Passions is an American television
soap opera created by writer
James E. Reilly. Produced by
NBC Studios, the series debuted July
5, 1999, on
NBC (replacing
Another World), and its final
airdate on that network was September 7, 2007. The
direct broadcast satellite
service
DirecTV picked up the series with
new episodes airing on DirecTV-exclusive channel
The 101 starting September 17, 2007. In
December 2007, DirecTV decided not to renew its contract for the
series, and the studio was unable to sell the show elsewhere. The
final episode aired on DirecTV on August 7, 2008.
Passions recap (8/7/08) - SoapOperaDigest.com
Passions: After 10 Years, the Supernatural
Soap Ends, part one
Passions follows the various
romantic and paranormal adventures of the residents of Harmony, a fictional New England
hamlet. Storylines center around the
interactions among members of its multi-racial core families — the
African American Russells,
Caucasian Cranes
and
Bennetts, and half-Mexican
half-Irish
Lopez-Fitzgeralds
— as well as the
supernatural including
town witch
Tabitha Lenox.
During its NBC run,
Passions ran for 60 minutes every
weekday (excluding some holidays). After the move to DirecTV, the
schedule was shortened to four days a week (Monday through
Thursday) plus weekend marathon encores, then later three days a
week (Monday through Wednesday) starting in January 2008 until the
finale. The series was also available via online paid subscription
from NBC within the United States and on the paid cable
Super Channel in Canada.
Series history
Passions debuted in 1999 with major fanfare. Creator
Reilly had been credited for a large surge in the ratings for
Days of our Lives years
before, thanks to innovative storylines like that of heroine
Dr. Marlena Evans being
possessed by
Satan
that drew new viewers, but also tended to alienate stalwart fans.
With
Passions, Reilly was able to start with a blank slate
and no pre-existing fan base to please.
Original cast of
Passions
In the early days of the show,
Passions heroine
Sheridan Crane is identified as a close
friend of the late
Diana,
Princess of Wales; soon Sheridan recalls speaking to Diana on
the phone immediately prior to the 1997 car accident which took the
Princess' life. Sheridan also has a similar accident in the same
Paris tunnel, and speaks to a "guardian Angel Diana" who urges her
to fight to survive, which drew considerable controversy. Sheridan
later adopts the name Diana after a boating accident that results
in
amnesia.
The opening days of the show also introduced the
Gwen/
Theresa/
Ethan love triangle that persisted as an
ongoing main storyline to the very last episode of the
series.
For much of the first three to four years of the series,
supernatural elements such as
witches,
warlocks and closet doors leading to
Hell were major plot points, many surrounding
the machinations of the centuries-old witch
Tabitha Lenox and her doll-brought-to-life
sidekick,
Timmy — named by
Entertainment Weekly as one of
their "17 Great Soap
Supercouples" in
2008. In 2001,
HarperEntertainment released
Hidden Passions, a
tie-in novelization
presented as Tabitha's diary, exposing the secrets and pasts of the
town's residents.
Passions featured a storyline involving
Tabitha and Timmy promoting the book, which reached #4 on the
real-life
New York
Times Best Seller list and garnered the series two
alternate covers of
TV Guide in
July 2001.
In 2003,
Passions submitted a trained
orangutan named BamBam, who had been portraying
the recurring role of
Precious, for a
Daytime Emmy Award. Precious was the
non-speaking live-in nurse and caregiver for elderly
Edna Wallace, and held an unrequited love for
Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald, which
was depicted in elaborate fantasy sequences. In early 2004, the
National
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which administers the
awards, disallowed the entry with the following statement:
Our ruling is based on the belief that the Academy
must draw a line of distinction between animal characters that
aren't capable of speaking parts and human actors whose personal
interpretation in character portrayal creates nuance and audience
engagement that uniquely qualifies those performers for
consideration of television's highest honor.
During the summer of 2005, the prominent character
Simone Russell came out as a
lesbian;
Passions made daytime history
by being the first serial to show two women — Simone and love
interest
Rae Thomas — in bed making love.
