Breaking News! NBC Renews Passions
Soap fans who feared that Passions was "on the bubble" need fear no more. NBC has officially renewed the camptastic supernatural sudser for an eighth season. This means Passions is confirmed to stay on the air at least through July 2007!
"Passions continues to attract a loyal fan base as well as a youthful audience that appreciates its wildly inventive story lines," NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly said in a statement. "We are glad to continue our creative relationship with the show as a reflection of our commitment to daytime programming."
Passions creator James E. Reilly — who also writes Days of our Lives — will stay on as head writer and consulting producer, and Lisa de Cazotte will remain executive producer. "Jim and Lisa are a winning combination," stated NBC Daytime president Annamarie Kostura. "Their enthusiasm and love of the genre has created fun, fresh storytelling and we're thrilled to continue our relationship with them for what promises to be another imaginative season."
So that's the good news, kids. The bad news is that NBC required Passions to do some serious financial belt-tightening in order to stay afloat for a Season 8. Sources tell TVGuide.com that the soap had to slash its budget by as much as $5 million. As a result, nearly two dozen behind-the-scenes staffers were laid off. How the Passions cast roster will be affected still remains to be seen. An NBC spokesperson declined to comment on the soap's financial situation.
Unfortunately, this sort of money crunch isn't unusual in these leaner, meaner days in daytime TV. Last year CBS's Guiding Light was forced to move to a more afforable studio space — putting union crew members out of work — in addition to bumping some of its actors off contract and asking others to take paycuts.
But this Pollyanna prefers not get too bogged down in the business stuff. The bright side is that our soaps are staying on the air. Layoffs and lower budgets are always lousy, but that's far better than seeing a fabulous sudser like Passions cancelled altogether, right?
Looks like thye had to cutt off $5 million of budget. So they let some workers go. And most likely going to have to let some cast members go.
Hopefully the meaningless characters *cough * *Chad* *cough* *Rachel* *cough*
that sucks with the laying off. its never cool for ppl to lose their jobs.
still...HAHA passions! im sorry but the show deserves something negative after the crappy job theyve been doing.
Hell, they can keep Divins. I say fire Brook, or let her walk away. Selfishly, I'm glad she gets a check and knowing that I can see her now and then if I flip to Passions is comforting. But not at the expense of her staying on this show. Drastic measures need to be taken at some point. If they are happy having the likes of Divins, Stewart, Mueller and the rest of the Can't Act Kids, then vets and the ACTUAL young talent on the show are gonna bounce, and that's just fine by me. The show sucks, it needs a big shakeup. And I DON'T mean another natural disaster or pointless and obvious "mystery"