Days of our Lives pays a mini tribute to a classic All My Children recast

Days of our Lives' soap-within-a-soap backstage drama is heating up some more and becoming more soapy by the day. In fact, the show recently invoked a famous All My Children scene that was easy to miss if you weren't paying attention — or if you weren't an All My Children fan.

Days of our Lives' Chanel has a request

Chanel Dupree DiMera (Raven Bowens) was ready to leave her role of Faith behind on Body and Soul. After learning her co-star had a drunken night of almost-sex with her husband, Chanel was done. She refused to work with Joy Wesley (AlexAnn Hopkins) and wished she had never given up the life of a full-time baker for the life of a full-time actress. She also had no desire to work with her cheating husband.

When she told her stepdad and producer Abe (James Reynolds) that she was quitting, he didn't want to let her go. Faith was too integral a character to exit the show, so Chanel suggested that Abe just recast. After all, soaps do it all the time.

"I remember I was watching one of Big Mama's stories. And this lady Babe? She went in for a hug and came out a completely different person," Chanel reasoned, referring to watching soaps with her grandmother.

Abe pointed out that soaps can't do that in 2025 and referenced Soap Twitter, a place where fans critique every single aspect of a show, including recast methods.

"They are going to rip this show to threads the moment we'd announce we're recasting," Abe argued.

In the end, Johnny (Carson Boatman) offered to quit instead, but what recast was Chanel really referring to in her pleas to Abe?

The new Babe Carey on All My Children

In 2007, Alexa Havins, who now plays Lulu Spencer on General Hospital, opted to leave All My Children and the role of Babe behind. Havins had played Babe since 2003 and was ready for a change. All My Children made that change happen when Babe began to hug her mom Krystal (Bobbie Eakes) as Havins, but when the embrace ended in the next episode, Amanda Baker was playing the role.

"It's so classic soap," Havins said in a 2020 interview with Entertainment Weekly. "I tell the story to people who don't watch, and I'm like, 'No, you don't understand.'"

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As for Chanel, she is still torn between continuing with Body and Soul, but if Abe has anything to do with it, there won't be a recast.

Catch all-new episodes of Days of our Lives weekdays on Peacock.

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