In 2007, it was revealed that longtime hero
Chad Harris-Crane was cheating on his wife
with another man. This was also a daytime first, with the men
portrayed in bed together.
Passions also broke new ground
in 2007 with its portrayal of
Vincent as an
intersexual who becomes pregnant with his own
father's son.
Nearly seven years after the debut of
Passions on July 5,
1999, the NBC-owned
Sci
Fi Channel began airing the series from its first episode
starting February 13, 2006; the reruns had originally been
announced to begin on February 6. Due to low ratings, the reruns
were taken off the air as of May 25, 2006. On August 15, 2006,
Passions became the first daytime drama to make full
episodes available for download and purchase from the
online music store iTunes. On November 6, 2006, the show also
became the first daytime drama to make full episodes available for
free viewing via
streaming on
NBC.com.
Though plagued since its inception by low overall
Nielsen Ratings,
Passions was
historically top-rated in key
demographics. The series was not renewed by NBC
for a full ninth season in 2007 as a result of the network's
decision to extend its
morning news
and talk show Today
to a fourth hour.
Satellite
provider DirecTV soon picked up
Passions, with most
principal cast members staying on. The series ended its NBC run on
September 7, 2007, and new episodes began airing on DirecTV's
original-programming channel The 101 on September 17, 2007, making
Passions both the first soap opera broadcast on a direct
broadcast satellite service and the first series to make such a
transition from broadcast television. The series ran Monday to
Thursday at 2 pm
ET/11 am
PT, with repeats airing later in the day
and on weekends. Although
NBC.com continued
to cover the series' official website with features, video clips of
each episode aired, updating news, and products relating to
Passions once the series left NBC and had moved to
DirecTV, initially new episodes were no longer available for free
viewing on
Passions official website at NBC.com or for
purchase at iTunes.com since NBC sold complete broadcasting rights
to DirecTV. Very soon on September 27, 2007, DirecTV announced they
would make new episodes of
Passions available online on
the official
Passions website at NBC.com for a monthly
fee. This service began on October 1, 2007 for $19.99 a month then
reduced to $14.99 a month when
Passions' schedule was cut
from four episodes a week to three episodes a week.
On December 10, 2007,
Variety magazine and various cast
members confirmed that DirecTV had decided not to renew
Passions for another season, but ordered 52 additional
episodes to be taped through March 2008. New episodes of the series
were broadcast until August 7, 2008, with DirecTV airing three new
episodes per week starting January 2008.
Universal Media Studios wrapped up
production of
Passions on March 28, 2008. The cast and
crew were told at the wrap party that efforts to find a new outlet
had failed and that the cancellation was final. Cast member
McKenzie Westmore confirmed the news. Though
Passions had
been the highest-rated original program on DirecTV's
The 101, it was reported that the network had failed
to meet the projected number of new subscribers they had hoped to
attract with the series.
Trademarks
Pop culture homages
Over its run,
Passions featured several storylines and
sequences paying homage to or parodying films, books, and musicals
like
Gone with the
Wind,
Titanic,
Brokeback Mountain,
Pirates
of the Caribbean,
The Wizard of Oz,
The Da Vinci Code,
The Little
Mermaid, and
Wicked. A 2003 fantasy sequence
imitated the "
Cell Block Tango" number
from the 2002 film
Chicago;
Passions version
of the song, "I Ain't Sorry," received a
2004 Daytime Emmy Award for
Outstanding Original Song.
A 2006
Bollywood homage featured the song
"Love is Ecstasy," which earned the show another Daytime Emmy for
Outstanding Original Song and was made available on the NBC
website. In nods to
Bewitched,
the series' "
Dr. Bombay" twice appeared
on
Passions in scenes with Tabitha (not to be confused
with
Bewitched 's own Tabitha Stevens). When
Passions' Tabitha has a child in 2003, she names the baby
"
Endora" which was Tabitha's
grandmother's name, and later notes that her parents had been
"Samantha" and a mortal named "Darrin."
