‘Days of Our Lives’ Odds & Ends: Dan Feuerriegel Talks Playing Papa, Susan Seaforth Hayes Talks Doug’s Possible Dementia
This week’s Days of Our Lives odds & ends news roundup focuses, first, on this week’s soap opera ratings. Did Days beat out all the other soaps? Plus Dan Feuerriegel talks about playing a father on the show. And Susan Seaforth Hayes opens up about Doug’s possible dementia.
How did ‘Days of Our Lives’ do in the ratings?
Soap Opera Network has a round-up of all of the soap opera ratings for the week of Sept. 20-24. And Days of Our Lives, unfortunately, came in dead last in the ratings. The Young and the Restless was in the top spot, followed by The Bold and the Beautiful. General Hospital held solid at No. 3 in the ratings.
For what it’s worth, Days had 1.6 million viewers that week. That’s the same amount of viewers as last week, but more than 20,000 fewer viewers than this time last year. It took its biggest hit in viewers amongst women ages 25 to 54, though, with the outlet reporting that DOOL received a .12 lower rating amongst that demographic. It also performed at its best on Monday and Wednesday, and at its worst on Friday.
Dan Feuerriegel talks about playing a proud papa of a grown man
In an exclusive interview with SoapHub, Days of Our Lives star Dan Feuerriegel — who plays EJ — opened up about playing a “proud papa” of a grown man. The actor, himself, is 39 years old, while his son Johnny DiMera is 20-something. It seems like a bit of an impossibility, at best, but Feuerriegel says it’s pretty neat, too.
“I was like, ‘How old am I? And I would have had to have been what age to have had this son?’” he said to the outlet. “Personally, it’s weird for me to have a son, but it’s been really cool.”
He also went on to describe how his storyline with Sami (who is currently off the canvas) has allowed him to explore other parts of the character. “Here’s another element that comes along that EJ can be controlling of, while he’s dealing with his hurt. It was really good as well, because [Carson and I are] both coming onto the show as recasts. So we’re both discovering things and exploring things together as new people on a show. I’m really loving the relationship and storyline that they’ve created with EJ and Johnny. There are some fun things coming up,” he said.
The legendary Susan Seaforth Hayes has an intimate chat about Doug’s possible dementia
For Days of Our Lives veteran Susan Seaforth Hayes, the storyline about Doug’s dementia hit close to home.
“Her initial reaction is denial,” she said to Soap Opera Digest. “Denial, denial, denial. He doesn’t have dementia. Her initial experience is, ‘I refuse to believe that that’s happening to him,’ which is where you start but not necessarily where you finish. And of course, being an older person married to an older person, you have that fear and that frenzy. You’re not just denying that someone has dementia or may be slipping, what you’re denying is it can’t be over, the love story can’t be over.”
But despite the heartache she feels with the storyline, Hayes said she’s lucky to continue working on Days of Our Lives. “It’s emotionally gratifying, it’s physically challenging, it’s part of being alive and being an actor and being lucky enough to still work at 78 and 96,” she said.
