Days Of Our Lives
Dena Higley Takes Leave Of Absence From Days of our Lives Co-Head Scribe Duties!
Wednesday Daytime Confidential reported that they are hearing from multiple sources that Dena Higley has taken a leave of absence from Days of our Lives citing personal reasons.
Higley along with Josh Griffith were named the co-head writing team that would restore DAYS to prominence during its critical upcoming 50th year anniversary season.
Their stories are said to kick-off on air next week on August 19th.
Apparently, there is no date set for an imminent return of Higley, and that Sony may shift a scribe from The Young and the Restless to assist Griffith with writing the Salem canvas.
What do you think of the news that reportedly Higley had left the building for the time being? Share your thoughts below!
I think all head writers are living on the constant edge of being let go..
It is a good thing to get a ”leave of absence” it is much better than being let go..
It gives a good writer time to get a second breath and new perspectives..
writing a soap is quite stressful, it is highly demanding..
All writers after a demanding run should get 2-3 months off every 2 years..
when they return they will be ready to go!
NOT HAPPY
“angered” is the first thing that came to mind
I realize their are “people” behind the scenes
this does not bode well for the gala premiere ?
so much has been written; said, about the 50th plus anniversary
“not happy” is putting it mildly
OK this duo have written past November, 2015… just saying
all the excitement of waiting… has put an asterisk or question mark?
Boy oh boy oh boy Patrick. What a hot mess daytime soaps are in! Sighhhhh!!
I agree Patrick but after some googling and conscious thought I think DH decided that to take away the autistic characteristic of Theo after aging him just didn’t sit well with the fact that she has an autistic child and understands the ups and downs from chilhood to adult. Theo is now written as a highly functioning autistic teen which more or less means that need never be mentioned again and it had to heartbreaking for her..on that note I am sad of that development and on another i’m sort of ok with her leave..Days has a mountain to climb..and writers who can only write for hill climbers don’t need to be there..get what i mean. I know you of all people do.
@Laurie.
Hello… double on the sigh
yeah, it’s a little deflating isn’t it
especially when their are only 4 left… and all the drama “behind the scenes” is happening on “my” (our) shows… General Hospital and Days of OUR Lives
ie: General Hospital
Michael Easton: geez louise! this actor did not deserve this… but It clearly came to mind that he was being let go to make way for Rebecca Buddig’ Hayden. who gets a 4 year contract?
here’s my feel down time… for all the glorious actors who have graced our screens… damned TPTB… I”m allowed to feel this!
Ron Carliovati: changing of the guard… new head writers ! oye! fan outcries… as I’ve always done in the past…. focus on the quality of actors who share screen time.. till better scripts come along…. collectively , I still say.. DAYS of OUR Lives has the best cast as a whole.
Michael Easton: I really thought he generated intrigue with Maura West… but, could easily see why Rebecca Buddig snowballed… I have never seen a character REEL so much energies… she makes me MAD… livid.. that she lords over Nikolas and Liz… I hope these two find a way to work with her. what a threesome this could be.
– DAYS of OUR Lives –
1. New Writing Team STARTS “showing” August 20, 2015
1a. Dena Higley takes time off for personal reasons…. I am selfish enough to state that I hope … with all the hoopla going around… with the resurgence of DAYS… that she gets back in good health and the team of Higley and Pratt… carry
2. Freddie Smith. Guy Wilson simply has to go… be killed off or recast … I hope that this couple remains on the canvas… or DAYS production gets a new character for Paul.
anyway… all the summer heat, vacation, baseball… have left, my soaps in shambles… i’ve managed to keep up with GH… but… DAYS is a mess… therein… i’m going to start anew August 20th… !!!!
“Dena Higley” please come back to DAYS SOON
ie: Higley / Pratt
should be Higley / Griffith… DAYS new headwriting team
I just hope everything is okay and she returns back soon!
Josh Griffith is more than capable of writing the show alone.
ok-
What would have blown the soap away would have been the teaming of;
Pratt & Griffith — Y&R
and
Griffith & Carlivati — GH
I totally agree. I was sad to see him go at Y&R because he was never really given the chance to shine, thanks to JFP. Maybe he’ll get that chance on DAYS.
He wrote a full year of mind numbingly boring stories at Y and R. What he wrote had nothing to do with JFP. One of his Friday cliffhangers had Avery baking cupcakes!! Real enthralling drama there!! I hope everything is okay and Dena can return to work soon.
Aden..
those stories, Ava cupcake queen was written by GH’s new writers Jean and Shelly not Griffith..
Why not just have one of the other writers from Days move up in to fill in.. Melissa Salmons or the Cullitons.
That was my thinking too. Isn’t Lorraine Broderick still part of the writing team? She and Josh could do a stellar job as co-head writers.
