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Mouths around the soap world collectively dropped this weekend as the \nunthinkable happened. The recently-renewed Days of Our Lives, fired its biggest \nsupercouple Deidre Hall (Dr. Marlena Evans) and Drake Hogestyn (John Black). In \nthis special episode of the DC podcast Luke, Mike and Jamey invite veteran soap \njournalist Nelson Branco (TV Guide Canada's The Suds Report) and former Days \nwriter Tom Casiello to weigh in from the perspective of industry \ninsiders.

Reactions to the shocking news are gauged from the panel, \nincluding: Branco, who reveals Days of Our Lives was the first soap he ever \nwatched and how he first fell in love with the ravishing Hall even before \ndiscovering Andrea Evans and One Life to Live; and Casiello, who during his last \nfew months on the soap before the Writers' Strike, was part of a team under \nHogan Sheffer that was forced to script out the soap's "Big Four" (Hall, \nHogestyn, Kristian Alfonso and Peter Reckell) due to their reported astronomical \nsalaries and ultimately made the decision to kill of the wildly-popular \ncharacter of John Black\u2014 since they were prohibited from using Hogestyn\u2014 only to \nsee executive producer Ken Corday panic about fan response and order them to \nbring the character and actor back.

The DC gang also give their \nperspective based on their varying histories with the show. Jamey, who has been \nwatching the show for the better part of three decades, reveals his dismay that \nlower level stars like Molly Burnett, Shelly Hennig, Josh Taylor, Thaao \nPenghlis, Leanne Hunley and Shawn Christian weren't cut first before the show \neven considered touching the Big Four; Mike, who watched in the early 80's and \nonly recently tuned back in, conveys he still can't believe the show hired Josh \nTaylor, who once played Roman and Marlena's pal Chris Kositchek as a recast for \nWayne Northrop's Roman, with Branco adding that move was a "Jump The Shark" \nmoment for him as well before noting that Taylor is good friends with Corday; \nLuke, who has watched Days sine the 90's, speculates the brass could be moving \nto strategically weed out most of the show's veteran performers to repackage \nDays for an eventual sale to ABC or SOAPnet.

The discussion then moves to \nwhat this means for the future of Days of Our Lives and the genre as a whole. If \nan international superstar like Hall isn't safe, who could be next? Reckell? \nAlfonso? Sweeney? Taking it a step further, will other soaps start to think \ntheir top stars are expendable? Could we see a day when the headline is "Susan \nLucci Out", or "Eric Braeden Axed"? This is an episode of Daytime Confidential \nyou don't want to miss.