Days of Our Lives is getting another shakeup — this time due to the exit of head writer Ron Carlivati.
After seven years with the Peacock soap opera, Carlivati, 55, is out as head writer, Deadline reported on Friday, July 19. He is being replaced by Paula Cwikly and Jeanne Marie Ford, effective immediately.
“We look forward to approaching our 60th anniversary next year with Paula and Jeanne Marie at the helm and fresh, exciting stories that we know the fans will embrace,” executive producer Ken Corday told the outlet.
While Cwikly, 63, and Ford, 53, are now at the helm of the soap, episodes written by Carlivati will continue to air through April 2025.
“We wish Ron nothing but the best,” Corday added. “And thank him for his dedication and the respect he has shown to me, the cast, and the show’s legacy.”
Carlivati became the head writer for Days in 2017, five years before the series moved from NBC to Peacock. During his time with the show, Carlivati was also the head writer for the miniseries Days of Our Lives’ Last Blast Reunion. He also wrote and developed 2021’s Days of Our Lives: A Very Salem Christmas and the miniseries Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem.
The soap scribe previously wrote for One Life to Live from 1998 to 2012 and General Hospital from 2011 to 2015.
Carlivati’s replacement Cwikly was an associate head writer on Sunset Beach in 1999 and on Days of Our Lives from 2000 to 2003. She then worked for As the World Turns from 2004 to 2006 and The Young and the Restless from 2006 to 2013.
Ford also has a background in soaps, working as a script writer and writer for As the World Turns and One Life to Live before joining the Days of Our Lives team in 1999. She worked her way up from writer to associate head writer in 2022.
Carlivati’s exit is the latest shakeup on the soap, following a shocking cast change last fall. During the credits for an October 2023 episode, Peacock announced that Emily O’Brien would be taking over Jen Lilley’s role as Theresa Donovan for the remainder of the season.
O’Brien, 39, previously portrayed Days’ Gwen Rizczech (now von Leuschner) starting in 2020. Lilley, also 39, starred on and off as Theresa beginning in 2013.
Lilley revealed in August 2023 that she learned she was being replaced while on set. “Top to bottom, it was just not handled the right way,” she told Soaps.com at the time. “Everybody was mad because everybody was kind of lied to.”
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The actress insisted she had “no hard feelings” toward O’Brien, but was upset that after agreeing to a 12-week arc done in four weeks the rug was pulled out from under her.
Earlier this year, the Days family suffered another loss when Bill Hayes died in January at the age of 98. The late actor played Doug Williams from 1970 until his death. His final episode aired in July, six months after his passing.
New episodes of Days of Our Lives drop on Peacock every weekday morning at 6 a.m. ET.
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