I thought the same thing. Wasn’t Lorraine Broderick head writer for Guiding Light during it’s hey day and also head writer All My Children.
Are you seriously kidding me? She should have never been brought back and i’m sure her way of telling story..along with her ideas for story..got her shown the door again before her material even hits the air..poor DAYS cast and fans…this is going to be a total bust for the 50th and it hasn’t even started yet.
No…Poor competition!
You better preach. Not sure how a TWICE fired writer is gonna bring anything diff to the table. Thats why Ken Corday drives me crazy. The fired EP, a few years later becomes a HW. This is just bananas. I dont get Corday. He tosses people out trashes what they’ve done, then rehires them a few years later. Not sure why people keep going back.
As much as I love Matthew Ashford, I dont want to see him back cause they always end up doing wrong by him, and he clearly has no real support from Corday.
Best wishes to her, hopefully everything is okay.
Bring in Ron!
Something is fishy here. Why is Ron C. Rumored to be coming in? Dana out while they try him on for size???
Rumors always fly when things like this happen. I’m not saying there’s nothing to them, but they might be founded on absolutely nothing, too. Carlivati was part of the writing team when Griffith was headwriter at OLTL; that alone is enough to start the rumor mill cranking.
Maria Arena Bell would be perfect for Days as head writer , i would have added Kay Alden and Claire Labine too and of course i would keep Josh Griffith. Don’t know why but i feel Days needs to get back to its Bell roots . Don’t forget that the late William J Bell wrote many of Days ‘s stories in the 60’s and 70’s .
the story is a mess anyway, they hardly are keeping ratings up, they are bringing old faces to make it up to the fans who are really pissed off with the whole story line nd the marvellous actors let go for no reasons, so good Riddance Days, i dont think the soap will be renewed , its already sinking
They should just hire Ron Carlivati as head writer.
THAT would bring me back to DOOL.
No no Ron will Kill Days Of our Lives, Ron needs to go away and move to an island. Let him stay there. lol
I do hope Ron will end up somewhere, but his style is wrong for Days.
Actually, I think his best chance for working in soaps again may be that his replacements at GH will crash as badly as my instincts (and their past performance, or at least, Passanante’s past performance) tell me they will, and GH hires him back in a year or two. I think he’s wrong stylistically for Y&R and wrong for Days, and though I’ll bet he could write B&B very successfully, I don’t see Bradley Bell going anywhere.
I wish Dena well and hope whatever personal issues she is dealing with are resolved quickly so that she can resume her duties on Days.
why do they keep bringing in new actors when they don’t use the ones they have a lot more with awesome stores? we don’t see Lucas John and afew other vets Days has had for years.Now we have to deal with writers coming and going 🙁
I hope Dena is okay but I wouldn’t be upset if she’s no longer the head writer since the show wasn’t great when she was HW before.
Why not make Lorraine Broderick head writer? She was on GL and AMC and did great work on those.
For the love of God- get Ron C ASAP. Gh was dumber than dirt to lose him- but his style could be just what Sakem needs right now. His style is very similar to James E Reillly- campy but with appreciation for vet actors. I loved Ron on GH and One Life. I’m starting to think that Corday just doesn’t care about his show anymore.
Ron – please!!
More casting news from Days of Our Lives, and for now, the soap opera seems to be breaking their new additions to Salem via their Instagram account. Now comes word and picture on August 24, that General Hospital and The Young and the Restless alum Brytni Sarpy has joined DAYS!
The Peacock soap opera’s Instagram account, showed a photo of Sarpy standing in front of her dressing room in the hallways of Days of Our Lives’ studios. The caption read, “Someone new is checking into Salem… Welcome Brytni Sarpy to the Days of our Lives family! Stay tuned.”
The casting of Sarpy comes on the heels of the announcement of Sydney Malakeh coming to the show in September, and earlier this year General Hospital favorite, Sofia Mattsson (ex-Sasha Gilmore, GH) joining the show in a mystery role when she began taping back around the end of March of this year. Now Sarpy is the “mystery role” category too!
In addition, the Days of Our Lives social team dropped a video ditty of the cast spoofing Love Island, where Sarpy appears as the new “bombshell” of the villa. Other cast members such as Rob Scott Wilson (Alex), Abigail Klein (Abigail), Casey Moss (JJ), Sal Stowers (Lani), Paul Telfer (Xander) and Linsey Godfrey (Sarah) pop-up in it too, among others.
Photo: JPI
SOAP HOPPING
Soap fans first met Sarpy when she played Valerie Spencer, the niece of Luke (Anthony Geary) and Bobbie Spencer (Jackie Zeman) on General Hospital back in 2015. She made her final appearance on the series back in 2019 to join the cast of The Young and the Restless in the role of Elena Dawson.
