As previously reported, “Days of our Lives” is on hiatus now through Friday, February 18 so that NBC can broadcast the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing. Unlike the Summer Olympic games, which has routinely taken the daytime drama series off the air over the last couple of cycles, the Winter games have never caused an interruption in the show’s airing schedule until now, and that’s why head writer Ron Carlivati decided to publicly respond to viewer vitriol over the lack of any cliffhangers shown in the final episode aired before the hiatus – Thursday, February 3.
“We did not know until well after these episodes were written and taped that we would be preempted for the Winter Olympics,” Carlivati said on Twitter yesterday in response to one viewer who made claims to the contrary. The poster had stated, “They do know. That’s why these huge cliffhangers use to happen all the time. #Days has always taped months in advance and was able to deliver huge cliffhangers. It just seemed to change with the change in writers.” Earlier, the same poster commented, “#Days use to leave us with huge cliffhangers right before Olympic break. The kind where you were on the edge of your seat waiting for it to come back on. The past two have just been blah.. Come on @carlivatiron I know you can do better!” They ended the post using the hashtags “disappointed” and “nothing exciting” to emphasize their point.
With “Days of our Lives” filming six to seven months ahead of airdate at the time the episodes were taped, and still continuing to do so today, the show was not made aware of NBC’s decision on how and/or what times it would air the Olympics until after it was publicly announced in November of last year due to various factors, including COVID. Therefore, it’s clear that had the show been given more advanced notice viewers might have seen a lot more drama in the final episode aired before the break. However, this just means there will be lots of drama to come when the show returns with all-new episodes beginning Monday, February 21.