Nearly every soap opera fan has gone through soap opera withdrawal at one time or another. There may have been that day that VCR didn't record properly - or the cable went out. This withdrawal isn't just something US fans have had to deal with. In Britain, Days of our Lives fans are preparing for a long, long period of withdrawal.
Last March, Sunset Beach stopped airing in the UK (Original episodes of the soap have not been made in over a year). In its place, Channel 5 began airing Days of our Lives. Now, after a little over a year, the channel has announced that it is pulling the plug on the American soap and will instead air repeats of the old Charlie's Angels series.
According to a Channel 5 spokesperson, DAYS suffered from low ratings - about 200,000 viewers. Similarly, reruns of The Wonder Years, a 1980s US sitcom, averages about 480,000 viewers. Channel 5's Saturday news program is watched by more than twice as many viewers as DAYS.
A group of DAYS fans have organized a campaign to get the network to reconsider ending DAYS' run. The group, named BUD (Bring Us DAYS), questions why the network has decided to pull the plug on DAYS completely.
In addition to lobbying Channel 5 to reconsider its decision to "cancel" DAYS, BUD is also petitioning other channels to consider picking up the show if it is indeed dropped from Channel 5.
The final airdate for Days of our Lives in the UK is April 25th.
