Days Of Our Lives
Days of our Lives Wins WGA Award!
Courtesy/NBC
NBC’s Days of our Lives continued its resurgence with another major victory in award shows! Tonight in ceremonies held in simultaneous in Los Angeles at the JW Marriott L.A. LIVE and in New York City at the Edison Ballroom, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) is handing out their annual awards honoring outstanding writing in film, television, new media, videogames, news, radio, promotional, and graphic animation categories.
In the Daytime Drama category, Days of our Lives was victorious over General Hospital and The Young and the Restless. Current co-head writer, Chris Whitesell accepted the award on behalf of the entire DAYS writing team, where he also cited the contributions of executive producer Ken Corday, and co-executive producer Greg Meng.
During the DAYS writing team trip to the podium a clip of one of the major Marlena (Deidre Hall) and Kristen’s (Eileen Davidson) showdown scene was shown to the audience in attendance!
The winning DAYS writing team included: Lorraine Broderick, David Cherrill, Carolyn Culliton, Richard Culliton, Rick Draughon, Christopher Dunn, Janet Iacobuzio, David A. Levinson, Ryan Quan, Dave Ryan, Melissa Salmons and Christopher J. Whitesell.
What do you think about DAYS win for writing by the WGA? Let us know!
Days Of Our Lives
‘Brilliant Minds’ Officially Canceled After 2 Seasons at NBC; DAYS Alum Al Calderon, OLTL Alum Teddy Sears and Zachary Quinto Among the Cast
After languishing on the bubble for months, on Friday, NBC handed down the decision and canceled the medical drama Brilliant Minds after two seasons.
Brilliant Minds stars Zachary Quinto as neurology physician Oliver Wolf, who’s character and the series is inspired by the life and books of neurologist. Oliver Sacks. The series focuses on the medical mysteries of the mind, as Wolf a larger-than-life neurologist and his team of interns explore the last great frontier, the human mind, while grappling with their own relationships and mental health.
The final six episodes of what will now be the end of its second and final season were already set to air beginning on May 27, after being pulled off the network schedule in February as viewership saw a steep decline. Brilliant Minds second season became the lowest-rated drama on linear TV viewing, which didn’t bode well fo a network renewal, although it had its hard core fan base.
Photo: NBC
There are some exceptional notables in the cast along with the talented Quinto that includes Days of Our Lives alum, Al Calderon (ex-Javi Hernandez) who joined the series in its second season as Nurse Nico Silva, and One Life to Live alum, Teddy Sears (ex-Chad Bennett) who plays Wolf’s love interest and fellow physician, Dr. Josh Nichols.
The rest of the talented cast includes: Tamberla Perry, Ashleigh LaThrop, Alex MacNicoll, Aury Krebs, Spence Moore II, Donna Murphy, John Clarence Stewart, and Brian Altemus.
In an ironic twist of fate on Thursday, April 30, Days of Our Lives finally revealed the actor who was Al Calderon’s successor in the role of Javi, when they announced that actor Jacob Martinez had now stepped into the role. Since DAYS tapes ten months ahead of streaming new episode, Calderon left in the spring of 2025, but will be seen in the part for the final part this month, and then on June 20, Martinez debuts as Salem’s new Javi.
Taking to his Instagram with a sorrowful and heartfelt post on the Brilliant Minds cancellation was Teddy Sears who wrote, “Thank you, Brilliant Minds. I got the call today and I didn’t want to hear, but I knew that it would come, You have to be a particular vintage to quote Don Henley from memory, but that’s the line that came to mind earlier today after I got off the phone with our inimitable showrunner Michael Grassi who delivered the news that NBC has cancelled the series”.
Photo: NBC
Sears continued, “To say that I feel sad to be moving on from these stories, this character, and this cast and crew just doesn’t paint the entire picture. I’m sad, sure. But I’m also deeply grateful that I got hired to play this part, so proud of the stories we told, and the other actors I got to play alongside. I’m excited to see what comes next, what adventures await, and terrified to be without a professional home. A quick and heartfelt thank you to everyone, all over the globe, who found us and found themselves in us, in our characters and in our stories. We wouldn’t have been able to tell them without you. And we still have 6 fresh episodes yet to air, and I do hope you tune in enjoy the remainder of the series. They’re the best we’ve done.”
As he wrapped up his sentiments, Sears signed off with, “The more I know, the less I understand. All the things I figured out I have to learn again. I’ve been trying to get down to the heart of the matter. But everything changes…Thank you, Brilliant Minds.”
The medical drama was created and executive produced by Michael Grassi alongside Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Leigh London Redman, Lee Toland Krieger, DeMane Davis, Jasmine Russ, Henrik Bastin, Jonathan Cavendish, Andy Serkis and Shefali Malhoutra.