Elena was introduced as a love interest for Devon Winters (Bryton James). She later cheated on him with his cousin Nate Hastings (Sean Dominic). Elena began to be back-burned by 2023 with Sarpy’s last on-screen appearance in Genoa City in November of 2024.
Due to Days of Our Lives nearly year in advance tape schedule, viewers will have to wait till sometime in the early summer of 2027 to see Brytni’s arrival in Salem.
So, happy to see Brytni Sarpy has landed another soap role? Now that she is at DAYS, who you think she might be playing and paired with? Put on your casting director hats and let us know via the comment section.
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Days Of Our Lives
Sydney Malakeh Joins the Cast of ‘Days of Our Lives’ in Mystery Role: Who Do You Think She’s Playing?
There’s a new gal coming to Salem, or is she new and a recast? That’s what inquiring minds from Days of Our Lives fans have been trying to figure out since the Peacock soap opera dropped an Instagram video heralding actress‘ Sydney Malakeh‘s arrival in Salem.
The soap did confirm that viewers will first see Malakeh on the September 9 episode. In the video, Malakeh is seen going set to set from her dressing room and in to the halls of Days of Our Lives studios.
What we do know id that Sydney has been acting professionally for 6 years and had appeared on Grey’s Anatomy, Apple TV’s Shrinking and the HBO Max’s The Sex Lives of College Girls.
Plenty of Malakeh’s DAYS castmates jumped into the comment thread with positive emojis symbols or written excitement including: Paul Telfer (Xander), Linsey Godfrey (Sarah), Sal Stowers (Lani), Conner Floyd (Chad), Eric Martsolf (Brady) and Christie Clark (Carrie) and more now that fans will finally see her on-air. Since Days of Our Lives tapes 10-11 months in advance, Sydney would have started taping the show sometime back in 2025.
DAYS fans think perhaps because the actress’ name is Sydney that she might be playing the grown-up daughter of Sami and EJ. That character hasn’t bee on the canvas since 2021.
So, who do you think Sydney Malakeh might be playing on Days of Our Lives? Drop your casting director thoughts via the comment section below.
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Days Of Our Lives
Peacock Hikes Subscription Rates for Fourth Time in Four Years; ‘Days of Our Lives’ Fans Sound Off
While recently the streaming service Peacock reported turning a profit for its first time since its infancy, now comes word that the company is raising their prices for all customers, and in some cases it stared today on August 18.
The news of the subscription rate increases marks the fourth time the NBCUniversal streaming platform has done so in four years. So, on August 18, Peacock is increasing the prices for new or returning subscribers and customers, while current subscribers will see the rate increase on or after September 17 depending on their billing cycle when they initially signed up.
Here is the new pricing to follow along: Peacock Premium (which includes ads) will be $12.99/month, up two dollars from $10.99; Peacock Premium Plus will be $19.99/month, up three dollars increase from $16.99; and the Peacock Select tier (which includes current and past seasons of NBC and Bravo shows but excludes movies, live sports and Peacock originals) will increase a dollar from $7.99 to $8.99/month.
Photo: JPI
SUBSCRIBERS CONTINUE TO PAY MORE ACROSS THE STREAMER LANDSCAPE
It was back in June that the streamer reported that aid subscribers were up to 48 million adding a 2 million net gain during Q2 in of 2026. The subscription price hikes are rampant now in the entertainment streaming industry where over the last two years for example, Netflix, HBO Max, Apple TV, Paramount+ have all raised their fees to consumers.
Peacock’s tier-levels feature not only Days of Our Lives, but reality hits such as The Traitors and Love Island USA, Bravo series, and a vault of Saturday Night Live, Law & Order, The Real Housewives franchise, and Below Deck episodes as well. Pecock Premium and Premium Plus subscribers have access to sports and live events, as well.
DAYS OF OUR LIVES SUBSCRIBERS HAD A FEW CHOICE WORDS FOR PEACOCK
As Days of Our Lives fans know, the soap opera moved from NBC to the streamer back in September of 2022 after 57 years on broadcast television. When the news hit X on the price increase, DAYS fans had a lot to say about it. Here are just a few of the comments below:
“I can’t believe Peacock and can’t come to a deal with Cordya to air old episodes of #Days. That alone would bring a ton of subscribers,” to If Peacock actually cared about #Days of Our Lives, gave the show the budget it needs for better sets, cameras, background actors and enough time to tell proper stories, I wouldn’t mind paying more. If the money actually showed on screen, the higher price would be worth it,” to “I will continue to pay for a Peacock subscription as long as #Days is on it, but did we know there was another price increase coming?” and more.
So, what do you think of the new price hike increase to watch Days of Our Lives and your other favorite shows and events on Peacock? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
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