The Days of Our Lives cast knows how to keep viewers on the edge of their seats.
For more than 60 seasons, the soap opera has provided more than a few OMG plot twists thanks to surprising courtships and love triangles, mistaken identities, murders, medical emergencies, kidnappings and more.
“In this medium, there’s so many of those moments from evil twins to babies swapped,” cast member Leo Howard exclusively told Us Weekly at Peacock’s “Day of Days” event on November 2. “A good baby stealing storyline is always quite an OMG moment.”
Galen Gering argued that the best — or most shocking — is yet to come after Peacock officially renewed the show for its 61st season.
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“Honestly, the biggest plot twist for me is about to happen but I can’t tell you what it is,” Gering teased to Us from inside the Peacock Theater. “We’re all involved in it and it’s, like, ‘Are you freaking kidding me.’ I am excited.”
Before the cast revealed the show’s official teaser for season 60 at the fan event, many actors and actresses from Salem shared their favorite plot twists from over the years.
Prepare to have your mind blown with what the writers have come up with for your favorite Days characters below:
Stephen Nichols
“For me, I think I took a year off and I came back and they didn’t tell me what the story would be,” Nichols shared with Us before sharing the writers’ surprise vision for his character’s return. “‘You’re going to be Stefano. Someone’s going to plant a chip in your head and you will be Stefano in Steve’s body.’ I thought, ‘Wow, OK. Where’s the money? Are you going to pay me a little extra for that?’ That was the biggest plot twist that I have ever experienced. It was a hell of a lot of fun.”
Martha Madison
“First of all, the most popular one in our show’s history is the devil possession,” Madison shared when looking back on Marlena Evans’ (Deidre Hall) 1994 storyline. “I mean, how many shows would dare to tell his story like that? And most recently, when we retold the story, the devil jumped from character to character. So we all got to play it.”
Madison also couldn’t help but chuckle when looking back on how her character, Belle, ended up having a baby with Shawn (Brandon Beemer).
“I always like to tell the story about how our child was conceived because we conceived our child while we were both in a hypothermic coma, and we didn’t know that we had ever slept together,” she told Us. “We didn’t learn until years later that our daughter was ours. We’re like, ‘Wait, how did that happen?’ You have to be able to suspend reality to enjoy soap operas.”
Susan Hayes
“I remember a day when the principals in the cast were involved with a turret, and from the turret, a cascade of stones was going to be thrown on the cast and they would be covered and maybe killed, maybe not,” Hayes recalled. “Nobody was really anxious to do that because we were not being doubled. Our producer at that time said, ‘It’s going to be OK.’ That was almost as good as the day we all jumped out of the airplane and the day that we all jumped off the ship into the tank. Other than that, it’s a day at soap opera land.”
Billy Flynn
“They did a microchip storyline where Stefano’s essence, or his brain, was put in a microchip and put into Stephen Nichols, who plays Patch,” Flynn shared. “So Patch became Stefano, who was my father and that was an OMG moment only because of just the absurdity or disbelief you got to put aside. Recently, I saw a scene where they’re about to take the microchip out, and it’s our father saying goodbye to us, but it’s Patch. He’s got one eye, and he’s saying, ‘I love you. I love you’ in the Stefano accent. That was a surreal moment.”
Deidre Hall
Hall agrees with Madison’s pick for the most OMG moment in Salem’s history. “Well, obviously mine is going to be possession,” she told Us, “because that’ll be on my tombstone.”
Robert Scott Wilson
“I’ve had a few OMG moments for me. Personally, probably when they called and told me that they want to bring me back as a new character two weeks after my character walks off screen,” Wilson shared with Us. “That was big. Also, when we did the necktie killer story line that affected me. What seemed like a door closing, ended up being a giant opening, which was really fantastic.”
Cherie Jimenez
Jimenez’s biggest OMG moment came during her third day on set playing Gabi Hernandez. “I exposed the couple-year run of nobody knowing the actual paternity of baby Jude not being EJ’s baby and actually being Nicole’s baby and Eric’s baby,” Jimenez said. “I came in like a bat out of hell, and I just laid it all out. I didn’t waste time. I basically came in guns blazing. I also did at a press conference that was to honor EJ for releasing me from prison and I repay by exposing the truth. Just another day in Salem.”
Al Calderon
As a newcomer for season 60, Calderon is bracing himself for what the writers will come up with for his character. “I’m a newbie so I’m learning as I go,” he said. “I’m ready for my OMG moment. I just want to steal someone’s baby, be involved in a murder. I don’t know. My character is a good guy. Dang it.”
Colton Little
“I think for me, being part of the LGBT community in real life, I was shocked and honored that I get the opportunity to play a gay character on TV and also a gay character who is multifaceted,” Little told Us about his role as Andrew Donovan. “As a kid growing up in rural Nebraska, I never would have thought it could happen so I’m really honored.”
Eric Martsolf
“We have a daughter on the show, but the only reason she is on the earth is because I made love to this woman while she was wearing the mask of Nicole Walker,” Marsolf told Us while chatting next to his TV partner Stacy Haiduk. “I thought I was making love to Nicole and apparently I couldn’t tell the difference. Apparently [my character] Brady’s really into latex because I couldn’t tell the difference between her and Nicole with a mask on. Now we have Rachel, who was born out of deception. That’s insane, right?”
Sal Stowers
“My character was a detective and she was going through some personal issues and she pretty much got blackmailed by Gabi,” Stowers revealed. “[My character] Lani goes to a convent. I go from being a detective to being a nun and for me, when I read that, I was like, ‘What?’ I never thought I would play a nut. That was an OMG moment for me.”
Tina Huang
“When I realized I was a straight-laced DA, by-the-book person and then I was suddenly kidnapping a baby,” Huang said with a laugh. “I’m about to cross the line but then I was excited that my character was going to develop a whole other side to her and we would see her break bad a little bit.”
New episodes of Days of Our Lives stream weekday mornings on Peacock.
