Days of Our Lives fans were shocked to their cores this week upon learning Salem’s resident on-again/off-again gay power couple, Sonny Kirakis and Will Horton (a.k.a. WilSon), are being written off the long-running daytime drama.
Actor Freddie Smith, who plays Sonny Kirakis in the series, broke the news on Twitter this week, telling fans, “Days of Our Lives releases Freddie Smith and Chandler Massey from contracts. I will miss Salem so much!!”
Related: ‘Days of Our Lives’: Making gays look good by letting us be bad… and horny
“Thank you all for the incredible love and support throughout the years,” he added. “I really feel we told a love story that will live on forever.”
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Days of Our Lives releases Freddie Smith and @ChandlerMassey from contracts. https://t.co/dMOErFKz2b
I will miss Salem so much!! Thank you all for the incredible love and support throughout the years. I really feel we told a love story that will live on forever.— freddie smith ? (@freddiemsmith) February 12, 2020
Chandler Massey, who plays Will Horton, followed up with a tweet of his own, writing: “Wish it weren’t coming to an end, but I will be forever grateful to everyone who went on this journey with us.”
Wish it weren’t coming to an end, but I will be forever grateful to everyone who went on this journey with us. https://t.co/Wv0ZfQwFGo
— Chandler Massey (@ChandlerMassey) February 12, 2020
Both Smith and Massey included a link video in which Smith reveals that the guys’ last day of filming Days may be as early as… this week?!
In the video, Smith doesn’t say how the couple departs the show, but he does reveal their final episode won’t actually air until September 18, 2020, since the show films all episodes six months prior to airing.
Smith also says the departure “was not our choice,” and that he and Massey had been looking forward to staying on and keeping their storyline going; however, he says being written off the show didn’t come as a complete surprise to him.
“As the scripts started coming in, I was like, ‘This doesn’t look good. This doesn’t look like we’re going to get re-signed to a contract.’”
Fans have not taken the news well. At all. Check out what they’re saying…
Totally gutted just found out that @ChandlerMassey and @freddiemsmith have been released from their contracts on Days of our lives . WilSon better get back together before they leave
— caroline rodger (@carolinerodger) February 12, 2020
#Days #WilSon https://t.co/sTUhQuBtG6 I am shocked sadden totally devastated by this news.September 18 will be the boy’s last scene and by last day watching this show.I feel so sad for Freddie you can see hurt and saddens in his words and face
— WilSon/Ballum (@LunaticNation) February 12, 2020
I am very disappointed y’all were mistreated. This is emotional abuse.
— PattiHMcD (@Patti6192) February 14, 2020
First with Judi Evans and now with Chandler Massey and Freddie Smith. Days of our Lives seems to have a real problem with how they let people go. Messy, messy of TPTB at Days. #Days #DOOL #WilSon
— Chris Bedell (@ChrisBedell) February 13, 2020
Well, I always knew Ron Carlivati was the worst thing that happened to Days of our Lives. FS said it himself in that YouTube video. It wasn’t his and CM’s choice to leave Days. #Days #DOOL #WilSon
— Chris Bedell (@ChrisBedell) February 12, 2020
You and @freddiemsmith were the only two reasons why I was watching #Days. #WilSon will always be the #1 best/favorite couple on “Days Of Our Lives”. I am truly going to miss you both so much. ❤😭
— ❤ Tonya Pozey ❤ (@TonyaPozey) February 12, 2020
#Days I can’t believe I’m hearing this!!! No more #Wilson???? That sucks!!!!https://t.co/TKCORJR4bb
— Michael Santangelo (@MichaelSantang5) February 12, 2020
It’s just wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Together you have changed daytime. More importantly, you have changed lives. And your work keeps getting better and better and better. You are at the heart of Salem. @nbcdays
— David Harold (@DavidHYale) February 14, 2020
No surprise Days of our Lives is getting rid of Freddie and Chandler! Days loves treating their only gay couple as second class citizens! Ron Carlivati is a fucking idiot! #Days #DOOL #WilSon
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬— Chris Bedell (@ChrisBedell) February 12, 2020
Agreed!! Days of our Lives just used their only gay couple as a background prop and treated them like second class citizens. And they missed a lot of moments with the tumor story. #Days #WilSon https://t.co/x9NyPd5BQr
— Chris Bedell (@ChrisBedell) February 12, 2020
I’m shocked and miffed at the same time . As a gay man, I love seeing gay characters on Days Of Our Lives. I will truly miss seeing Will and Sonny😢
— Xavier King (@XavierK_1970) February 13, 2020
chase_boston
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reclaime the Scapegoat or be lost in fake is.rael & love is not pretending.
Deacon
Sorry to see Chandler Massey leave but Will should have been with Paul, Sonny was alway annoying.
cd30
i totally agree with you on that. I always thought that since they got together and then when will was chasing paul forever and finally got him. the chemistry between Paul and Will was much better than Will and Sonny
redboy70
Your lede pic at the top with the topless actors is actually Christopher Sean (another departed Days gay) and Chandler Massey, not Freddie Smith.
stanhope
Social media can stop this!
LamarTrotsky
“Sands through the hourglass?” More like shit through a tinhorn.
JPB
LOL!
bonbon
I didn’t know this show still existed. How do enough people watch this tripe to keep it alive?
Joshooeerr
Say what you like about crappy soap operas – and they are mostly crappy – but they’ve probably done more to increase widespread social acceptance of homosexuality than any other force, including gay activism. From the Australian soap Number 96 in 1972 (the first positive gay characters on television anywhere in the world) to the UK’s Eastenders in the early 80s to Dynasty and the daytime soaps thereafter, they have done a great deal to portray gay characters in a positive light. And viewers who would otherwise have freaked out at the very thought of someone being gay slowly came to see that there’s nothing to fear.
lacrosse72
This is so disappointing. I am a gay ex-Mormon man in Utah. I watched Days when I was young. I heard about this storyline and gay marriage from others. I know the show has changed some peoples’ thinking about gay marriage to be in favor of it (which shows the power of the medium). I started watching it again and have been watching ever since. Only I couldn’t find it at first. The NBC affiliate in Utah is Mormon Church-owned KSL and it won’t show Days of Our Lives do to its gayness and it plays in the middle of the night. Have to record it.
Bob LaBlah
Don’t we all know by now that when celebrities, talk show hosts and television shows begin to suffer in ratings thats the time to bring out the gays? When Rush Limbaugh’s ratings start declining as well as Pat Robertson’s they say something stupid to remind people they are still alive. Lets say half a million people or better hear about their stupid remarks. Out of that half a million at least 100k of them are going to either do a google search or tune in. When that happens they can rightfully declare mission accomplished. So help me I thought Days of Our Lives had been canceled right after The Edge of Night.
innocentgay
Will has literally been killed, stuffed into a suitcase, and thrown away before. I’m not worried.
nmarkwb
SAME OLD BURY GAY TROPE BS.