So, what do you think of NBC’s decision to cancel Brilliant Minds after two seasons? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Days Of Our Lives
DAYS OF OUR LIVES: Sophia Seemingly Plans to End Her Life, But Not Before Setting Fire to Johnny’s Apartment With Him Trapped Inside
The final few moments of the Thursday, April 30 episode of Days of our Lives, will pave the way, to what just may be the end of Sophia Choi’s (Rachel Boyd) life, but not as you may think!
After an unhinged Sophia paid a visit to Johnny DiMera (Carson Boatman), maced him in the eyes, knocked him out and then tied up to a chair, now conscious, she lets him know that she holds him responsible for all the trouble and trauma she has gone through from adopting her child, and her being sent to a mental institution.
So instead of the unregistered gun Kristen (Stacy Haiduk) gave her to finish off Johnny, Sophia sets up a plan to light candle, use nail polish remover and turn on the gas on the stove to ultimately create a mass explosion, which although Johnny pleaded to her not to that to all the innocent people inside his apartment building, she doesn’t seem to care.
Photo: JPI
FIERY FACE OFF
The plan was supposed to be, after she takes care of Johnny she will toss the gun in the Salem River, then focus on payback to Holly Jonas before leaving town to start a new life.
Now, Sophia makes her exit, leaving Johnny to be a few moments away from an explosion or gas inhalation, when Chanel (Raven Bowens) comes home after awaiting the results of her mammogram. She sees Johnny tied up, as he panics and tells her to put out the flame on the candle, things go awry, and a fire has begun and everything may go up in flames with Johnny and Chanel inside.
Photo: JPI
A BROKEN SOPHIA
Back in her room, Sophia breaks down after reading the social media comments about her, she planted, and then starts writing a suicide or farewell note which says. “I’m tired of begging for forgiveness for my mistakes. All I wanted was to move forward, to be loved and understood. But it’s clear that I was never going to get that. Holly Jonas said that I was dead to her. So, as her former BFF, I’m going to make her dream a reality.”
Photo: JPI
A DEADLY TRAP
Now, the fate of Johnny, Chanel and Sophia will be revealed on tomorrow’s May 1st cliffhanger, which may be the end of Sophia when she crosses paths with Kirsten at the bridge near the river. We do know Rachel Boyd is no longer appearing in the show credits section and is now off contract with the soap.
So, what did you think of the climatic final moments of DAYS? What did you think of the performance of Rachel Boyd as Sophia Choi? Let us know via the comment section.
Breaking News
Jacob Martinez is ‘Days of Our Lives’ New Javi Hernandez Replacing Al Calderon in the Role
Finally! The casting has been revealed as to just who would be Al Calderon’s successor in the role of Days of our Lives, Javi Hernandez. On Friday, April 30, the long-running soap opera revealed Jacob Martinez is taking on the part and he will first be seen this coming June 30th and then on all-new episodes streaming on Peacock.
As previously reported, the popular Calderon exited the soap opera last year to join the cast of the NBC primetime medical drama, Brilliant Minds as nurse Nico Silva, who in May will air the remainder of their second season. The series has been on the bubble for renewal by the network. His last episodes as Javi will also air this May on DAYS.
Since DAYS tapes ten months ahead of streaming, Martinez has been secretly ensconced in all the drama in Salem for quite some time. When viewers see the new Javi in story, we should learn what will happen in Javi’s relationship with Leo Stark played by Emmy winner, Greg Rikaart, plus his continued relationship with his relatives in the Hernandez clan. Currently, when Javi returned to Salem after taking care of his ailing father, and after the bust-up of his marriage to Leo thanks to Dimitri (Peter Porte), he claimed he had moved on with someone else while he was away from Salem.
Photo: JPI
Like Calderon before him, Martinez is a multi-talented actor and singer. Jacob’s resume is impressive having appeared in the musical In Pieces: The Musical at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater and he was hand-picked by Joey Contreras to play the role of Grey. Other credits include: the short film, Memory Swim and the play Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage.
Martinez hails from Norfolk, Nebraska and appeared when he was very young at the Johnny Carson Theatre, and as DAYS fans know, Jacob is now working at the Days of our Lives studios, right where the “Tonight Show” is filled. In addition, Jacob Martinez is a graduate of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA).
Taking to his Instagram on Thursday, April 30 once the news of his casting was revealed, Martinez, expressed, “Way too many people to thank in one post, so I’ll just say THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART to each and every person who continues to pour into me and encourage me to chase my dreams. I cannot even begin to express how grateful I am. I already feel beyond blessed, supported, and loved. See you all in Salem ⏳”
Jacob Martinez appeared on Friday on the Days of our Lives Instagram account announcing his casting. You can check it out below. Deadline was the first to report the casting switch.
