Following today’s news from Peacock that the streaming service had ordered two additional seasons of “Days of our Lives,” bringing the show through the 2027-2028 television season with seasons 62 and 63, executive producer Ken Corday, whose company Corday Productions also owns and produces the soap opera, issued a statement soon after, noting, “The future of ‘Days of our Lives’ has never been brighter.”
“This is a celebration for us without doubt, continuing with our NBCU family – 60 years this fall, and beyond,” continued Corday. “Our on- and off-screen family is excited to continue exploring and telling meaningful and fun stories for many, many more years to come.”
The renewal by Peacock will see “Days of our Lives” through six seasons as a streaming exclusive with the service after it was announced in August 2022 that the series would segue from broadcaster NBC after 57 seasons. The long-running drama, which debuted November 8, 1965 on the network, began its streaming exclusive run at Peacock on September 12, 2022.
The transition from broadcast to streaming was something long expected by Corday, who told Soap Opera Network in our May 2021 interview, “Network television reaches a certain audience but not necessarily the same audience that streaming platforms reach, and I think Peacock is doing quite well. It’s flourishing at a time when network television may not be flourishing.” He added, “The show is doing very well on Peacock, and I see the future of ‘Days of our Lives’ in the decades that will come, from now into the 20s, will be more of a streaming appointment than a network appointment.”
As for any particular changes to how the daytime drama series was produced at the time, something many fans have cited as an issue to them, Corday noted in the same interview that the model works for the show and there were no plans to change things, particularly as said model kept the show airing originals during the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020 when other shows, including the other soap operas, were airing reruns.
At the time, Corday pointed out how “grateful” he was for sticking to his “guns” by keeping to the show’s production schedule, saying, “We were getting ahead and ahead, so by the time the pandemic hit in March of last year we were seven-plus months ahead, which means we didn’t have to air repeats.”
“Without being egotistical, I think I know what works and doesn’t, and so what if we’re producing shows that air in four or six months? Our viewers are going to come to it as long as we don’t fudge around and start second-guessing ourselves and pulling punches and not telling the story because we don’t know if it’s going to work or not,” continued Corday, who cited a a famous quote from the Roman poet, Virgil, which said, “Fortune sides with him who dares.”
As for anyone questioning the decision, at the time, Corday stated, “I would be kidding if I said we just decided one day to get ahead.” Elaborating on how the production model evolved, he said, “It had to do with budget consideration…how we’d produce in three weeks the same amount of shows we produce in four, four and a half weeks so that the cast and crew can get rested for a week, and I don’t have to pay for that fourth week of production which saves us quite a bit of money.”
Incidentally, at the time of the interview in 2021, the show had just been renewed for a 57th and 58th season, though reaching the big 6-0 was something Corday was most looking forward to.
“Hopefully, we reach 60,” he said at the time. “That will be one hell of a milestone. For a television show to be on the air for 60 years is quite the apparition from the norm.”
This year, Corday and the show’s cast have already seen the show through its 60th season, which they finished taping earlier this year due to the show’s advanced tape-to-air schedule. The show will celebrate its 60th anniversary on November 8, 2025.
Continuing to recap our conversation with Corday, at the time, he explained what he thought made the show so successful, factoring in its reliance on telling stories about “romance, adventure and intrigue.”
“We’ve never gotten away from that formula that my dad knew when he created the show, and my mother followed for the next 15 years, and I have done as well,” said Corday at the time. “You just [think], ‘Well, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ You can polish it up or add spokes, but basically, it’s stories of family in Salem that have driven the show for five decades.”
Following the the lives, loves, and conflicts of the Horton, Brady, DiMera, Kiriakis, and Hernandez families and their many friends and colleagues,” “Days of our Lives” is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, and is enjoyed in many territories outside the United States, including Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, Israel, South Africa and Australia.
Earlier this month, the series received 13 Daytime Emmy Award nominations for “The 52nd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards,” including Outstanding Daytime Drama Series, marking the highest number of nominations the series has received since its exclusive debut on Peacock.
Created by Corday’s late parents, Ted Corday and Betty Corday, “Days of our Lives” is produced by Corday Productions in association with Sony Pictures Television. Ken Corday is the show’s executive producer. Noel Maxam is the show’s co-executive producer. Head writers are Paula Cwikly and Jeanne Marie Ford.
