Nearly a year after alleged network mandates reportedly forced the four remaining daytime soaps to trim some of the fat in their casts throughout 2015, word has it that at least one soap is about to make another round of “budget-dictated” cast cuts.
According to Soap Opera Digest, in its newest issue on newsstands now, “At least one show will be making some budget-dictated cast cuts early in the new year.” The magazine provided no further details.
While it’s unknown at this time which of the soaps is about to hand out pink slips in the coming weeks and months ahead, the show that is most likely to be parting with some familiar faces is the Sony Pictures Television (SPT) and Corday Productions, Inc. produced “Days of our Lives,” now that its big 50th anniversary celebration has concluded.
After WikiLeaks published a fully searchable database of over 170,000 emails from the 2014 hacking of SPT, it was revealed that during Sony’s negotiating period with NBC back in December 2013, which led to the soap being renewed through September 2016 just weeks later, the network would be lowering the license fee its pays the studio in exchange for keeping the soap on the air.
In an email addressed to Steve Mosko, Chairman, SPT, it is noted that a two season pickup of “DAYS” — which was tied into legal matters pertaining to the comedy “Community” — would result in the license fee the network pays to go down from $775,000 pre-renewal to $750,000 during the first season of the deal and $725,000 by the second season. The numbers were later revised to a more reasonable $775,000 for the first season and $750,000 the following season.
If not “DAYS,” which other soap might be ready for another year of cast purging? “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “General Hospital” or “The Young and the Restless”?
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