Days of Our Lives Kristian Alfonso leaving after 37 years

[Emelee]

Kristian Alfonso (Hope/Gina) has announced that she won't return to DOOL when it resumes taping in September. She's taped her final episode and is ready for the next chapter in her life.

She's been on the show on and off since 1983.

https://deadline.com/2020/07/kristian-alfonso-exits-days-of-our-lives-after-37-years-1202978733/

 

[Alexis]

My whole life....

 

[Daniel Avery]

When they announced that bizarre "fire everyone, then hire them back" scheme, I knew we would see situations like this.

The evil overlords who own our company did something similar shortly after buying us out: fired all the zone managers, district and regional managers, then had them re-apply for their jobs. The reason? Obviously they would not hire back the managers they thought were not all that good at their jobs. But overall, it was to weed out the upper management who made too much money. Offer them their job back---but with a large pay cut. Like your job and want to keep it? Well, then you won't mind a pay cut, right? Refuse to do the same job for less? Well, nice knowing you...have a nice career someplace else. We lost 2/3 of our district managers over one month's time as they each decided it was an offer they could easily refuse. All three Zone VP's also left. We got new hires from outside the company who were obviously willing to work cheaply; too bad we got what we paid for, since most of them were previously dismissed from lesser competitors for being dumb as a stump.

So I see Days having a similar situation, with KA being the first of several who will choose to leave rather than accept a lowball contract offer. I love how KA thanked Betty Corday (not "the Cordays") for hiring her and all her co-workers over the years...an obvious slam on a certain other Corday who is still calling the shots.

 

[Ray&Donna]

One Hope's she won't fall into another cat of acid

 

[Daniel Avery]

To outsiders (that is, those who aren't as heavily steeped in the way daytime works) her departure after so long* likely sounded really drastic....but most of us 'in the know' are well aware of how actors leave soaps and are lured back within short periods of time. Why should she be any different than the dozens of other daytime actors who leave over contract disputes, then return the minute a new producer/showrunner decides to give them what the previous producer refused to? I mean, look at the knots the writers tie the stories into when they have to explain the return of a "dead" fan favorite character---it often wrecks the continuity and/or believability of the show as a whole, but they can't resist doing it (especially Days). So I would not expect KA to be gone forever.

* 99% of the stories I saw said she'd "been playing Hope since 1983" when it's fairly common knowledge that she has left Days and returned before, most notably when she played Pilar on Falcon Crest.

 

[Emelee]

Maybe, maybe not. I said she taped her last episode several months ago. In my experience, "out of sight, out of mind" is pretty accurate. The longer you've been away, the less you will long to return. So it really depends on why she left. Maybe she really does want to do something else after so many years at the same workplace. Maybe she didn't feel challenged enough anymore.

However, it wouldn't shock me if she was back next year as the major soap actors often return after a while. But I must say that GH's Tony Geary has been away longer than I expected.

 

[Ray&Donna]

[QUOTE="Emelee, post: 227144,

However, it wouldn't shock me if she was back next year as the major soap actors often return after a while. But I must say that GH's Tony Geary has been away longer than I expected.[/QUOTE]

FOLLOWING his exit, he gave an interview where he trashed a bunch of writers and producers, so I can see why no one is banging on his door asking him to return to this country

 

[Daniel Avery]

Also, I believe Geary permanently moved to the Netherlands after his retirement. He had been dividing his time between The Netherlands and the US for probably a decade, so he obviously loves it there and likely is enjoying being out of the limelight, since he always seemed kind of....bothered? by all the attention.

Days has a history of trying to jump-start its ratings by bringing back fan favorites from various eras. How many times has Tony DiMera been written out and brought back? New writer/producer combos come in and decide that the best way to bring back lapsed viewers is to attempt to recreate past magic. Which....never really works.

Since Days has taped everything so far ahead, we hear about departures/returns long after the scenes were filmed. KA's been sitting on this news for a long time. She probably had to reveal her decision after someone asked her point-blank if she'd signed a new contract. The delay in seeing the departure story makes the controversy last longer than it ought to. Judi Evans, currently laid up in the hospital with multiple broken bones and recovering from Covid-19, recently said in an interview that she will be seen on Days soon, playing her "other" character Bonnie Lockhart (her primary character Adrienne got killed off--probably). When I read the headline "Judi Evans returns to Days," I was momentarily shocked, since I had just read about her health issues and knew she was in no position to be walking, much less filming. Then I remembered she probably taped that stuff eight months ago.

 

[tommie]

Well, at least they don't plan on going back taping until September, which at least momentarily puts them closer to the filming date than they've been in 15 years or so. I assume that due to their production schedule of shooting in blocks they'll soon be months ahead again.

Kristian was definitively being low-balled though and said "no thanks". There's another few departures that are being announced - some they that were just written out and some that said "thanks, but no thanks" to what they were being offered. I do wonder if that's why Alison Sweeney had been taping more than her usual one or two weeks until co-vid shut them down - to help to transition the show during a lot of goings at once to whatever the new cast slate is. Luckily for DAYS they have so many recurring characters to pick from to fill up a new slate so it won't feel full of newbies.