Dream sequences and flashbacks
One of
Passions' most notorious trademarks is the false
"dream sequence" or fakeout. Often, the show will play out an
outlandish event, or explode a huge secret viewers have long been
waiting to see, only to reveal it to be a daydream. This dream
sequence can last anywhere from a few scenes to a few episodes,
typically beginning without warning. On
Passions, often a
dream sequence will begin with no visual cues of any sort what so
ever, often going as far as to include contradictory elements to
give the dream sequence credence. (For instance, another character
may show up within the dream wearing an outfit, or revealing
information that the daydreamer had no possible way of knowing
about beforehand.) While a veteran viewer can usually spot a fake
dream sequence once it has neared its climax, the fake dream
sequence tends to cause confusion amongst the more casual viewer
who may not get to catch the revelation that it was all a
dream.
Characters on the show have flashbacks to earlier events quite
often, so much so that a significant portion of an episode may be
repeated scenes.
Roman Catholicism
Father Lonigan officiating at the
double wedding of Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald and Sheridan Crane Boothe,
and Ethan Winthrop and Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald Crane at St.
Margaret Mary's Catholic Church
Roman Catholicism and its
principles figure greatly into the show's themes. Several
characters, including Grace Bennett and Pilar Lopez-Fitzgerald, are
portrayed as being particularly devout Catholics, often praying
with a
rosary.
Father Lonigan, the blind priest, has the
ability to sense evil, causing lots of trouble for Tabitha over the
years. Many theological debates on the importance of Catholic
marriage vows have arisen over the years as well, as various
characters attempt to divorce or remarry.
Fate and destined couples
Another trademark of the serial is its pre-occupation with the
concepts of
fate and
soulmates. For the run of the series, the show
established a few couples as "fated", and, with few short-lived
exceptions, never mixed up any of the relationships. Some of the
early "fated" couples were considered to be those of Luis and
Sheridan, Ethan and Theresa, Miguel and Charity, and Chad and
Whitney. Common indications of a couple's status as "fated" include
(but are not necessarily limited to) Tabitha's desire to split said
couple up, an unshakeable love that survives numerous break-ups and
relationships with third parties, and/or an ability of one
character, or perhaps both characters, to "sense" when his/her
"soulmate" is in danger, as well as having shared past lives
together in the case of Luis and Sheridan. However, despite the
fact that each of these couples has existed as a storyline since
the first episodes, the show seems to have given up on the "fated"
angle as it approached its end. Ethan and Theresa are still in love
and marry in the final episode, but Miguel is now in love with and
marries Kay (not Charity), Luis falls in love with and marries
Fancy while Sheridan's formerly presumed dead husband Antonio
returns to Harmony alive and well. Whitney recently left Chad after
finding out about his affair with Vincent. Chad later was shot dead
by his father, Alistair.
Summertime extravaganzas
Likely due to
Passions' school-aged target audience, the
show often cooks up large, wild storylines for the summer, which
often, but not always, take place in a city outside of Harmony.
In 1999, a
carnival came to town as characters were introduced; 2000 saw Luis
and Sheridan traveling to New Mexico
in search of his then-missing father, Martin
Fitzgerald, and 2001 witnessed the failed double-wedding of popular
couples Luis and
Sheridan and Ethan and Theresa, and their subsequent journey to
Bermuda
, where Sheridan apparently perished in a boat
explosion and Theresa wound up married to Ethan's ex-stepfather,
Julian Crane. In 2002, Julian and Timmy set out on a journey
in the magical land of
Oz
as Theresa was "executed" for Julian's "murder"; 2003 saw six
characters (Chad, Whitney, Fox, Theresa, Ethan, and Gwen) travel to
Los Angeles for the summer (and into October), while, in 2004, Luis
and Sheridan traveled to Puerto Arena, Mexico, to retrieve his
younger sister, Paloma (and ended up finding his missing father,
Martin, and her "dead" mother, Katherine). The plot of the summer
in 2005 was a deadly
earthquake and
tsunami, which destroyed much of Harmony and
resulted in the death of James' mother, Maureen, while 2006 saw the
extravagant
Passions Vendetta plot, in which Alistair
lured seventeen people (Whitney, Simone, Paloma, Chad, Ethan,
Theresa, Gwen, Lena, Spike, Jessica, Maya, Noah, Esme, Fancy, Luis,
Beth, and Marty) to Rome, where he planned to take over the world
with a
chalice stolen from the
Pope's private chambers; the plot saw the death
of Lena, Maya, Alistair, Beth, and Marty.
