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Ron Carlivati, who has served as head writer of Days of Our Lives for seven years, is exiting the show, effective immediately. Deadline was the first to report the news.
Carlivati will be succeeded at the helm of the show’s writing team by Paula Cwikly and Jeanne Marie Ford, the show confirms. Both women have had long ties to daytime. Cwikly was on the writing teams at As The World Turns, Sunset Beach and Young and Restless, and has previously served as both an associate head writer and head writer at DAYS. Ford has been serving as a breakdown writer at DAYS, where she began her soap career as a writer’s assistant in 1992, and also worked on the writing teams of ATWT and One Life To Live.
Carlivati was appointed to the head wirter role at DAYS back in January 2017, with his material first hitting the air that July. Prior to penning DAYS, he served on the writing team of OLTL and as its final head writer before it went off the air in 2012. He then moved to General Hospital, serving as head writer from 2012-15. He won Daytime Emmys for his writing work in 2008 and 2018. “It has honestly been one of the great joys of my life to be the Head Writer of Days of Our Lives for the past seven-and-a-half years,” Carlivati told TV Insider.
In a statement provided to Soap Opera Digest, the show wrote, “Days of our Lives is announcing today that Paula Cwikly and Jeanne Marie Ford will become the daytime drama’s new head writers beginning immediately. As part of the change, head writer Ron Carlivati will be departing the show after seven years. Episodes written by Carlivati will air through April 2025 due to the show’s unique tape to air schedule.”
In the statement, DAYS’s executive producer, Ken Corday, said, “We look forward to approaching our 60th Anniversary next year with Paula and Jeanne Marie at the helm and fresh, exciting stories that we know the fans will embrace. We wish Ron nothing but the best and thank him for his dedication and the respect he has shown to me, the cast, and the show’s legacy.”
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