 

[Daniel Avery]

This situation reminds me of when Prospect Park tried to revive All My Children and One Live to Live. Despite boasting that they would have the shows back in the same length and frequency (that is, hour-long episodes five days a week), their budget was microscopic and there was absolutely no way they could afford to re-hire all the actors for anything close to what they'd been making when the shows were on ABC. Soon the fans were laying odds on who would stay, who would go, who would "guest star"....and in the end, Prospect Park couldn't even finance the studio space, much less daily, hour-long episodes. The stars who did sign on did it more out of sentimental attachment to their roles rather than any kind of career advancement, but the more popular actors saw their roles expanded greatly as a reward for sticking with the show(s). There were huge gaps in stories where certain characters needed to be present but were not, simply because the role was essentially un-recastable. The recast characters were not an improvement on the originals, and the whole effort came off as amateurish because they had no money for realistic sets, no time for rehearsal, and no plans for long-term plot movement.

I guess Days will not be able to plot any kind of future for itself until they know who will stay and who is leaving. KA's decision to walk might just be the first of many such announcements. One would think NBC would try to release these names all in a short space of time to dull their impact rather than waiting for the dust to settle and then dropping another name. Should we lay odds on who will jump off the boat next?

 

[tommie]

I guess Days will not be able to plot any kind of future for itself until they know who will stay and who is leaving. KA's decision to walk might just be the first of many such announcements. One would think NBC would try to release these names all in a short space of time to dull their impact rather than waiting for the dust to settle and then dropping another name. Should we lay odds on who will jump off the boat next?

My understanding is that KA didn't walk during the corona crisis - she turned down the offer they made her to stay on after the last big lapse in production, so she already filmed her final scenes before the covid shutdown; same goes with actors like Will & Sonny and Rafe (and a few other rumoured departures). I remember thinking it was odd that Alison Sweeney was taping for so long this spring, usually she only pops up for about a week or two. As I said, I wouldn't be surprised if they coaxed her to do an extended stint on the show to help transition it from the cast slate pre-the first shutdown to the one after it.

 

[Emelee]

Kristian tells ET that she will not be back:

"Alfonso said that unlike other soap stars, she plans on leaving the show for good and not making any guest appearances. "

In the same interview, she says she's been thinking about leaving for a couple of years, but it wasn't until she had a meeting with Ken Corday that she made the final decision. He informed her they were planning on having Hope be away for 4-5 months, then return with a Navy Seal. She felt that she didn't want to be off and then return. Plus, COVID-19 made her think about what she really wants to do.

She says she wanted to tell the audience now instead of letting them know after her final episode has aired because she wants to be honest with the viewers. Hope will not get a proper final episode because they didn't film it before the pandemic break, and she will not return in September to film any episode.

https://www.etonline.com/kristian-a...ve-days-of-our-lives-after-37-years-exclusive

 

[Daniel Avery]

After that whole fiasco with tricking some of the actors into coming back---just to film what turned out to be their departure stories--I can see why she would not entertain the idea of going back. Fool us once, shame on you; fool us twice, shame on us.

 

[tommie]

So, she really didn't film any departure scenes and won't be back to wrap up. I guess Hope isn't currently in a big storyline either, so it's easier to just write her out off screen, but damn, that sucks. Apparently they wanted to write her off for a few months and then have her return with a new romantic interest - my guess is that she's incredibly tired of being tossed into these dead end pairings after Peter Reckell made it known he'll never come back.

We'll see if DAYS survives long enough for Kristian to come around to potentially coming back again.

 

[Toni]

Poetic justice should be made here: Ana-Alicia is the right person to replace that Ortega woman...

 

[Alexis]

Also, I believe Geary permanently moved to the Netherlands after his retirement. He had been dividing his time between The Netherlands and the US for probably a decade, so he obviously loves it there and likely is enjoying being out of the limelight, since he always seemed kind of....bothered? by all the attention.

I have been binging Schitt's Creek and Catharine O'Hara's character Moira Rose was having a dramatic melt down over her old soap star days and she mentioned that Sir Anthony Geary would be appalled about something. This thread has just made that make more sense to me and now I get the joke!

 

[Daniel Avery]

Ana-Alicia started on daytime soaps!

At this point I think Hope has become one of those un-recastable roles, so Hope will likely just fade away with no fanfare.

 

[Jason73]

so she already filmed her final scenes before the covid shutdown; same goes with actors like Will & Sonny and Rafe (and a few other rumoured departures).

Will and Sonny came back after the shut down and filmed five episodes so there will be closure for those two, unlike for Hope.

We'll see if DAYS survives long enough for Kristian to come around to potentially coming back again.

I honestly think we are fast approaching the end for the show. With all of these departures and there are supposedly more coming, I don't know who they are going to have left to center the show on. I've heard that Gabi and Ciara are possibly leaving too. Those would leave big holes. Gabi is the most dynamic, entertaining trouble maker they have right now and Ciara has a huge fan base. The only other person stirring things up in a fun way right now is Claire and I've heard she is leaving too. They would need to do something huge like get Alison Sweeney to sign a contract to stick around and maybe lure back James Scott and build the show around Sami and EJ.