Summer 2007 saw the resolution of the "blackmailer" storyline as
Vincent Clarkson was revealed to be
the half-man/half-woman blackmailer, and
Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald was saved from
execution for Vincent's crimes by Endora's spell that turned back
time in the execution chamber. In 2008, the show spent its final
summer on the air wrapping up its plotlines at a rapid pace, with
Alistair Crane being killed once and for all, the final showdowns
between the main characters and the newly introduced villains Viki,
Juanita, Pretty, and Vincent, the Tabitha's redemption as a born
again Christian who sacrifices her powers to save the residents of
Harmony, the return of Antonio and his reunion with Sheridan, the
mass weddings of Fancy and Luis, Paloma and Noah, Miguel and Kay,
and Edna and Norma (the first gay couple ever to go down the aisle
on a soap opera), and Gwen and Rebecca being exposed for their
crimes as Theresa and Ethan finally married, once and for
all.
Sexual violence
Another recurring theme on
Passions is
sexual violence. Many storylines, especially
since 2005, have included
rape as a plot
point.
In 2005, so many plotlines came to involve an element of rape that
fans began to refer to that year as the "Year of the Rapes". Early
that year,
Paloma
Lopez-Fitzgerald was sexually assaulted and nearly raped during
a club raid. The show then carried a plotline over whether they
should do a rape test while Paloma was in a coma (at the time she
was a virgin) and
Jessica Bennett
was also raped a few weeks later while at a club. Also early in the
year,
Alistair Crane repeatedly raped
his wife,
Katherine Crane, while at
the Crane Compound.
Late in May, heiress Fancy Crane was nearly raped by a man in
Las
Vegas
who demanded "payment" for letting her into a party
after she lost her invitation. During the tsunami and later
in November,
Liz Sanbourne attempted
to rape
Julian Crane at knifepoint. In
August,
Theresa
Lopez-Fitzgerald was raped by
Alistair Crane when she refused to pay him
(with sex) for helping her with visitation of her infant daughter,
Jane; Theresa later married Alistair, and he continued to rape her
throughout their marriage. Also in August or September,
Kay Bennett was attacked by a gang of men while
walking through the park at night, though
Fox
Crane soon arrived and the two defeated the group.
Liz Sanbourne also revealed during the tsunami
that
Julian Crane had raped her in
Boston many years previously (she later revealed that it had been
Alistair who had done the deed, thus producing a son,
Chad Harris-Crane).
The most prominent rape storyline began in December 2006, when
Crane heiress and police cadet
Fancy
Crane was raped during a
sting
operation designed to catch a
peeping
tom. The brutal attack left Fancy in a brief coma and
emotionally traumatized the young woman. Fancy was also the show's
first rape victim to visibly experience prolonged
effects; her bubbly demeanor
disappeared, and she became extremely nervous and could not stand
to be touched for several months. Fancy was eventually raped for a
second time in January 2007, and her boyfriend,
Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald, was framed for
the crimes; the rapist was later revealed to be
Vincent Clarkson, Fancy's biological
half-brother through
their
father.
Rape also played prominently into the 2007—2008 storyline involving
Mexican
drug cartel leader
Juanita Vasquez.
Sometime between the births of Pilar's
second and
third children, the
Lopez-Fitzgerald matriarch returned
to her native Mexico to visit with her childhood best friend,
Juanita Vasquez. There, she discovered that Juanita's husband,
Carlos, was still involved with his family's drug cartel and was
planning a
hit on a rival family; when
Pilar confronted Carlos, he raped her, and she accidentally killed
him in self-defense. Pilar then called the police in an attempt to
stop the hit, but the police ended up murdering the entire Vasquez
family, including Juanita and Carlos' young children, except for
Juanita. Juanita refused to believe that her husband had raped
Pilar and made it her life's mission to murder Pilar's entire
family, eventually murdering Pilar's
sister and two
nephews.
