serious female point of view and stories underneath the regular story beats.”

While things are indeed looking promising, the real-life losses of Bill Hayes (Doug Williams) in January, and more recently, Drake Hogestyn (John Black) in September, offset the jubilant spirit. “They’re both iconic and two of the seven great heroes on the show,” Corday praises. “Drake was Superman. Doug was Super Conman who became Super Supercouple. They’re itreplaceable, had decades on the show, and we’re paying homage to both of their characters.”

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The first will be Hayes’ Doug on December 2, also the show’s 15,000^th episode. “Bill had died in January and we were not too far away from writing this November at that time because we’re so far ahead,” Corday explains. “For lack of a better cliché, the stars aligned correctly. So as we came up to 15,000, we thought, ‘This is the time to do it. Play the character’s death on the show and how that impacts everybody and bring a lot of people back for that.’” In addition to beloved faves Kristian Alfonso (Hope Williams Brady) and Melissa Reeves (Jennifer Deveraux), blasts from the past that will take part in the tribute include Stephen Schnetzer (Steve Olson), Gloria Loring (Liz Chandler) and Maree Cheatham (Marie Horton).

The memorial for John Black, which was filmed prior to Hogestyn’s death from pancreatic cancer, will play out later next year. His death at age 70, has hit everybody including Corday hard. “Drake and I were very close,” Corday notes. “Drake was everybody’s good friend on set. He was the glue, he was like the captain on the floor, always knew his lines, always delivered, and was a perfect match for Dee [Hall, Marlena Evans]. We will pay proper homage to him as well.”

With a lot to be happy about, Corday says, “The future looks very shiny and bright. We are in for some great surprises by mid-2025. The stories will be wonderful and there will be many returns of familiar faces we’ve known or come to love in the past. I think it would be very rewarding for the viewers.”

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