Maybe these writers will bring romance back to Days. Say what you want about Passions, but they knew how to create some very very popular pairings.

Consider this: Marlene was part of such classic stories as Carly buried alive, Gina's 1994 return, Marlena's possession, Aremid, Maison Blanche, Carrie/Austin/Sami triangle, Kristen/Susan/Sister Mary Moira/Thomas/Penelope and the Killing Pool, just to name a few. If we can get ONE story just as good as one of those classics, I'll be a happy camper.

I am willing to give them a chance, I liked Passions. And Marlene was there in the '90s when Days was great. Plus I are I think Darrell has to be brother!!!

Totally agree, DaytimeFan0001. Therethan, Shuis, Juvy, and Charguel were EPIC couples and part of some insane love triangles. Days needs to go back to basics and this is a good start!

The new fans who didn't see any of JER's work are in for a treat! Days will finally be exciting again instead of this boring nonsense where people stand around talking about their feelings all day.

I just hope he is Mature and Grounded Days doesn't have time for Bull Shit I will watch anything as long as it's good and is rooted in character and history.

I say to these two: just don't fuck with Magic please!!

Marlene also wrote for GH in the late 80's

Lets Give Her the a chance at the helm

This is good news for Days. Just give them six months to make a dent in the mess left by Dena, before demanding their heads. Also, they were part of Jim Reilly's team, they weren't Jim Reilly. Don't judge them before you see what they have planned. Who knows, maybe they will take the show back to the Bill Bell era.

@ AlistairCrane: I will give them a chance, but about that demo.

Soaps were always about mothers passing them down to their daughters and inexplicably to their sons (lol). Passions was not pass-down.

On the other hand if delivering the goods meant watching Theresa, Fancy, Jessica etc... get raped and/or whore themselves out 5 days a week at the same time. Then we see why we have so many problems with the "youth of today."

Every soap magazine complained about the amount of sexual violence that happened on Passions. Sorry, that was not delivering goods. That was delivering shame!

I never really watched Passions, so I can't say anything about those two writers.

But Dena Higley's Days Of Our Lives was an utter horror show. Days was the show that brought my family together again after my Mom quit speaking to her sisters. Seeing a possessed Dr. Marlena Evans Brady floating over that damned bed made them get on the phone and call each other in shock. In other words, this show is a sentimental favorite of mine and I'm thrilled to see they're trying to fix it.

I also hope that we get a gay storyline with BOTH Chad and Will, and not just Will and some new guy. That would be cheating the fans who love the chemistry those two have.

Shall we wait and see? I know I will be waiting and watching and hoping.

Well AlistairCrane we all know your love of James Reilly. I think we know that many long time Days fans absolutely hated the mans writing. I personaly hated every single storyline you mentioned in this comment except for the Marlena is the serial killer story (which I must admit I did like up till the ending.) I have very solid examples of why I did not like the man's style including his totaly changing character's characteristics until they were unrecognizable all for the sake of fitting into his stories. And unlike everyone else, apparently, I thought the Kristen/Susan etc characters to be cringeworthily bad. I was embarassed for Eileen Davidson having to wear those god awful teeth and have to try to talk with them in her mouth. She ended up talking like noone else ever in the history of the world. It might have been funny, but somehow it came of embarassing. (for funny look at Eugene and Caliope in the 80s. They knew how to do it.)
I could go on and on. But what DAYS needed was for someone who had skills and maybe some success in writing to come along. (success meaning ratings.)
To exchange Dena Higley for two writers whose experience is with the low rated Passions is to just simply make the situation worse.

I sure the hell hope not, if they do go along with this storyline it's definitely going to be over with all the other's who unsuccessfully found out and subsequently wound up on the chocking block and into the TV land ghost yard with all the other bad ideas ever though of.

Sure there's pockets of groups on the Internet here and there, but it ultimately stops thereafter.

What online group doesn't have one?

Maybe when they had 3 + million back in 2009 they could have at least tried it, but these numbers have gotten a lot lower ever since a "rumor" was put on by the EW blog and the erosion sunk even further.

I didn't think it was possible for them to get any worse, even though the awful year that followed and ultimately Sami shotting E.J was the nail in the coffin (or the shot that killed the show) and people left in droves thereafter.

The East/West coast audiences left network television in much larger numbers than the middle and other segments of the population which is exactly the groups that should be targeted.

10 years ago a case could have been for a ratings bubble effect, but the shock value has long since disappeared as it's neither ground breaking nor an effective practical model to reach mass quantities of overall or young viewers.

I had been a fan of Reilly until characters were killed and buried and then ended up on an island with really no explanation as to how. That was bullshit.

As long as they don't nix the Will story, I'm good.

i dont think There stuff will air Til August So I Hope Not

Im Lookin 4ward to the will story

LOL! Passions was such a hit, it was cancelled TWICE!

Alistair, I can definitely agree with you about Brash and Cwikly, with the exception of the Gemini Twin storyline. The pod thing was sooooo stupid. I could have done without that attempt at science fiction. The implanting of Kate's embryos into Marlena was interesting enough. They didn't have to be geneticly engineered. Days is not The Million Dollar Man or something! Anyway, I enjoyed them, but they weren't there for very long. I wonder if Poulter and Thomas will be at Days for very long either. It seems like they bring in these pairs like Brash/Cwikly, Swajeski/what's his name, etc. as interims, but who knows. I'm just VERY happy that Dena Higley is leaving. This show has been god-awful since the end of 2008 pretty much, which brings me to agreeing with you about Y&R. I would reaaaaaaally like for them to get rid of Hogan Sheffer and Scott Hamner.