Men on the show were equally as likely to be violated as women.
Fox Crane,
Julian
Crane,
Luis
Lopez-Fitzgerald,
Miguel
Lopez-Fitzgerald, and
Ethan
Winthrop have all been victims of sexual assault.
Eerie deaths
One unfortunate trademark for
Passions has been eerie
deaths. In 2002,
Josh Ryan Evans,
who played Tabitha's extremely popular doll sidekick
Timmy, died while on medical leave, just as
scenes were airing where Timmy died in the hospital and went to
Heaven.
Passions had planned to revive the character in a
few months once Evans returned from his own surgery, but instead
had to write Timmy out. After five years of evil Crane patriarch
Alistair being heard but never having his face seen (voiced by
Alan Oppenheimer),
Passions finally cast the role with longtime daytime vet
David Bailey. Bailey was a hit
with the cast as well as the fans, but on
Thanksgiving Day 2004, he drowned in his
pool, just as scenes were airing where various characters tried to
kill Alistair, who actually suffered clinical death before being
magically revived by Tabitha. Again, the viewers and the producers
were stunned, but the show had no choice but to recast the pivotal
role (with
John
Reilly).
Breaking the fourth wall
With its humor and occasional
tongue-in-cheek tone,
Passions has
been known to "
break the fourth wall,"
or somehow call attention to the fact that the show is fictional.
In an early episode, Kay, Simone and Zombie Charity were seen
actually watching
Passions, and when the television in the
Bennett's kitchen covered what would have been Theresa's execution,
the news report actually pre-empted
Passions, cutting in
during the theme song just after the appearance of the logo. In a
2002 episode Theresa was giving birth while stuck in a cabin with
Ethan and Gwen; she had a hallucination in which the three of them
did a dance together and sang the show's theme song "Breathe." In
2004, TC made a reference to "that crazy soap after
Days of our
Lives", which in most areas airs before
Passions. In
one episode Fancy Crane used a magazine to hide her face from Noah;
the magazine had an image of the then-unseen Rachel Barrett with
the sentence "Who is she?" under the
Passions logo. Fancy
later commented that serials "are just like life; you never know
what's going to happen!" In an early 2006 episode, Ivy and
assistant Valerie were searching on the internet for Miguel to
bring him back to Harmony and interfere with Fox and Kay's
relationship. They couldn't find him, but Valerie tracked down his
last place of employment: he was last seen working as a gardener in
some suburban town on a street called Wisteria Lane. At that time,
Jesse Metcalfe (ex-Miguel) was
playing a gardener on the prime-time serial
Desperate Housewives, which takes
place on a street called Wisteria Lane. In the March 30, 2006
episode, while
Passions reruns were airing on the Sci-Fi
Channel, Simone compared life in Harmony to living in a show on the
Sci-Fi Channel. Similarly, in the August 10, 2006 episode, Theresa
commented that her office wasn't like a NBC daytime serial, and
that she wouldn't hire somebody just because he looked like Jesse
Metcalfe (who had portrayed her brother Miguel from 1999-2004). A
similar
inside joke occurred when the
character Fancy had a dream that she was a cheerleader; in real
life, Fancy's portrayer
Emily Harper
was a "Laker Girl" (
cheerleader for the
Los Angeles Lakers) from
2000-2003.
