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| Passions | |
|---|---|
_logo.svg){kind=logo} | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | James E. Reilly |
| Written by | James E. Reilly (Head writer) |
| Starring | Passions cast list |
| Theme music composer | John Henry Kreitler |
| Opening theme | "Breathe" byJane French |
| Ending theme | "Breathe" (instrumental) by Jane French |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 9 |
| No. of episodes | 2,231[1] |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Lisa de Cazotte |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production companies |
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| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | July 5, 1999 (1999-07-05) – September 7, 2007 (2007-09-07) |
| Network | The 101 Network |
| Release | September 17, 2007 (2007-09-17) – August 7, 2008 (2008-08-07) |
Passions is an American televisionsoap opera that originally aired onNBC from July 5, 1999, to September 7, 2007, and onDirecTV'sThe 101 Network from September 17, 2007, to August 7, 2008. Created by screenwriterJames E. Reilly and produced byNBC Studios,Passions follows the lives, loves and various romantic and paranormal adventures of the residents of Harmony, a small town inNew England with many secrets.
Storylines center on the interactions among members of its multi-racial core families: theAfrican-AmericanRussells, the whiteCranes andBennetts, and half-Mexican half-IrishLopez-Fitzgeralds. The series also featuressupernatural elements, which focus mainly on town witch Tabitha Lenox (Juliet Mills) and her doll-come-to-life,Timmy (Josh Ryan Evans).
NBC cancelledPassions on January 16, 2007.[2] The series was subsequently picked up by DirecTV. The series aired its final episode on NBC on September 7, 2007, with new episodes continuing on DirecTV's 101 Network starting on September 17.[3] In December 2007, just months after picking up the series, DirecTV decided not to renew its contract forPassions, and the studio was subsequently unable to sell the series elsewhere.[4][5][6][7] The final episode was broadcast in August 2008.[8]Passions was the last daytime television soap opera created for American network television untilBeyond the Gates premiered onCBS in February 2025.[9][10][11]
In the early days of the show,Passions heroineSheridan Crane is identified as a close friend ofDiana, Princess of Wales; soon Sheridan recalls speaking to Diana on the phone immediately before the1997 car crash in which Diana was killed. 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.[12] Sheridan later adopts the name Diana after a boating accident that results inamnesia.
The opening days of the show also introduced theTheresa/Ethan/Gwenlove triangle that persisted as an ongoing main story line to the very last episode of the series.
For much of the first three to four years of the series, supernatural elements such aswitches,warlocks, and closet doors leading toHell were major plot points, many surrounding the machinations of the centuries-old witch Tabitha Lenox and her doll-brought-to-life sidekick,Timmy—named byEntertainment Weekly as one of their "17 Great SoapSupercouples" in 2008.[13] In 2001,HarperEntertainment releasedHidden Passions, atie-innovelization presented as Tabitha's diary, exposing the secrets and pasts of the town's residents.Passions featured a story-line involving Tabitha and Timmy promoting the book, which reached No. 4 on the real-lifeNew York Times Best Seller list and garnered the series two alternative covers ofTV Guide in July 2001.
In 2003,Passions submitted anorangutan named BamBam, who had been portraying the recurring role ofPrecious, for aDaytime Emmy Award. Precious was the non-speaking live-in nurse and caregiver for elderlyEdna Wallace, and held an unrequited love forLuis Lopez-Fitzgerald, which was depicted in elaborate fantasy sequences. In early 2004, theNational 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.[citation needed]
In summer 2005, the prominent characterSimone Russell came out asgay;Passions made daytime history by being the first serial to show two women—Simone and love interestRae Thomas—in bed making love.[14] In 2007, it was revealed that longtime heroChad Harris-Crane was cheating on his wife with another man. This was also a daytime first, with the men portrayed in bed together, committing—albeit unknowingly—incest.[15]Passions also portrayedVincent as anintersex person who became pregnant with his own father's son.[16]
Nearly seven years after the debut ofPassions on July 5, 1999, the NBC-ownedSci Fi Channel began airing the series from its first episode starting February 13, 2006.[17][18] 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 theonline music storeiTunes. On November 6, 2006, the show also became the first daytime drama to make full episodes available for free viewing viastreaming on NBC.com.[19]
Though plagued since its inception by low overallNielsen ratings,Passions was historically top-rated in keydemographics, namely the female 12-to-17 demographic;Passions andDays of Our Lives usually occupied the top two positions among all soaps in this age group.[citation needed]
