News Brief

FOX 411: End of DAYS
Roger Friedman writes: "NBC’S DAYS OF OUR LIVES is owned by Ken Corday, whose late parents, Ted and Betty Corday, helped invent modern soaps. Alas, Ken is a prime example of the inheriting generation destroying the parents’ creation. News has leaked out that he’s 'fired' the show’s star, Deidre Hall, who’s played blonde and brainy Dr, Marlena Evans since 1976. Corday has also let go for the second time in a year Dr. Evans’s onscreen husband, played by Drake Hogestyn. (They killed him, then got fan flack and brought him back.) NBC just renewed DAYS for 18 months, but really, the party’s over. DAYS is the only soap left on the network, and Jeff Zucker has said he’d rather get rid of it. Corday is a piece of work. A couple of years ago he tried to fire the entire tenured cast by killing all their characters. Then he had to take that back and say they’d all been kidnapped to a tropical island. Oh well: these were the days of our lives…And Hall? I predict she goes straight to prime time or to CBS’s YOUNG AND THE RESTELSS."

SARA A BIBEL: The 7875327th Plan To Save Days
"I don’t know that I could do any better than Dena Higley or Hogan Sheffer. But I am confident that DOOL needs to rebuild from the ground up if it is going to successfully adjust to its new fiscal reality."

Supercouples on soaps can keep us together
Supercouples have meant big ratings since the start of the golden era of radio sudsers of the mid-1930s. When these programs evolved a decade later into the television serials we still enjoy today, there was always a key element which made these shows great and kept people tuned in. In 2008, most small-screen fans can name, off the top of their head, what romantic duos keep them coming back for more.

Whether is was Mac and Rachel during ANOTHER WORLD's apex of the late 1970s and early 1980s; Marlena and John on DAYS OF OUR LIVES; GH's Scotty and Laura/Luke and Laura heyday from 1978 to 1983, or Ken and Deidre on CORONATION STREET — an on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again, and on-gain pairing which has lasted three decades — we all have our favorites.

INTERIVEW: ALL MY CHILDREN star Eden Riegel (Bianca)
"It’s amazing to be back. It’s like going home (if home was a really cold studio filled with really gorgeous people). But the best part is working with Tamara Braun. She’s a fantastic person and an amazing actress.

As far as extending goes, I don’t know. My immediate goal is to execute the current story as well as we possibly can, but if they have a way of extending this story into something equally exciting, who knows?

There was a time not so long ago that Bianca and Maggie could barely greet each other with a kiss on the cheek, now Bianca and Reese are actually in bed together. I love it!"

Main BBC channels go live on net
BBC shows including EastEnders will be available to watch live online starting November 27th, the BBC has announced. BBC One and BBC Two will be streamed live, - just as BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC, CBeebies and BBC News are already broadcast on their channel websites. Director of BBC vision Jana Bennett said this "completes our commitment" to make channels available online.

Fond Farewells, Good Friends & A Few Tears on Tonight's FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
Zap2it's Korbi Ghosh writes: "It's a real bitch watching FRIDAY NIGHT LIHGTS without a box full of tissues sometimes... and tonight will be one of those times."

TOM CASIELLO: An Early Thanksgiving
"So it's been kind of a downer around these parts, huh? Let's throw some positivity into the mix, shall we? Here's five things right now that currently have me bouncing on my couch... the five things that have inspired me lately, as we head into Thanksgiving next week." If you haven't checked out Casiello's new blog, do it now.