• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, March 21, 2023

Some shows go, some change and some stay -- and stay and stay and stay.

Such is the passage of TV time, as reflected in recent days in some of the advisories and news releases received here from all corners of the TV universe.

From CBS came the news that the network plans to say good-bye to “NCIS: Los Angeles” after 14 seasons with a special two-part episode airing in two separate hours on consecutive Sunday nights -- May 14 and May 21.

On the final night, the show will get a special, one-hour send-off produced by “Entertainment Tonight.”

When I read this news release, two thoughts occurred to me: (1) What? “NCIS: Los Angeles” is going off the air? Why doesn't anybody ever tell me these things? and (2) It's been on for 14 seasons? LL Cool J has not aged at all!

While “NCIS: LA” prepares for its “E.T.” salute, a salute of a different kind is coming to CBS next Monday, March 27, according to another communique from deep within the CBS p.r. machinery.

It is a one-hour, prime-time, 50th anniversary celebration of a daytime show, “The Young and the Restless,” which made its debut in 1973.

It is one of only three soaps still on network TV. The other survivors are “The Bold and the Beautiful” on CBS (debut year, 1987) and “General Hospital” on ABC (1963).

The upcoming soap salute revives memories of when soaps were numerous and the soap magazines were well-represented in the TV press corps.

They pioneered the use of abbreviated acronyms for the soaps, including “Y&R” (“The Young and the Restless”), the same as an old ad agency; “B&B” (“The Bold and the Beautiful”), like a quaint country inn; and “GH” (“General Hospital”), which is like nothing else before or since.

“GH” is the oldest soap still on the air, but another one comes close. It is “Days of Our Lives,” known as “DOOL” in the old soap mags, and dating back to 1965.

In researching the ages of these surviving soaps, I had this thought: I am older than all of them.

“DOOL” is no longer in a “dool” with the other three network soaps since it left NBC and migrated to Peacock last summer -- making it the only one of the old soaps to join the world of subscription streaming.

NBCU is apparently so satisfied with the show's move to Peacock that it has renewed the soap through at least September 2025, said a news release that popped into the special TV Blog inbox on Wednesday, March 15.

Two days earlier came the announcement from ABC that the world had been anxiously awaiting ever since the awful news came in February that Ryan Seacrest had decided to leave “Live With Kelly and Ryan” after six years.

The latest from ABC, received here on Monday, March 13: Kelly Ripa's husband, Mark Consuelos, will join his wife as her official co-host on Monday, April 17. Mid-morning TV was saved, as the world turns.