On January 17, 2007, NBC announced that it would not renewPassions for a ninth season, in order to accommodate a planned expansion of its morning news and talk showToday to a fourth hour. NBC reclaimed the program's hour-long slot in order to extendToday into the 10:00 am ET hour, rather than acquiring an extra hour of programming time already allocated to its stations forsyndicated or local programs. NBC soon began shopping the series to other networks. In April 2007,satellite television providerDirecTV reached an agreement with NBCUniversal Television Studio to acquire the exclusivebroadcast rights toPassions,[20][21][22] with most of the serial's principal cast members staying on.[23]
Ahead of the move from NBC to DirecTV, the call-inaftershowPassions Live, hosted byEric Martsolf (who succeeded original cast memberTravis Schuldt as Ethan Winthrop in 2002), premiered on DirecTV's general entertainment networkThe 101 in August 2007, makingPassions the first (and only) American soap opera to ever have a live talk show. Airing weekly on Thursday nights until October 2007 and streamed simultaneously on NBC.com's officialPassions website, the show gave fans the chance to call into the program and interact live with cast members from the soap.[24][25]Passions ended its NBC run after eight seasons on September 7, 2007, leavingDays of Our Lives as the network's lone remaining soap opera and conventional daytime program (until it was moved to the co-ownedPeacock streaming service in September 2022 to accommodate the afternoon newscastNBC News Daily); new episodes subsequently began airing on The 101 ten days later on September 17, becoming the first (and as of 2024[update], only) American daytime network soap opera to move their first-run episodes to a linear subscription television service.[26]
With the move to The 101, episodes were reduced to four days a week, airing Monday–Thursday at 2:00 pmET/11 amPT (retaining the timeslot it had held since its NBC debut), with repeats airing later in the day and on weekends. NBC.com continued to maintainPassions' official website after the series moved over to DirecTV; however, first-run episodes were no longer made available to stream for free on NBC's website or for purchase at iTunes. Initially, new episodes were supposed to air exclusively on DirecTV after the soap concluded its run on NBC; however, on September 27, 2007, DirecTV announced it would provide viewers who were not already DirecTV subscribers an "All Access Pass toPassions" to stream all newer episodes on NBC.com after their initial airing on The 101 for a monthly fee.[27][28] This subscription offering launched on October 1, 2007, originally priced at $19.99 per month (later reduced to $14.99 whenPassions cut its weekly schedule from four episodes to three). In another first for the soap opera genre, episodes airing on The 101 included a interactive feature allowing viewers to answer a specialPassions trivia question that appeared on-screen as a pop-up using their remote control.[28]
On December 10, 2007,Variety magazine[4] and various cast members[5][6] confirmed that DirecTV had decided not to renewPassions for a tenth season, but extended its existing order to include 52 additional episodes to be taped through March 2008. In January 2008, DirecTV reduced the show's schedule to three episodes per week, airing Monday through Wednesday.[4]Universal Media Studios wrapped up production ofPassions on March 28, 2008. As confirmed by original cast memberMcKenzie Westmore (Sheridan Crane), the cast and crew were told at the wrap party that efforts to find a new outlet had failed and that the show's cancellation was final.[7][29] New episodes continued to air on The 101 until August 7, 2008, whenPassions ended its nine-season run. ThoughPassions 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.[30]
The theme song forPassions is titled "Breathe"; it was performed byJane French and written by French andJohn Henry Kreitler. A long version of this theme was also released but was never used on the show.
The openingtitle sequence used since the show's premiere in 1999 features shots of the city of Harmony and its landmarks (actually the real-life town ofCamden, 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. The opening theme is sometimes shortened to the last two verses to fit in extra scene time.
A replacement for the serialAnother World (which ended on June 25, 1999 after a 35-year run) on NBC's daytime schedule,Passions debuted in tenth place among the eleven soaps airing on American network television at the time, ahead of only fellow NBC soapSunset Beach, with a 2.1 rating (1.9 million viewers) and remained there untilSunset Beach was cancelled in December 1999. From January 2000 until early May, the show came in last place in the ratings among the ten soaps on the air then. During the May 2000 sweeps period,Passions gained in popularity and pulled ahead of ABC'sPort Charles.Passions remained ahead ofPort Charles until the latter show's cancellation in October 2003. From then on,Passions once again was last in the American daytime ratings, where it would stay for virtually the rest of its run. It did topGuiding Light on occasion, but never for more than one week at a time. From 2001 to 2003, whenPassions was at the peak of its popularity, it averaged a weekly 2.1–2.3 rating (roughly 2.4 million viewers). However, the ratings slowly declined each year afterwards; by the 2006–07 season, the show averaged a 1.5 weekly rating (about 1.9 million viewers). The final episode on NBC had a household rating of 1.3/4 (1.68 million viewers). No ratings information was ever released for the show's run on DirecTV.