I didn't like ANY of Mr. Reilly's "classic storylines" on DAYS. I didn't watch Passions because it replaced Another World, but my sister did & it sounded like the same roll your eyes stuff that Mr. Reilly tried to pass off as soap opera.

DAYS finally decides to get rid of Dena (thank god) & they hire PASSIONS writers? I'm sorry, but this looks like a conspiracy to me to get us to the point we don't care about the show so they can cancel it without a fuss.

@marknsprmo: You know as much as I am going to give them a chance, this sounds awfully a lot like the "Kerjesky" duo being hired at All My Children. For people to feel comfortable about their soap they have to know that it is in capable hands. Many of us (you included) are not so sure these hands are the capable ones to lead Days back to the #2 spot it hit over a year ago. But you are right I hated those Reilly years on Days the first time around.

@ Ryan-Scott: On Passions he repeated the Buried Alive storyline with Sheridan. By the time Passions was about to get canceled viewers had had to endure a singing mermaid who turned people to stone when she sung. But when He wrote the Salem Stalker storyline on Days it started out good and then once they all ended up on some Island that looked like Salem I was like "It's time to go Reilly."

Might I remind everyone that maybe one of the worst storylines ever or 2 of them were The Jessica/Spike pimp/prostitute storyline and Alistair wanting to take over the world with a Chalice.

Sometimes you didn't know if you were watching a soap opera or a Nickelodeon children's special.

@Nathang1983: Bring back Tom Langan he was there and wrote my favorite storyline with Bad Lexie in the infamous Baby switch Storyline.

http://timeaftertimeonlinedrama.webs.com/apps/videos/channels/show/10721...

My I would have never fallin love with the actress Renee Jones or knew she had that much talent if it wasn't for that storyline.

Nathang don't blame Brash and Cwikly for that twin thing. That was the brain child of Dena Higley and it is how she stole the job of head writer from Brash and Cwikly. It was supposed to reengergize the show. Ken Corday was gushing about it when he announced her as the new headwriter.

David46208 if anyone had bothered to watch Another World during the Swajeski years, she probably would not have gotten a job again. Her only saving grace was all those great characters that Lemay Harding left her. Which she dismantled piece by piece. Still she is not the worst head writer in history. I am happy that AMC is in safer hands but scratch my head as to why it took a cancelation to place the show with the writers that should have been there all along......

I think Days needs a head hunter to find a really good writer that is not already affiliated with NBC daytime or with Ken Corday. The writing is too imbred and too many people have worked their way up to this position. Head writer is NOT a reward for long term script writers. It is a highly creative job that requires a strong vision. Days doesn't have to give me MY view of Days to succeed. But it does need a guiding decisive adult vision. If Ken Corday thinks that putting these two in charge will change anything, he might remember that several of the head writers he has employed came from the same writers pool.

David: I agree about Lexie during the Langan era, but everything else he did was GOD-AWFUL. The Greta-Austin Garden of Eden storyline immediately comes to mind. The brainchip thing (although Sally Morina created it) was not quite as bad as Eden, but close. I nearly jumped for joy when Bo took that brainchip, threw it on the floor, and stomped on it during the early days of the Brash-Cwikly tenure. It was like symbolism!
I am going to be guardedly optimistic about the new headwriters. Just about anyone or couple of writers are better than Dena Higley.

So you're rid of Dena and you're still upset. How can you be upset with something before it even begins? Give it a shot, stop being prejudiced. Jim Reilly is dead. These two writers are not Jim Reilly. Sometimes I think soap fans just enjoy the art of being upset all of the time.

Mark: I didn't know Dena Higley came up with that crap! That is very surprising. They ruled then! I remember the suspense with Tony coming back and the blue key thing, among others. It was very interesting without being so out there.
And I remember Another World toward the end. It was pretty stupid. Two things that come to mind on the finale were the gorilla that was in love with Cass and the 300 year old man who Cindy had partnered up with. Embarassingly stupid.

ICAM marknsprmo, alot of those stories were absolutely cringe-worthy, especially the stuff with Eileen Davidson playing one weirdo after another complete with crappy dentures and silly accents. It was ludicrous and laughable.

The biggest problem Days has in terms of pleasing it's fanbase is this very schism, between the fans who loved the far more traditional soap Days had once been and those who came aboard during and adored Reilly's camp-fest.

Passions was never a hit with anyone other than 12-25 year olds and while that demographic kept Passions on the air for a while, catering solely to them ultimately sunk it because they are easily and quickly bored and distracted and once the novelty of Passions blatant ridiculousness wore off, many dumped it and never came back. Another portion got into it as teens or college students and once they started their adult lives, they had no time for it and since it wasn't a family legacy inherited from mom or grandma they didn't care enough to make the time.

So it's back to Supernatural, Daytime Edition!

If you'd rather DAYS not be all about rape then Carlivati is a bad choice.

Oh No!! I was so thrilled to hear that Dena Higley was gone. But Passions was the worst soap ever. I could never sit through more than 2 minutes. And JER completely destroyed the show.

Was so thrilled to hear about Matt Ashford's return - but his character was destroyed during JER's reigns. Oh no, no, no, no, no. Days is going from bad to worse. More plot driven stories without character depth. Cheese without heart. Why not Sheri Anderson?!