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Passions is an American television soap opera that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1999, to September 7, 2007, and on DirecTV's The 101 Network from September 17, 2007, to August 7, 2008. Created by screenwriter James E. Reilly and produced by NBC Studios, Passions follows the lives, loves and various romantic and paranormal adventures of the residents of Harmony, a small town in New England with many secrets. Storylines center on the interactions among members of its multi-racial core families: the African-American Russells, the white Cranes and Bennetts, and half-Mexican half-Irish Lopez-Fitzgeralds. The series also features supernatural elements, which focus mainly on town witch Tabitha Lenox (Juliet Mills) and her doll-come-to-life, Timmy (Josh Ryan Evans). NBC cancelled Passions on January 16, 2007. The series was subsequently picked up by DirecTV. The series aired its final episode on NBC on September 7, 2007, with new episodes continuing on DirectTV's 101 Network starting on September 17. In December 2007, just months after picking up the series, DirecTV decided not to renew its contract for Passions, and the studio was subsequently unable to sell the series elsewhere. The final episode was broadcast in August 2008. As of 2024, Passions is the last daytime television soap opera created for American network television. Series history Passions debuted on NBC broadcast television in July 1999 with major fanfare. Creator Reilly had been credited for a large surge in the ratings for Days of Our Lives years before, thanks to innovative storylines like that of heroine Dr. Marlena Evans being possessed by Satan that drew new viewers, but also tended to alienate stalwart fans. With Passions, Reilly was able to start with a blank slate and no pre-existing fan base to please. The series replaced the Procter & Gamble-produced serial Another World, which ended a 35-year run on June 25, 1999, on NBC's daytime schedule. In the early days of the show, Passions heroine Sheridan Crane is identified as a close friend of Diana, Princess of Wales; soon Sheridan recalls speaking to Diana on the phone immediately before the 1997 car accident in which Diana was killed. Sheridan also has a similar accident in the same Paris tunnel, and speaks to a "guardian Angel Diana" who urges her to fight to survive, which drew considerable controversy. Sheridan later adopts the name Diana after a boating accident that results in amnesia. The opening days of the show also introduced the Theresa/Ethan/Gwen love triangle that persisted as an ongoing main story line to the very last episode of the series. For much of the first three to four years of the series, supernatural elements such as witches, warlocks, and closet doors leading to Hell were major plot points, many surrounding the machinations of the centuries-old witch Tabitha Lenox and her doll-brought-to-life sidekick, Timmy—named by Entertainment Weekly as one of their "17 Great Soap Supercouples" in 2008. In 2001, HarperEntertainment released Hidden Passions, a tie-in novelization presented as Tabitha's diary, exposing the secrets and pasts of the town's residents. Passions featured a story-line involving Tabitha and Timmy promoting the book, which reached #4 on the real-life New York Times Best Seller list and garnered the series two alternative covers of TV Guide in July 2001. In 2003, Passions submitted an orangutan named BamBam, who had been portraying the recurring role of Precious, for a Daytime Emmy Award. Precious was the non-speaking live-in nurse and caregiver for elderly Edna Wallace, and held an unrequited love for Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald, which was depicted in elaborate fantasy sequences. In early 2004, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which administers the awards, disallowed the entry with the following statement: Our ruling is based on the belief that the Academy must draw a line of distinction between animal characters that aren't capable of speaking parts and human actors whose personal interpretation in character portrayal creates nuance and audience engagement that uniquely qualifies those performers for consideration of television's highest honor. In summer 2005, the prominent character Simone Russell came out as gay; Passions made daytime history by being the first serial to show two women—Simone and love interest Rae Thomas—in bed making love. In 2007, it was revealed that longtime hero Chad Harris-Crane was cheating on his wife with another man. This was also a daytime first, with the men portrayed in bed together, committing—albeit unknowingly—incest. Passions also portrayed Vincent as an intersex person who became pregnant with his own father's son. Nearly seven years after the debut of Passions on July 5, 1999, the NBC-owned Sci Fi Channel began airing the series from its first episode starting February 13, 2006. Due to low ratings, the reruns were taken off the air as of May 25, 2006. On August 15, 2006, Passions became the first daytime drama to make full episodes available for download and purchase from the online music store iTunes. On November 6, 2006, the show also became the first daytime drama to make full episodes available for free viewing via streaming on NBC.com. Though plagued since its inception by low overall Nielsen ratings, Passions was historically top-rated in key demographics, namely the female 12-to-17 demographic; Passions and Days of Our Lives usually occupied the top two positions among all soaps in this age group. Move to DirecTV The series was not renewed by NBC for a full ninth season in 2007, with NBC instead deciding to extend its morning news and talk show Today to a fourth hour. NBC began shopping the series to other networks. In April 2007, paid-subscription-service satellite provider DirecTV bought exclusive broadcasting rights from NBC to continue airing Passions, with most principal cast members staying on. As the series was coming to an end on NBC, the Passions Live talk show hosted by Eric Martsolf premiered in August 2007 every Thursday night on original-programming channel The 101, giving fans the chance to telephone the show and interact live with Passions cast members, making Passions the first and only soap opera to ever have a live talk show in U.S. history. Passions Live continued to air on Thursday nights after the series moved to DirecTV, until October 2007. The live show was also streaming live on the official Passions website at NBC.com. Passions ended its NBC run on September 7, 2007, and new episodes began airing on The 101 on September 17, 2007. The series ran Monday to Thursday at 2:00 pm ET/11 am PT on DirecTV, with repeats airing later in the day and on weekends. NBC.com continued to maintain Passions' official website after the series move from NBC to DirecTV; however, new episodes were no longer available at NBC.com for free streaming or for purchase at iTunes. Initially, the new episodes were only supposed to be exclusively av.... Discover the Theresa Leigh popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Theresa Leigh books.