Days of Our Lives Moves From NBC to Peacock After Almost 6 Decades

By Mollie Cahillane 

NBC is washing its hands of soap opera Days of Our Lives.

The broadcast network is officially out of the genre, moving the long-running series Days of Our Lives to streaming service Peacock exclusively.

“This programming shift benefits both Peacock and NBC and is reflective of our broader strategy to utilize our portfolio to maximize reach and strengthen engagement with viewers,” said Mark Lazarus, chairman, NBCUniversal television and streaming, in a statement. “With a large percentage of the Days of Our Lives audience already watching digitally, this move enables us to build the show’s loyal fanbase on streaming while simultaneously bolstering the network daytime offering with an urgent, live programming opportunity for partners and consumers.”

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The move ends Days’ 57-year run on broadcast television and symbolizes NBC’s exit from the soap opera genre.

Days of Our Lives lands on Peacock on Sept. 12, and the broadcast network will launch NBC News Daily in the drama’s former network timeslot instead. The hour-long program will be helmed by journalists including Kate Snow, Aaron Gilchrist, Vicky Nguyen and Morgan Radford and streamed simultaneously on NBC News Now and Peacock.

The shift comes as other major titles have also moved exclusively to streaming. For example, ABC’s Dancing With the Stars headed to Disney+ after 16 years on the broadcast network, and Fox gave up Thursday Night Football exclusively to Prime Video beginning this fall.

But the decision to shift Days to Peacock is an interesting one. The streamer tested the (soapy) waters last year with the spin-off Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem. It evidently found enough interest to make the bigger leap, with parent company NBCUniversal likely hoping the show’s dedicated fanbase will follow it to Peacock.

After shifting its focus to the paid tier instead of its free one, Peacock stayed flat at 13 million paid subscribers last quarter—the same number it reported following the first quarter.

But it did see a dip in its monthly active accounts, dropping a million down to 27 million. That’s still up from the 24.5 million the company reported in January. Maybe with NBC forgoing the sudser, Peacock can get a fresh start.

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