In April 2007, Kay was watching the sixth [
sic] hour of
The Today Show (an apparent jab at NBC's decision to
extend it at the expense of the
Passions timeslot) when it
was interrupted with a news report that Luis had been arrested. In
one August 2007 episode, Tabitha said that a certain soap opera was
starting on DirecTV and she would have to tell her friends not to
call her between the hours of two and three PM, blatantly referring
to
Passions itself. At the beginning of the show's final
week on NBC, as Whitney was preparing to move to New Orleans,
Theresa asked if she was sure she wanted to go, and Whitney
commented that she had already arranged to have her DirecTV hooked
up in Louisiana so she could "keep up on everything happening in
Harmony." And also in 2007, Endora flat-out made a reference to the
"audience" in one of her thought balloons, prompting Norma to look
in the camera and respond, "Audience? What audience?" Endora also
pointed out in one of her thought balloons that when Miguel
returned to
Passions, he looked nothing like Jesse
Metcalfe ("Nope, not even close!"). In May 2008 while Juanita was
looking for clues in a book store as to where Pilar was, the
bargain shelf was full of copies of
Hidden Passions. In June 2008, Tabitha
mentions the fourth hour of
Today being a ratings-grabber,
poking fun as to how they canceled the soap making way for this
fourth hour trying to bring the ratings on NBC up.In the June 30,
2008, episode, Sheridan mentions Pretty's fake scar with references
to her real family the Westmores.
Michael Westmore did make up for
Star Trek.In the July 30, 2008,
episode, Tabitha tells Endora about the volcano in Harmony
referring to it as how
Passions was canceled at the last
moment and the actors not knowing. She tells Endora to look in the
bowl and Endora says she sees a man sitting at a desk with the
initials J. Z. this is referring to NBC President
Jeff Zucker. Tabitha looks at the audience
mentioning Universal forces and Direct Intervention. This is a nod
at both Universal Studios and Direct TV for canceling the series
twice in one year.
Promotion and product placement
During its NBC run,
Passions was known to "promote" other
NBC programming within its storylines, and to incorporate
commercial products into the plot in a
promotion tactic known as
product placement.
Shortly after
Passions debuted,
Campbell tomato soup was featured as
an ingredient in
Grace Bennett's
tomato soup cake. Also,
Nestlé Purina Dog Chow was used
to feed Tabitha Lenox's pet cat Fluffy.
In a 2004 episode, TC watched an NBC ad for
Days of our Lives on his TV, and went
on to praise the writers of
Days of our Lives for coming
up with such good storylines;
Days, at that time, was
under the helm of
James E. Reilly, head writer of
Passions. In
the September 4, 2006, episode, Fox was sucked into a
black hole; he then told Tabitha that it was the
kind of black hole that one gets sucked into on the
Sci Fi Channel, which was the
channel on which
Passions repeats aired in 2006. Tabitha
then told him stick with NBC (
Passions' network). In an
episode later in September 2006, Siren tried to get Miguel into bed
by singing her Siren's song. Miguel told her that she should not
audition for
America's Got
Talent, which airs on NBC. In another episode, Tabitha
talked about
The
Biggest Loser season finale, which was also aired on NBC.
A more recent episode featured characters watching a
trailer for the 2007
Diane Keaton film
Because I Said So (produced by
Universal Studios, which, like
NBC, is owned by
General
Electric).
For a
time, Jessica Bennett was an Avon mark
saleswoman, and more recently the show featured Johnson &
Johnson
's K-Y Jelly personal lubricant, and characters were
seen drinking from Brita water pitchers. Both Jessica and
Theresa were seen using Clearblue Easy pregnancy test products.
After Kay
and Miguel's wedding in 2008, Norma gave Miguel the 2 in 1 K-Y Jelly personal
lubricant by Johnson & Johnson telling him how it is so great for her and Edna and
that Miguel and Kay will find great enjoyment in it.
In July 2007,
Passions began to promote its own move to
DirecTV the following September. Several characters' homes were
seen sporting DirecTV
dish on their
roofs, and characters began to make frequent references to
switching to DirecTV.
Time dilation
Another trademark of
Passions is its unusual handling of
the passage of time. A single story day can take weeks of episodes
to play out, with simple conversations sometimes taking days to
complete on-screen. On the other hand, events that should take many
hours, such as international travel, can take place in just a few
minutes of story time.
Theme song and opening sequence
Opening sequence of
Passions
The theme song for
Passions is titled "Breathe"; it was
performed by
Jane French and written by
French and John Henry Kreitler. A long version of this theme was
also released but was never used on the show.
