Days Of Our Lives fires a very angry Albert Alarr after cast calls for his removal

The long-time co-executive producer has been fired from the soap after 25 cast members signed a petition calling for his removal

By William Hughes  |  August 5, 2023 | 6:36pm
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Days Of Our Lives fires a very angry Albert Alarr after cast calls for his removal
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Albert Alarr Photo: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Days Of Our Lives

After weeks of protest, and an investigation from distributor Sony Pictures Television, long-running soap Days Of Our Lives has fired co-executive producer Albert Alarr, Deadline reports. The final straw appears to have been a petition signed by 25 members of the show’s cast, who alleged that Alarr exhibited inappropriate behavior and fostered a toxic workplace environment on the set of the Peacock soap opera, calling for him to be replaced with a female director. Breaking the news, series executive producer Ken Corday also announced that the show would be instituting a number of new human resources policies—which, given that multiple unhappy employees quoted Alarr as cheerfully saying “Good thing there’s no HR” after doing something that made them uncomfortable, feels like a fairly natural step. Janet Drucker, who’s been with the show for more than 30 years and nearly 3,000 episodes, has been promoted to fill Alarr’s position.

Alarr was the subject of a nine-week investigation into his behavior, which included allegations of inappropriately touching actors on the show, verbally belittling them, and “governing by fear.” Initially, the show’s producers decided to keep him on with a warning and an order to undergo new training, but that appears to have kicked off an open revolt from the show’s cast after it produced, in Deadline’s terms, no meaningful change.

Meanwhile, Alarr has his own (very angry) spin on things: He issued a statement this weekend in which he alleged that the entire push against him was orchestrated by two unnamed people who were “relentlessly angling for greater pay and increased influence on the show, and, it appears, believed that their best strategy to get it was to play on vile stereotypes in order to bring down a Black man in a position of power.” Alarr also stated that, “Many of the claims recently referenced in the media are simply false. Others have been taken so out of context or are so twisted that they are unrecognizable from the truth.”

 
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