NBC Daytime was the daytime programming block of NBC. It historically featured many soap operas, game shows, and talk shows. Its main competitors were CBS Daytime and ABC Daytime.
Game shows were discontinued from NBC Daytime's lineup in 1994 and soap operas were largely dropped in the 1980s and the 1990s. By the 2000s, NBC Daytime had been reduced to only two shows: Days of Our Lives and Passions.[1]
Passions was moved to DirecTV's 101 Network in 2007. With Days of Our Lives being the only remaining daytime program on the network's schedule, the NBC Daytime branding was discontinued entirely. In 2022, NBC ultimately announced that Days of Our Lives would move exclusively to streaming on Peacock, and be replaced by an NBC News-produced news program.[2][3]
NBC has aired more than 30 soap operas between 1949 and 2022. As of 2022, NBC no longer programs its daytime line up with traditional programming. The remaining network controlled daytime hours are programmed by NBC’s news division.
NBC ended its game show block in 1991. They briefly revived the format with three game shows in the 1993–94 season, but has not returned since. NBC now programs no game shows. Some of NBC's local stations now get their game shows via syndication. All network-based game shows since 1993 have been weekly or semi-weekly primetime game shows.
Head of writer development
| Name | Title | Years | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lin Bolen | Vice President of Daytime Programming | 1972–1976 | Served as head of writer development from 1968 to 1975. Bolen was appointed Vice President of Daytime Programming in 1972. She became the first female Vice President of Programming at a TV network and took NBC to #1 in the national Nielsen ratings. In 1975 Bolen expanded Days of Our Lives and Another World to an hour-long, which attracted new viewers and became hits with young women. Bolen cancelled the fifteen-year run of game show Concentration in early 1973 to replace it with game show Baffle, which ran one year, in order to increase ratings of younger female audiences as daytime and late-night were seen as NBC's profit center at that time, and advertisers wanted programs that attracted young women. Bolen also ended the eleven-year run of Jeopardy!, feeling its demographics were old. The show's creator and producer Merv Griffin did not wish to change the show's format making Bolen commission a new game show from Griffin, Wheel of Fortune, which debuted on January 6, 1975, and was an immediate ratings hit; Jeopardy! would later be revived in 1984. Bolen departed NBC Daytime in the spring of 1976 while it was still #1 to form her own Production Company, "Lin Bolen Productions, Inc.". |
| Fred Silverman | President of Daytime Programming | 1978–1982 | Retooled Lovers and Friends and replaced it with For Richer, For Poorer – which lasted a short while; L&F/FRFP was a replacement for the cancelled Somerset; changed the line-up consisting of three soaps, Days of Our Lives, The Doctors & Another World; expanded Another World to 90 minutes which coincided with the death of character John Randolph (Michael M. Ryan); had to cut back AW to 60 minutes (from 90 minutes) to make room for another one of Another World's spinoff shows, Texas; canceled Password Plus to make room for the relocating Search for Tomorrow, and canceled The Doctors & Texas on December 31st, 1982, right before he left NBC. |
| Earl Greenburg | Vice President of Daytime Programming | 1981–1983 | |
| Susan D. Lee | Senior Vice President of Daytime Programming | 1983–2000 | Began in 1983 while having second-in-command vice presidents working alongside of her throughout her tenure with NBC Daytime. In 1996, there was uproar when Another World killed off the character of Frankie Frame. Word had it that both Susan Lee and then-Executive Producer Jill Farren Phelps chose Frankie as the next victim in the show's stalker storyline while then-head writer Margaret DePriest ran with the idea and crafted the excessively violent murder for Frankie. |
| Brian Frons | Vice President of Daytime Programming | 1983–1991 | Under his leadership of NBC Daytime, he brought in several new game shows such as Dream House, GO!, Hit Man, Hot Potato, The Match Game – Hollywood Squares Hour, Time Machine, Your Number's Up, and Wordplay – all were canceled due to low ratings and neither lasted more than just one season. The only games that would make it pass season 1 or more were Sale of The Century (1983–1989; revival of the 1969–73 original, which also aired on NBC), Super Password (1984–1989), Classic Concentration (1987–91) and Scrabble (1984–1993). He canceled the long running daytime version of Wheel of Fortune (1975–1989). He also added a new soap opera Santa Barbara (1984–1993). He canceled Search for Tomorrow in December 1986, after it was on NBC for 4 years. Frons previously work for Search For Tomorrow, while working as the head for CBS Daytime. Frons appeared as God on Santa Barbara in a dream sequence involving Mason Capwell (Lane Davies). He helped Santa Barbara garner three daytime emmys for best drama series and brought the short-lived soap Generations (1989–1991). |
| John Rohrbeck | Vice President of Daytime Programming | 1991–1996 | Gave Another World another shot to improve ratings and offered them an extension on their contract and instead first, Generations was canceled in 1991 and then Santa Barbara, 2 years later in 1993. |
| Don Ohlmeyer | Vice President of Daytime Programming | 1996–1999 | Brought soap opera Sunset Beach, canceled Another World and replaced it with Passions in July 1999. |
| Sheraton Kalouria | Vice President of Daytime Programming | 2000–2005 | Appointed in the spring of 2000 to replace outgoing longtime Senior Vice President Susan Lee. Kalouria had previously worked on ABC Daytime as Vice President of marketing and promotion of daytime since 1998. Kalouria new job with NBC Daytime was to head development and strategic planning for Days of Our Lives and Passions. |
| Jeff Zucker | President of Daytime Programming | 2000–2007 | Canceled the soap Passions and sent it to Direct TV's 101 Channel in 2007. Made a statement about Days of Our Lives in 2007 that the show would most likely not "continue past 2009". |
| Annamarie Kostura | Vice President of Daytime Programming | 200?–2007 | Still in the position by June 2007 |
| Bruce Evans | Senior Vice President of Daytime Programming | 2007–2021 | Promoted to Senior Vice President on Monday, February 4, 2007. Mr. Evans had already been working at NBC in different positions for several years by the time of his promotion. Mr. Evans previously served as Vice President, Current Series, since July 2000. Among the shows he oversaw included Heroes, Law & Order, Medium, Crossing Jordan, and Just Shoot Me. He served as a Director of Primetime series since July 1998 and a manager of Primetime since August 1997. In August 1996, he began his program executive career at NBC as an Entertainment Associate after his job as a coordinator in the same department. In his new position, Evans handles many of NBC's current series as well as having responsibility as head of the daytime programming that is included under Current Series, while also serving as a liaison for Paula Madison, Executive Vice President, Diversity, NBC Universal & Company Officer, General Electric, and her staff as they look to increase diversity in front of as well as behind the camera on NBC's shows. At the time of his promotion, NBC was a month away from deciding on whether to keep or drop Days of Our Lives, however the opportunity was seen as the ticket to installing new life in the show. Days was renewed and remains on air to date while Evans decided to cancel lowest rated soap Passions. As part of a content restructure, Bruce Evans was let go from NBC in February 2021.[5] The daytime division was folded into current programming under the supervision of Jeff Meyerson, President of Scripted Content. |