How To Watch Days Of Our Lives Now That It's No Longer Airing On NBC
American soap opera television is known for sprawling casts, shocking and drama-filled moments, and usually exceptionally long runs. "Days of Our Lives" is one such television show, and it has been on the air for a staggering 57 years, so it is soon able to retire and collect Social Security payments. Making its debut in 1965, "Days of Our Lives" has well over 14,000 episodes, which means that if one has never heard of the show, they'll have plenty to stream for an exceptionally long time.
Considering how long "Days of Our Lives" has been on television, the show has gone through several shakeups in terms of format and cast as it adapts to current entertainment standards. As noted by Click Americana, in 1975 the show moved from a half-hour to an hour-long time slot for its daily episodes, which was a decision made by the overwhelming popularity of the series. This was a bold move on behalf of NBC since soap operas were generally around 15 minutes long in the 1950s, and even when they expanded to half an hour long in the 1960s, people were unsure what the results would be. However, "Days of Our Lives" has recently undergone a new shift in direction in terms of where viewers can watch the long-running show. So where must fans turn to now?
Days of Our Lives has moved to Peacock exclusively
According to the New York Times, "Days of Our Lives" will no longer be watchable on the normal NBC network channel, and instead, the show will only be accessible on NBC's streaming service, Peacock. Unfortunately, a free Peacock account will not be able to watch the show, so fans will need to pony up for at least the ad-supported version. Chairman of NBCUniversal Streaming and Television Mark Lazarus said of the decision, "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." The publication went on to note that "Days of Our Lives" has already been renewed through 2023.
However, the move to Peacock may actually prove to be a tremendous boon for long-time fans of the show, as Soap Opera Digest interviewed executive producer Ken Corday and he said that the shift to Peacock will actually afford the show more official screen time, considering that the show usually has around 22 minutes of commercial breaks on daytime television. On Peacock, even the ad-supported version only has four minutes of commercials, which will give the show much more time to tell its stories, while also not being confined by a rigid time frame. Peacock's website shows that the ad-supported version of the service costs $4.99 a month, which is the bare minimum one would need to watch the "Days of Our Lives," while the commercial-free version is $9.99 a month.