The
opening title sequence used since the
show's premiere in 1999 features shots of the city of Harmony and
its landmarks (actually the real-life town of Camden, Maine
). The sequence opens and closes with the
show's logo in an italic typeface and in an Arial Black typeface in
generic caps posted in front of the cursive form of the title. From
time to time, the opening theme is shortened to the last two verses
to fit in extra scene time.
Passions is one of the few long-running American serials
that, with the exception of occasional abbreviated versions of the
intro, never changed its opening theme from the series debut
through its cancellation.
Ratings and broadcasting history
Essentially a replacement for the canceled long-running serial
Another World,
Passions claimed
Another World's time slot in
many US markets for its run on NBC from July 5, 1999 until
September 7, 2007.
Passions then moved exclusively to
DirecTV's The 101, premiering with new episodes on September 17,
2007. The final episode of the series aired on August 7,
2008.
Passions debuted on NBC ahead of fellow NBC soap
Sunset Beach with
a 2.1 rating (1.9 million viewers) and remained there after
Sunset Beach was canceled in December 1999. From January
2000 until early May the show remained dead last among all 10
soaps. During May Sweeps 2000,
Passions was gaining in
popularity and pulled ahead of ABC's
Port Charles.
Passions remained
ahead of
Port Charles until its cancellation in October
2003.
Passions once again was dead last, and would stay
there for virtually the rest of its run. It did top
Guiding Light on occasion, but never for
more than one week at a time. During 2001-2003 when
Passions was at the peak of its popularity, it averaged a
weekly 2.1-2.3 rating (which at that time equaled roughly 2.4
million viewers). However, the ratings slowly declined with each
passing year, to the point that the show averaged a 1.5 weekly
rating (about 1.9 million viewers) throughout much of the 2006—2007
season, especially after NBC announced the show's cancellation in
January 2007. The final episode on NBC had a household rating of
1.3/4 (1.68 million viewers). No ratings information exists for the
show's single season on DirecTV.
While
Passions was never a big hit in household ratings,
the show was a powerhouse in the younger-skewing demographics. For
its entire NBC run it ranked as the #1 soap in Girls 12-17, Women
18-24 and Girls 12-24. The show also ranked #2 in Women 18-34 and
even overtook fellow NBC soap
Days
of our Lives for a short period during the 2004-2005
season. In the crucial 18-49 demographic,
Passions usually
ranked #7, ahead of the long running CBS soaps
As The World Turns, and
Guiding
Light. The highest ranking
Passions ever achieved in
18-49 demographic was 4th place in November 2002 and once again in
January 2007.
Passions aired in Canada for its entire NBC run, first on
CTV in 1999 and then on
Global TV in 2000. The series lasted there
until its final airdate on NBC in September 2007, at which time it
was then succeeded by
Guiding Light in the same time slot.
NTV
in Newfoundland and
Labrador
also aired Passions for almost its entire
NBC run and was replaced by As the World Turns just before
the series ended on NBC. On July 3, 2007 it was reported
that new Canadian
premium
television service
Super
Channel would air the DirecTV episodes of
Passions in
Canada when the channel launched in October 2007. Those episodes
premiered on Super Channel on October 8, 2007 and ran until the
series finale on August 7, 2008. On August 11, 2008, Super Channel
began to air
Passions from the premiere episode. Starting
on August 10, 2009, season 2 started airing on its program.."July
2000 - July 2001" no word has been said yet about season 3 and the
following seasons.
Passions has been shown on
African Independent
Television, Lagos since 2001.
In
Japan
, the show is called 情熱 on TBS
.
1040 episodes of
Passions aired in
South Africa on
e.tv from
4:40 to 5:30 PM Monday to Friday from September 24, 2004 to
September 12, 2008. The series finished up, due to the cancellation
of the show's international licensing.
Passions was broadcast nationally in Australia on the
Seven Network each weekday at 3pm,
beginning in 2001 with the series' 1999 episodes. In 2005, the
series was moved to an earlier 9:30 am time slot, before the show's
international licensing was canceled due to the music copyright
fees.
Passions then went into re-runs in a 2am weekday
morning time-slot, before ultimately ending with a "series
finale."
