Days of Our Lives Braces Fans Ahead of Its On-Screen Farewell to Doug
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We’ve got good news and bad news for Days of Our Lives fans. The good news is we finally learned when we’ll be saying goodbye to Salem’s beloved Doug Williams and his portrayer Bill Hayes. The bad news is, well, we’ll have to say goodbye to a man who’s been an integral part of the fabric of the show since he debuted in Salem 54 years ago in 1970. But it won’t be for a little while yet!
The fact that the show was filming his farewell episodes doesn’t come as a huge surprise. Hayes passed away back in January, so it was only a matter of time until Days of Our Lives worked out how to say farewell in a fitting and memorable way. On top of that, in the last week or so, we started getting word of some fairly unexpected returns, from Stephen Schnetzer’s Steve Olson to Gloria Loring’s Liz Chandler. And we speculated that they more than likely had to be back for Doug’s funeral.
Now we learned that part of what the show was waiting for to say goodbye was to include the funeral in another Days of Our Lives milestone: the 15,000th episode.
“With Bill Hayes’ passing, the show is doing a special celebration for the life and memory of the character he portrayed for so many years,” a spokesperson for the show shared. “Doug Williams’ funeral is giving us the opportunity to welcome some important and fan favorite, legacy characters back to Salem, including Gloria Loring, Stephen Schnetzer, and more. The episodes taping this week include Doug’s funeral and the historic 15,000th episode. They will not air until December 2024.”
So yes, we’re not only getting some amazing returns (and we can feel pretty confident in saying we’ll keep learning about more as we get closer to the actual event), but it sounds like it’s going to be a truly historic farewell for Days of Our Lives fans and the cast. But yes, you also read that last part right. It’s still about eight months off.
Still, as they say, anything that’s worth doing is worth doing right. And we’d rather wait for a farewell worthy of Hayes and Doug than get something rushed and slapdash. Besides, now we know we’ll have plenty of time before Doug dies onscreen, which means seeing him move back into his beloved home before the end.
We’ll take the win and the hope that we’ll all be able to send Doug and Hayes off in a celebration of love and joy.
