Danny Boy? Sorry, I know Daniel Cosgrove is a grown man but I just had to slip some Maeve Ryan realness in there for a moment.
There’s some talk in the soap stratosphere that Daniel Cosgrove is leaving Days of Our Lives.
Thus far, it hasn’t been confirmed by the network, but a few reliable sources (here and here) have posted information, so it seems legit.
DAYS has been doing a massive reset on what seems like an annual basis for a few years now, and TPTB decided to go back to the Classic DAYS template again, so it’s understandable that newer characters might hit the road.
But I’m bummed for the show and bummed for Cosgrove.
Why?
I think he’s a really solid actor, a great fit for the soap medium, and has a great sense of humor.
I don’t want to pigeonhole Cosgrove in a comparison, but his humor, charm and handsomeness should mean a front burner role a la Nathan Fillion. I could totally see Cosgrove playing a Castle like character on any show, daytime or nighttime.
But for some reason, only his time on Guiding Light really captured that. His pairings with Crystal Chappell and Emme Rylan, in particular, were great showcases for that sort of crackling, humorous banter.
I didn’t have any solid sense of his Scott during his second go round at All My Children, and he was put into an unenviable position at the end of As The World Turns. He was tasked with redefining Chris Hughes, an oft-recast character who (a) had to woo the town’s, erm, best networked and most popular widow and (2) die for pretty much the last six months of the show.
His time as Aidan started off in a promising way; he and Kristian Alfonso had great chemistry, and Aidan seemed like a great antidote to the sadness of Hope coping with the end of her marriage to Bo. I was even hoping that the writers might bring in a sibling for Aidan, or in some way expand his family.
But the dead wife kinda put a kink in that. I think that story might have damaged his character, or derailed the rooting value for Hope and Aiden. And as soon as Peter Reckell’s return was announced….well, I suppose it was inevitable.
I’ve enjoyed Cosgrove’s work from GL forward. He was one of the many folks I met during my GL set visit in December 2008, and you could practically have made a show out of the backstage stuff he was doing.
Here’s hoping he lands on our screens again soon — day or night, small or big screens.
In the meantime, I’ll enjoy seeing what happens next with Aiden — with a bit of wariness, hoping that they don’t destroy his character in the process.
A | THOUSAND | OTHER | WORLDS 
Daniel Cosgrove was fantastic on GL. He really was a breath of fresh air, adding excitement to all his scenes. He had great chemistry with his leading ladies and I really liked his character. He was definitely one of the best things that happened in the final decade of GL.
All of his subsequent roles have been rather bland. Oh, he’s a good actor, but his Chris on ATWT and Scott on AMC just weren’t as good a fit as his Bill Lewis was. Neither of those roles was very memorable and neither character stood out on those shows’ final year. His Aiden on Days is far more exciting that the ATWT and AMC roles, but not quite on the level of his Bill Lewis. His pairing with Hope has turned out to be good, but that dead wife saga really damaged the character. I’ll be sorry to see him go, but not surprised either given the way Dena Higley seems to be cleaning house at a hyper pace (much like Michael Malone did when he returned to OLTL in 2003).
Agreed, James.