Passions aired in Croatia
for two
seasons on Nova TV, which broadcast 520
episodes until the 2005 cancellation of international
licensing.
The first
260 episodes of Passions aired in Bulgaria
on TV 7 days from 2001 to
2002.
Passions aired in France for 2
months on TF1
starting
July 31, 2001, at 5:10pm CET
after the end of Sunset
Beach. The soap ended on October 8, 2001.
Awards
- For a full listing of award wins and nominations, see
List of awards
for Passions
Passions has been honored with numerous awards and
nominations during its run, including
Daytime Emmy Awards,
Imagen Foundation Awards, and a
GLAAD Media Award.
Critical reception
At its debut, the
Orlando
Sentinel gave
Passions a "bleak prognosis"
regarding the
Princess Diana
controversy:
It is still early days for Passions, but a
review published in the Orlando Sentinel gave the soap
opera a rather bleak prognosis.
Their critic wrote: "A show's dearth of creativity is evident when
it shamelessly keeps picking over the bones of the dead.
Passions seems to have a death wish."
Cast
Contract cast members
Recurring cast members
Deceased cast members
Noted guest stars
| Actor(s)/Performer(s) |
Character |
Year of Appearance |
| Ruth Buzzi |
Nurse Kravitz, An eccentric nurse who discovers that Endora has
a demon tail. |
2003 |
| Melissa Caulfield (Daughter of Juliet
Mills) |
Nanny Phoebe Figalilly, a role her mother originally played in
the short-lived sitcom Nanny
and the Professor |
1999, 2005 |
| Julia Duffy |
Mother Superior at the convent Whitney Russell ran off to after
discovering her lover Chad could also be her half-brother |
2005—2006 |
| Georgia Engel |
Tabitha's old school rival Esmerelda |
2007 |
| Judge Mablean Ephriam |
Herself, in a fantasy sequence where T.C. Russell takes wife
Eve onto Divorce Court |
2003 |
| Bernard Fox |
Doctor Bombay (Bewitched) |
1999—2000 |
| Alice Ghostley |
Matilda Matthews, Tabitha's former witch friend (and later
enemy) |
2000 |
| Robert Horry |
Himself |
1999 |
| R&B Star Mýa |
Herself |
2003 |
| Scissor Sisters |
Themselves |
2007 |
| Gabby Tamargo (daughter of Eva
Tamargo) |
Young Pilar |
2008 |
Hidden Passions
In 2001,
HarperEntertainment
released
Hidden Passions: Secrets
from the Diaries of Tabitha Lenox, a
tie-in novelization
presented as Tabitha's diary, exposing the secrets and pasts of the
town's residents.
Passions featured a storyline involving
Tabitha and Timmy promoting the book, which reached #4 on the
real-life
New York
Times Best Seller list and garnered the series two
alternate covers of
TV Guide in
July 2001. The novel was billed as being
canonical, but the televised canon has
diverged significantly from the novel since its publication.
See also
References
- "Sci Fi Channel revives NBCU's used
Passions" - Variety.com
- Passions video - NBC.com
- "The Today Show expands on NBC" ~
MercuryNews.com
- "Passions: Who Won't Survive the Move to
DirecTV?" - TV SeriesFinale.com, May 24, 2007
- "Passions: DirecTV Soap Available Online —
But Not Free" - TVSeriesFinale.com, September 27, 2007
- "DirecTV to cut ties with Passions" -
Variety.com
- "Passions Canceled Again?" Soap Opera Digest.
January 1, 2008, Vol. 33 No. 1.
- "Passions: The Soap is Really Over This
Time" - TVSeriesFinale.com, March 31, 2007
- Passions Vendetta ~ NBC.com
- SoapOperaFan.com Episode Summary
- "Passions to Continue in Canada" -
Soaps.com July 3, 2007
- "Super Channel to Re-run Passions From the
Beginning" - Soaps.com July 10, 2008.
- http://www.superchannel.ca/faqs/#9
- TheAge.com.au - "Passions run amok"
August 4, 2005. Retrieved 11 February 2008.
- Passions - Croatian Wikipedia
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