Excerpt: This day and age of our failing economy, shifts in viewing habits of the daytime audience, and advertisers pulling dollars from the revenue stream pie, can only mean financial cuts for the soaps. Sounds like Days is caught in the quagmire. Heavy hitters and long time vets like Hall and Hogestyn command very healthy salaries. Eliminating those characters from the storyline immediately saves the show much moolah.

But we think it's not only that. With the relatively new writing team under Dena Higley, Days has been focusing a lot of storytelling of late on a bunch of younger characters like Nick (Blake Berris), Max (Darin Brooks), Melanie (Molly Burnett), Stephanie (Shelley Henning) and Chelsea (Rachel Melvin). This newer, younger talent is not commanding the high salaries of the long-timers, and the storytelling potential is virtually unlimited with these new faces. The show gets twice the bang for its buck.