WhilePassions 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 No. 1 soap among girls aged 12 to 17 and women aged 18 to 24. The show also ranked at No. 2 among women aged 18 to 34, and even overtook fellow NBC soapDays of Our Lives for a short period during the 2004–05 season. In the crucial 18-to-49 demographic,Passions usually ranked No. 7, ahead of CBS soapsAs the World Turns andGuiding Light. The highest rankingPassions ever achieved in the 18-to-49 demographic was fourth place in November 2002 and once again in January 2007.[citation needed]
During its NBC run,Passions ran for 60 minutes every weekday (excluding some holidays). For its final season on NBC (2006–07), episodes were available online at NBC.com for free viewing and for purchase oniTunes. 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.[citation needed] Initially, DirecTV episodes were only available on its own exclusive channel; later they were made available for a paid subscription fee at NBC.com.[31]
Passions aired in Canada for its entire NBC run, first onCTV in 1999 and then onGlobal TV in 2000. The series lasted there until its final airdate on NBC in September 2007, at which time it was then succeeded byGuiding Light in the same time slot.NTV inNewfoundland and Labrador also airedPassions for almost its entire NBC run and was replaced byAs the World Turns just before the series ended on NBC. On July 3, 2007 it was reported that new Canadianpremium television serviceSuper Channel would air the DirecTV episodes ofPassions in Canada when the channel launched in October 2007.[32] Those episodes premiered on Super Channel on October 8, 2007 (airing two new episodes at a time only until it caught up to the DirecTV episodes) and ran until the series finale on August 7, 2008. On August 11, 2008, Super Channel began to airPassions from the premiere episode.[33] Season 2 re-ran on Super Channel starting August 2009 and season 3 in 2010. Season 4 premiered on July 14, 2011. Passions run on Super Channel ended on July 3, 2012. Super Channel chose not to renew their contract due to technical issues.[34]
Passions was broadcast nationally in Australia on theSeven Network each weekday at 3:00 pm, beginning on 29 January 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 cancelled due to the music copyright fees.[35]Passions then went into re-runs in a 2 am weekday-morning time slot, before ultimately ending with a "series finale."
InCroatia, private televizorNova TV aired the first two seasons of the show (520 episodes). The show was well received by the public, but badly by the critics.[36]
Passions has been honored with numerous awards and nominations during its run, includingDaytime Emmy Awards,Imagen Foundation Awards, and aGLAAD Media Award.
At its debut, reviews for the series were mixed. TheOrlando Sentinel gavePassions a "bleak prognosis" regarding thePrincess Diana controversy. 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."[12]Time magazine wrote that apart from the show's supernatural elements, "Passions would appear indistinguishable from almost any other soap opera." Unlike theOrlando Sentinel, Time approved of the Princess Diana link, stating that it showed thatPassions was not "devoid of promise" and that the storyline showed "flashes of a certain kind of genius."[37]
By 2001, Michael Logan ofTV Guide remarked ofPassions, "There hasn't been this sort of buzz about a soap since theLuke and Laura days onGeneral Hospital...It's unlike anything else out there. There's a real sense of hipness to it."[38]
Craig Tomashoff ofThe New York Times praised the campy storylines by callingPassions the "Twin Peaks of daytime": "It's a staggeringly psychotic blend of supernatural thriller, melodramatic soap opera and situation comedy, featuring acting that would make a pro wrestler blush. I'm never quite sure whether this is alaughing at or alaughing with kind of show; either way, I'm still laughing."[38]
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In a nod toBewitched,Bernard Fox appeared as that series' "Dr. Bombay" onPassions in 1999 and 2000.Alice Ghostley, who portrayed bumbling witch Esmeralda onBewitched, also appeared onPassions in 2000 as the ghost ofMatilda Matthews, a friend and rival witch from Tabitha's past in colonial New England. ComedianRuth Buzzi portrayed Nurse Kravitz, an eccentric nurse who discovers that the characterEndora has a demon tail, in 2003.Marla Gibbs appeared in 2004 and 2005 as Irma Johnson, the cantankerous aunt ofEve Russell andLiz Sanbourne. Gibbs was nominated for anNAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series for the role. From 2005 to 2006,Julia Duffy portrayed the Mother Superior at theconvent to whichWhitney Russell flees, andGeorgia Engel playedEsmeralda, Tabitha's childhood rival, in a 2007Wicked-themed storyline.[39]
Professional basketball playerRobert Horry appeared as himself in 1999,[40] as did singerMýa in 2003 and the bandScissor Sisters in 2007. JudgeMablean Ephriam also portrayed herself in a 2003 fantasy sequence in which the characterT. C. and Eve Russell go on theDivorce Court television program.
The bandScissor Sisters appeared on two February 2007 episodes and performed two songs from theirTa-Dah album: "Land of a Thousand Words" on February 8 and "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" on February 9.[41]
Juliet Mills' daughter Melissa Caulfield appeared in 1999 and 2005 as Nanny Phoebe Figalilly, a role played by Mills in thesitcomNanny and the Professor. Gabby Tamargo, daughter ofEva Tamargo, portrayed a young version of the elder Tamargo's character,Pilar Lopez-Fitzgerald, in 2008.
In 2001,HarperEntertainment releasedHidden Passions: Secrets from the Diaries of Tabitha Lenox, atie-innovelization 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 No. 4 on the real-lifeNew York Times Best Seller list and garnered the series two alternative covers ofTV Guide in July 2001. While the novel was billed as beingcanonical, by the show's final episode, the televised canon had diverged significantly from the novel since its publication.