How to Fix ‘Days of Our Lives’ From a Production and Budgetary Standpoint
Long-running soap opera Days of Our Lives just began its fifth season as a Peacock exclusive. However, its production model still follows the same format as when it aired on NBC, releasing five hour-long episodes per week. The soap, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in November of 2025, faces budget cuts with each renewal and requires 9 to 11 months of advance episode filming before release. Its new home on Peacock gives the soap a major opportunity to address several production, scheduling, writing, and budgetary problems. The soap can address these issues by adjusting episode lengths and annual episode counts and adding an annual production hiatus.
Reduce the episode length from one hour to 30 minutes.
Now that DOOL has been exclusive to Peacock for more than four years, it no longer has to fill a specific broadcast time slot. This means the production team can explore whether reducing the soap’s episode run time is possible and worth it. Fans can watch the soap anytime on Peacock, and it’s now competing for viewership among the streamer’s full library of content. Shorter episodes may make the soap more appealing to new viewers discovering it on Peacock, especially considering the soap’s large library of episodes (more on that later). From a production and budgetary standpoint, this change would mean fewer scripts to write, fewer scenes to shoot, and potentially a quicker turnaround time for viewers.
Shorter episodes could vastly improve the quality of stories. Concise episodes allow less filler, promoting faster progression of storylines. Writing fewer scripts and filming shorter scenes could reduce production demands, enabling directors and writers to tell a powerful, entertaining story rather than rushing to put content on screen. This could create a faster narrative rhythm while simultaneously reducing the amount of material that must be written, revised, produced, filmed, edited, and delivered. Better stories and shorter episodes can sustain and increase viewership by keeping loyal fans engaged, bringing back previous viewers, and attracting new viewers in the streaming generation.
DOOL wouldn’t be the first soap to utilize this format. Nearly every soap currently on air in the country began with 15-minute episodes before expanding to 30 minutes and later an hour, and ratings suggest half-hour episodes are still successful. The CBS soap The Bold and the Beautiful has ranked as the second highest-rated daytime drama in the United States consecutively for more than half of its run. Following the mass cancellations of several legacy soaps in the early 2010s, DOOL came in last place in the daytime drama ratings during the 2011-2012 season, a first for the soap, and remained there until its move to Peacock. By comparison, the soap finished in first place with a share of 9.7 for the 1973-1974 season, at a time when it was still airing half-hour episodes.
Several soap operas in the United Kingdom, including Coronation Street, EastEnders, Emmerdale, and Hollyoaks, have used the 30-minute episode format. British soaps have aired half-hour episodes since their inception, with a brief moment when Coronation Street aired three hour-long episodes a week from March 2022 to January 2026. Coronation Street has been on the air longer than all five American daytime dramas currently in production (starting December 9, 1960), so there’s clearly some merit to the half-hour format, and DOOL would do well to return to that system.
DOOL is now competing with a pool of content from Peacock’s library, not just an afternoon timeslot like its broadcast equivalents, which means the soap needs to make changes to keep up. Throughout the 1970s, the soap and its competitors made the change to one-hour episodes when broadcast television was on top, and the big three networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS) went head-to-head for viewers each hour. Just because the popularity of daytime dramas and traditional broadcast television has dwindled doesn’t mean DOOL needs to remain stagnant. Reverting to half-hour episodes is one way the soap could stay relevant in the streaming age while still preserving its legacy of character-driven, powerful storytelling
Cut the annual episode count.
Presently, DOOL produces 260 episodes annually, Monday through Friday. The soap doesn’t adhere to traditional holiday breaks like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, etc., meaning it produces more episodes per year than the remaining four daytime dramas, increasing production demands. Thus, if the episode count were reduced to 156 episodes per year, DOOL could release three episodes per week, potentially on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, or Monday through Wednesday, etc., which would significantly improve behind-the-scenes pressures. By producing fewer episodes per year, the soap could tell coherent, powerful stories that aren’t burdened by production demands and behind-the-scenes difficulties.
Several international soaps have been successful with the three-episode-per-week model. Hollyoaks releases three episodes per week from Monday to Wednesday, and the New Zealand soap Shortland Street releases three episodes per week following the same schedule. Producing fewer episodes would give writers more time to develop material, allow production teams greater scheduling flexibility, and make DOOL more appealing to new audiences. In the streaming age, there is a lot of competition for viewers’ attention, while the current generation is drawn to short-form programs and values instant gratification. Programs on streaming platforms such as Stranger Things and Ginny and Georgia are popular with younger viewers and release shorter seasons than broadcast television dramas, so following a similar model could be beneficial in helping DOOL increase viewership.
Introduce an actual seasonal production schedule.
Finally, DOOL could dramatically reduce budgetary and production costs by having traditional seasons and an annual production halt. In the streaming era, viewers are used to waiting two, sometimes up to three, years between seasons that are often no longer than 10 episodes, so it's safe to say that the soap could thrive with seasons that release three episodes per week for more than half the year.
DOOL could potentially release seasons from January through October, with planned breaks in November and December for the holiday period. This pause could allow writers time to plan stories, brainstorm, and even “reset” the soap in certain aspects, if need be. The DOOL could end its seasons with an annual Halloween party where several stories come to a head and utilize time jumps and flashbacks to fill in the holiday gap for viewers, allowing it to still take place in the present day.
An alternative release schedule from September through May would allow DOOL to explore similar opportunities. This schedule would align with the “traditional” broadcast television season, which would appeal to lifelong viewers who are nostalgic for formerly commonplace TV practices. The writers could integrate the major holidays into their storylines, which is a staple for several daytime dramas. Each season could open with an annual Labor Day party and end just before Memorial Day to kick off the summer, giving viewers something to look forward to each season and transforming these events into institutions of the soap, with flashbacks to fill in the summer gaps.
An annual hiatus, combined with a reduction in weekly episodes, could increase demand for the soap. At the moment, DOOL is oversaturated by its Monday through Friday year-round release schedule when compared to other streaming dramas. Viewers know it’s always going to be there. Waiting more than two years for a new season of a series can be frustrating, but it creates anticipation and encourages viewers to rewatch past seasons to refresh their memories, increasing overall streaming numbers.
Conclusion
DOOL no longer needs to operate according to the production model it followed when it was a five-day-a-week broadcast series on NBC. In the streaming era, the soap shouldn’t be bound by producing 260 hour-long episodes and airing continuously throughout the year. Shorter and fewer episodes per year could give the production teams more time to develop storylines, ultimately improving the quality of the soap. Introducing annual production pauses and regular seasons could make the soap more appealing to audiences in the streaming era and increase viewership.
The goal isn’t to reinvent DOOL completely but to position it as an appealing soap in the streaming era. Implementing these three changes simultaneously could dramatically reduce the soap's problems with scheduling, episode volume, writing demands, and budgetary efficiency, promoting a more dynamic production.
