‘Days of Our Lives’ losing Alison Sweeney after 21 years

There is some big change coming in the world of daytime dramas, as “Days of Our Lives” is now losing a longtime fan favorite.

In a new interview this week on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Alison Sweeney confirmed that this will be her last season as Sami on the NBC daytime institution, with the reason being a simple one. In between doing this show and also hosting “The Biggest Loser,” she simply wants to spend more time with her family:

“My daughter just turned 5 and my son is 9, and I just want to be with them and enjoy my last year [on the show].”

Are we going to miss seeing Sami on the show? Sure, but what Sweeney said about her time off here is pretty surprising: She never had more than a two-week vacation on the series. That may be something that many with normal 9-to-5 jobs relate to, but at the same time, what makes this different is that soaps tend to have very long hours, and doing this along with “The Biggest Loser” had to be exhausting at times. It’s no shock that she wants to do something different with her life moving forward now that she’s got so much money in the bank.

As for what “Days of Our Lives” is going to do moving forward, that is still a pretty substantial issue that the producers will need to tackle. It is standard-operating procedure for the show to recast roles after an actor decides to leave, but it is a little different situation when you are talking about someone who has been on the show for more than 20 years. That is going to be a hard part to get someone else in, especially when they have those sort of expectations to live up to.

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Photo: NBC