New life for 'Passions?'

My buddy Daniel Coleridge at TVGuide.com is scooping that NBC may be dealing with DIRECTV to keep PASSIONS around after its September axing by NBC!

TVGuide.com has learned that NBC is in talks to move Passions to DIRECTV when the soap's broadcast TV run concludes this fall.

As previously reported, the Peacock has cancelled Passions and will last air the campy sudser on Sept. 7, 2007.

Nevertheless, NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly recently offered us hope for Passions' future. "We are going to be looking very, very seriously at keeping [Passions] alive," the exec told reporters at TCA's winter press tour. "The fact is, there are loyal viewers of this show who love it and show up every day. And in a perfect world, we'd like to keep the brand alive. There may be another network. You know, I don't think it's a broadcast network, but there may be another cable network that wants to get in business with us and have some sort of on-air presence for the show."

If things work out, die-hard Passions watchers will have good reason to dump their cable and subscribe to DIRECTV satellite service. FYI, NBC declined comment for this story, while calls to DIRECTV were not immediately returned. No surprise there, since companies generally don't like to comment on these things until the deal is officially sealed.

Stay tuned, Passions aficionados... Tabitha, Endora and the rest of Harmony's lovable freaks may still have some afterlife in them yet!

Fingers crossed, all you Adrian Bellani and Eric Martsolf fans!