Days shooting schedule (Read 368 times)

[wendylou]

I know someone mentioned that NBC did not like Days shooting so far ahead and that was a bone of contention in renewal. I also thought someone mentioned that the show was on a long break to shorten the gap between shooting and air time but does anyone know for sure if they are shortening it and if so, by how much? When would it start?

[UhSir]

Jason47's facebook post on April 4th mentions that taping is now only five months ahead instead of six.

www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=711016629040614&id=137323003076649&substory_index=0

[UhSir]

Digging into the comments, Jason has a few more interesting bits of info.

Comment:

With two weeks of no broadcast during August for the Summer Olympics, they'll be back to 5 1/2 months in no time. SMH.
April 4 at 11:44pm

Jason's reply:

Those preemptions are already taken into account though. They jumped ahead in February (over 6 months ahead) due to the 2 weeks off for the Olympics in August.
April 5 at 12:53am

More from Jason:

They started taping 7.5 episodes per week (as opposed to 5 episodes a week) in 2009. So, over the course of the past 8 years, they've just kept getting further and further ahead, even with all the extra time off. They average taping 22 episodes every 3 weeks (but not every month airs 22 episodes, some only air 19-20-21), so they creep a little further ahead as each year goes by.
April 5 at 12:55am

[wendylou]

Ugh! I thought they already were five months ahead and that's STILL way too much. I was hoping they were going to get down to something like two months or something.

[tapdancer]

They took an entire month off from filming, but they need to take some more time off and not film so many episodes at once. Since the show won't air during the Olympics, nothing should be filmed during that time. I figured when NBC said they don't want the show to shoot so far in advance, they meant they wanted a big change. Really, there's no difference between 5 and 6 months.   To please NBC, they should be slow down until they're only 1 or 2 months ahead.

[fluffysmom]

Three months would be a big improvement. It would be easier to make adjustments.

They originally began this filming schedule as a cost savings.

[mae00]

So pretty much we are expected to continue to sit through long drawn out stories with rushed endings.

[UhSir]

I've read and watched interviews of several cast members. Many times the work schedule is brought up and each time they mention how long and hard the workday is.

I understand the need to reduce costs but I think this may be the biggest factor in why the show is struggling. This schedule, over time, would have to strain not just the actors but the writers as well. The writers have to churn out stories with very little time to work the ideas and eventually they are too exhausted to think. Maybe that's why the stories are so good at the start of a writer turnover then craps out after a few months. Maybe that's why we don't see so much of the senior vets because it's just too straining.