So, excited to learn who is the new Javi Hernandez? Please welcome Jacob Martinez to the role and be on the lookout for his debut on June 30. Comment below.
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‘Brilliant Minds’ Officially Canceled After 2 Seasons at NBC; DAYS Alum Al Calderon, OLTL Alum Teddy Sears and Zachary Quinto Among the Cast
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DAYS OF OUR LIVES: Sophia Seemingly Plans to End Her Life, But Not Before Setting Fire to Johnny’s Apartment With Him Trapped Inside
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Congratulations, DOOL!
I think DOOL is the most consistently entertaining of the remaining shows, and the one with the most soap integrity.
Great news and well-deserved praise!
I agree. Congrats to Days
And Ron Carlivati tweeted his sour grapes, calling the head writer a scab.
Note to Carlivati, think about why the WGA would rather give the award to a non union writer than you. Maybe the storylines on DOOL are creative, well written, pay attention to detail and are not constantly recycled who’s the daddy stories and love triangles.
Maybe those writers respect the history of the show and the fans and don’t constantly rewrite history, characters and inundate the canvas with brand new, uninteresting, underdeveloped newbies. Maybe the DOOL writers put the show first and don’t make their egos and their favored actors/pets the priority.
Maybe these writers know how to write with heart and soul and don’t make a mockery of the genre by turning it into a cartoon.
Just maybe…
Plus Gary Tomlin who is the hW is no longer eligible for WGA awards because he went Fi-Core in 2008 during the strike. He can never be nominated and win this award iduring the remainder of his career. He wasnt even recoginized on the nominee sheet.
RC is pissed Gh didnt win & that Gary HW OLTL during the 2008 strike.
Ron is a good writer, and I like GH! That being said, I am disappointed in his tweet! During a time when ALL who are involved in daytime must stick together he needed to either stay quiet or congratulate them on their win! GH is good for that edge of seat shock factor… It is light fluff! I’ve said it before and I will say it again, DAYS has more sophisticated and deep storylines which are character driven! I think the writing team at DAYS is far superior to any, and I credit that to Lorraine Broderick, who if Ken Corday were smart enough he would promote to Headwriter status! Again, great job DAYS… Bring home the Emmy too please!
Kudos GH50. I loved GH for more than thirty years but ultimately decided to give it up in early January because I found myself feeling disgusted at the juvenile and preposterous storylines coming one after the next.
Carlivati mocks the viewers who complain about the campiness and tells them good riddance when they express they’re chagrin…
I note that GH is the only soap NOT touting their ratings over the last couple of weeks… as longtime fans are drifting away.
Amen GH50. You took the words right out of my mouth.
Days is the best right now…can never wait for the next episode!!!
The way i see it DOOL its going to be # 1 pretty soon !! Over Y&R . Sad ,sad M
Easily the best written soap of the remaining four…DAYS deserved this win!
Congratulations to DAYS and writing team. Hoping some of the great EJ and Sami arc was a part of the episode or episode submitted for #WGA. 2013 was one of the best years from # DAYS in decades. Kudos to the entire writing team. So proud. 40+ years watching.
True. 2013 was an great year for Dool. The Bristen story was outstanding, and the Ejami reunion was wonderful! Add the Nick/Wilson story, and it just was all around entertaining.
Too bad they decided to through away all that consistency with the recent Ejami-sabbotage…so much plot-point writing after some very good character driven story-telling of last year.
Oh well. Hopefully, tptb will see how much better they did in 2013 than they have this year so far, and change course!
so glad you won
ive been watching you over 20
years
love the show, second family
Why is GH HW saying this on twitter:
Ron Carlivati þ@carlivatiron 59s
Someone please explain to me how a show with a scab head writer wins the #WGA award. #Hypocrisy
Who is the scab H-writer? Is this from 7 years ago?
Wow, talk about sour grapes. I don’t watch GH but I heard its awful. Days won because it deserves to win. It’s the best of the bunch.
Ron Carlivati is referring to Gary Tomlin who continued to write, ironically enough, for OLTL during the writers’ strike in 2007-2008. Perhaps Mr. Carlivati, who was OLTL’s head writer, has personal animus toward Mr. Tomlin.
But as one can see, Mr. Tomlin’s name is not on the nominee list. It is extremely bad form for Mr. Carlivati to disparage a colleague in the now too small world of American soap operas. The industry should support and celebrate each other. More importantly, DAYS deserved the win. Mr. Carlivati should have acted more gracefully and congratulated the DAYS writing team instead of being petty and whining like a sore loser on social media.
I don’t know what Ron’s problem is. The scripts he submitted were of lesser quality than DAYS’ submissions. Is that too hard for him to understand? The WGA didn’t award the honour to someone who crossed picket lines. They awarded it to the TEAM who wrote the best episode in a daytime drama for 2013.
