Post by RickPost by hobbesPost by RickSounds a bit similar to why Kristian is leaving...
https://tvline.com/2020/08/08/greg-vaughan-leaving-days-of-our-lives-eric-nbc/
The other day and yesterday I read on another board they were talking about
his exit interview in the latest issue of SOD - he said that he hasn’t
filmed since November, don’t know why he said that because he actually has
filmed since November. There are some Eric spoilers for the next two
weeks. Last month TV Line said his final episode is in late September
(After Rafe, Will and Sonny leaving). Eric has always been a supporting
character for years. Not to mention Greg Vaughan won An Emmy award for
Supporting Actor two years ago.
I remember reading somewhere that back in February at a fan event Jacob
Young said he was in talk with the show, I wonder if it was for a recast
Eric? The actors both played Lucky Spencer on GH years ago.
I don't think Greg has a problem being a supporting actor. As you point
out, he has won an Emmy for his performance as Eric and he has gotten
widespread recognition for his acting skills. I've said more than once I
think he is one of the better male actors on the show. But the quote in
the
article was that he now feels like a glorified extra, which is a step or two
below even supporting actor. I don't disagree with that assessment. I
liked the pairing of him and Sarah because she was a new character on the
show and was played very nicely by Linsey, and the two had great chemistry
together. Putting him back with Nicole again just seemed so stale and
boring, and I couldn't get into it. With his experience and skills, I'm
sure he will latch onto another soap role or more prime-time work.
--
Post by hobbesAn extra in everyone else’s storyline is a supporting character. Jack
and Jen have been in everyone else’s storyline lately either. Jack and
Jen fans are complaining about not getting JnJ’s storyline so long. I
found the Eric-Sarah pairing so boring as the Eric-Jen pairing was. I
still find the Xander-Sarah pairing more interesting and fun since they
met each other for the first time as I saw their great chemistry.
Putting Eric back with Nicole is because of lots of fans wanting. A few
years ago I saw the poll results on SOD, the Eric-Nicole pairing got more
votes than the Brady-Nicole pairing. I was so glad that she dumped Brady
for EJ, then now dumped Brady again for Eric. I found the Brady-Nicole
pairing so boring, in bed all the time.
Last month I read on Soap Central news that Greg is back to “Queen Sugar”.
Jack and Jen (but especially Jen) have been glorified extras for a while.
Jen hasn't really had a good meaty plot line since, I don't know, the organ
transplant story? She did have that pain pill addiction arc, but that
wasn't too interesting. And I never cared at all about her conflicts with
Eve. I really liked Jen 20 years ago when she was going on adventures with
Jack, but she really hasn't done much of interest since then. As for Jack,
the most interesting thing to me is that, as far as I can tell (and I could
be wrong about this), they have still not really explained how he was able
to survive an elevator crashing to the ground from several stories up.
The SOD polls are interesting, but remember that the number of people that
respond to those kind of polls is still a very small percentage of the total
number of actual viewers of the show. Even if 10,000 people were to
respond to a poll, that's still less than 1% of the total number of viewers.
I wonder how big an impact those kind of surveys really have on the show's
direction. The bottom line is that ratings have continued to drop
consistently over the years (as they have for other soaps), and the show's
budget is lower than it's ever been.
Despite Jack not having a story line of his own, he often provides some comic relief or at least levity. Jen IMO is simply "blah" except when paired with Jack and I think that's mostly due to playing off of Matthew Ashford. It also doesn't help that the portrayal of Jennifer has largely been one-dimensional for the longest time. Besides the pill addiction story, when was the last time she was shown flawed, acting out of the "goody two-shoes" character, etc. Even when facing off against someone like Eve, Jennifer is still the same at heart,