Deal with it Ron. Your precious 50th anniversary episode, or Nurses Ball episode (whichever!) were no match for the climax to one of the hottest stories on any soap last year.
Ron Carlivati is referring to DAYS’s current co-head writer Gary Tomlin who broke ranks with the writers on strike back in 2007-2008 and served as head writer for OLTL while Carlivati was picketing. Carlivati, as many know, was OLTL’s head writer. Guess Carlivati is bitter and harboring a grudge against Tomlin even though Tomlin isn’t a listed nominee and an official winner. Sad that Carlivati can’t support his fellow writers in the industry.
So glad they won, much deserve . Go days
Just another reason for non DAYS viewers to tune in!
Day after day, Days of our Lives delivers daring daytime drama!!!
Reward yourselves with better DAYS!!!!!
Congratulations DAYS!!!
Writers Guild Award : Best Writing… “Days of OUR Lives”
Repeat! Repeat! I tell ya!
Best Serial: 2 years in a row! Emmy Winner! DOOL is ON!
cast acting + award writing = Best Soap
Days is currently the best soap…hope it keeps up…now if they could write something for Kayla, Abe, Roman, Justin and Adrienne, it could be even greater!!!
Hell! Yes!
I think it should be noted, this only the second ever WGA win for DAYS, and one of the ONLY writing awards DAYS has ever received! And it couldn’t have come for a more worthy year of entertainment!
So proud of my little soap! I’m kvelling for all its success!
Congrats to Days! Well deserved and the writing is heads and tails above the other shows.
Congratulations! Well deserved. Days is currently the best daytime drama on the air.
I’m also a fan of GH & YR. Someone needs to take RC’s twitter away until he gets some class. He’s such an ass.
Sounds like they one of the episodes they choose to summit was the episode Nick confess to Gabi he was Rape/Marlena vs. Kristian Showdown. Wonder what the other two was?
Michael, can you explain to me why not one, but two of my comments were not published? The first one was simply praising DAYS on their award- that’s it. All good things. The second was in reply to someone asking about RC’s comment. Why the censorship? What did I say in either that would constitute not showing what I’ve written?
I would appreciate a reply because I’m a little stumped here.
If I’m allowed to, I’ll say it again, I am so proud of DAYS for receiving the honour of best writing. Even though it’s based on one or two scripts, for DAYS, it is worthy of their entire year’s work of shows for 2013 because their year was nothing but go-go-go and so, so enjoyable. Congratulations to them!
all this weekend…..
perhaps the same thing happened to me….
where I thought I posted something… and it did… and later wasn’t?
the humber of posts per headline… were not matching number of posts per ????
anyway? love DOOL fans
Nevermind Michael. My apologies, I did not realize this was an issue for many. I thought it was me.
Thanks for letting me know Patrick. I wouldn’t have known about this if you didn’t comment.
I love GH and its so entertaining but Ron C’s over the top writing can get very “cartoonish” like it did in OLTL, while DOOL writing the past year has been superb and with some integrity and a ode to old school story telling..Congrats and happy to see this show getting recognition that It did not get for so many years!!!
Days of OUR Lives !!! WINS “Writers Guild Award’
Is this not indicative…. telling… with a win for writing…. and a cast that does not let up
that…. DOOL, deserves to repeat – Best Serial… 2 years in a row
yes
congrats days happy days are here again if you catch my drift I would love to see nick back with gabi again I wish to see sami die from skydiving accident I do not want a recast of sami at all
DAYS will be the #1 rated soap by the time it turns 50! DAYS is already #1 in entertainment!!!
DOOL deserved to win. It is now where GH used to be. DOOL has the family history, the creative writing, the respect to characters and their histories on the show. It knows how to connect the dots so that stories make sense.
It has ALL the things that GH no longer has.
Congrats to DOOL ..you’re proving that you’ve got what soap viewers want to see.
I’d feature your post… any time… any where
clear, simple, and to the point!
we all know… to produce a big production… day in and day out… has to be something
and…. LOL… it’s our show
I love who’s helming… who’s writing… whos casting… whos crewing….
I love that the actors do not let up… and bring their “A” game
its must see… character driven… with history….
intricately weaving… storytelling… throughout the whole cast
from top to bottom…. young and older… mix in
Congratulations
DOOL FANS – salute
keep pressing
I am extremely, extremely happy that my favorite soap, DOOL, won the WGA Award. The stories on DOOL are simply amazing. RC is so rude in calling a writer of the WGA Award winning team a S word.
congrats dool the only best soap opera ever for me to watch thank you for winning from me too all of you
sami dies on her wedding day marge gets out of jail on that same day and goes back to jail for killing sami marge goes back to jail for sami’s murder for the rest of her life while ej and abby gets married on that same day instead