November 3-7, 2008

[TMOTVSoaps]

OMG! Promotion is everything and CBS should be slapped in the god damn face for not promoting Y&R for the first full week of sweeps. Time after time promotion has been helping soaps over the past two years more than ever to get the ratings up a bit.

Y&R should be getting a 3.8 or better b/c the show is the best its been in a long time especially this year. I'm not even sure if the casual viewers even know what the hell has been going on Y&R or if it had even gotten better. How are they supposed to know if they don't promote the show?

Y&R might have a huge problem with viewers finding other places to watch it over the last two years. I think CBS needs to figure something out that'll make those viewers watch it live.

CBS had a horrid week as everything looks horrible for a sweeps period.

ABC is the real winner this week as their ratings look very strong right now. AMC actually seems to have gotten its spark this week with that 2.2 that hasn't been accomplished in months. I can't remember the last time AMC hit close to 2.9 or 3 million viewers. The only problem seems to be that end of the week problem the soaps are having. Thursdays and Fridays are really hurting the overall ratings for soaps. Soaps seemed to be only watched from Mondays-Wednesdays. The networks are going to have to start promoting Thursday and Friday's episodes and bring back the importance of cliffhanger Friday.

OLTL and GH had themselves a nice week as well. Both shows deserve it as they've done a great job in this sweeps period. OLTL and GH should rise next week as the real action is taking place this week.

DAYS is so solid right now, its keeping the same audience day in and day out. You can't complain about a show's ratings when there's stability b/c DOOL could be doing much worse and I mean much worse, but the show has improved alot overall.

Like I said before CBS is a real loser this week.

I'll talk about each show more in-depth in ratings column tomorrow.

[Angela]

Next weeks ratings should be interesting. I'm definitely wondering how or even if the end of the election will have a dramatic effect on ABCD. The View without the election and ABCD without The View having the election.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3

1.(1) Y&R: Monday: 3.5/4,865,000 (+284,000)

2.(2) B&B: Monday: 2.6/3,603,000 (+356,000)

3.(3) GH: Monday: 2.2/2,945,000 (+311,000)

4.(7) OLTL: Monday: 2.0/2,688,000 (+454,000)

5.(4) DAYS: Monday: 2.1/2,636,000 (SAME)

6.(6) AMC: Monday: 2.0/2,613,000 (+357,000)

7.(5) ATWT: Monday: 1.9/2,531,000 (+142,000)

8.(8) GL: Monday: 1.5/2,029,000 (+50,000)

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4

1.(1) Y&R: Tuesday: 3.4/4,772,000 (-93,000)

2.(2) B&B: Tuesday: 2.5/3,462,000 (-141,000)

3.(3) GH: Tuesday: 2.2/2,985,000 (+40,000)

4.(4) OLTL: Tuesday: 2.1/2,930,000 (+242,000)

5.(6) AMC: Tuesday: 2.1/2,836,000 (+223,000)

6.(5) DAYS: Tuesday: 2.0/2,640,000 (+4,000)

7.(7) ATWT: Tuesday: 1.9/2,558,000 (+27,000)

8.(8) GL: Tuesday: 1.5/2,155,000 (+126,000)

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5

1.(1) Y&R: Wednesday: 3.4/4,796,000 (+24,000)

2.(2) B&B: Wednesday: 2.4/3,315,000 (-147,000)

3.(3) GH: Wednesday: 2.3/3,009,000 (+24,000)

4.(5) AMC: Wednesday: 2.2/2,866,000 (+30,000)

5.(4) OLTL: Wednesday: 2.1/2,769,000 (-161,000)

6.(6) DAYS: Wednesday: 2.1/2,749,000 (+109,000)

7.(7) ATWT: Wednesday: 1.9/2,555,000 (-3,000)

8.(8) GL: Wednesday: 1.6/2,095,000 (-60,000)

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6

1.(1) Y&R: Thursday: 3.2/4,342,000 (-454,000)

2.(2) B&B: Thursday: 2.4/3,267,000 (-48,000)

3.(6) DAYS: Thursday: 2.0/2,749,000 (SAME)

4.(3) GH: Thursday: 2.2/2,722,000 (-287,000)

5.(7) ATWT: Thursday: 1.9/2,606,000 (+51,000)

6.(5) OLTL: Thursday: 1.9/2,406,000 (-363,000)

7.(4) AMC: Thursday: 1.9/2,397,000 (-469,000)

8.(8) GL: Thursday: 1.4/2,035,000 (-60,000)

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7

1.(1) Y&R: Friday: 3.4/4,596,000 (+254,000)

2.(2) B&B: Friday: 2.4/3,250,000 (-17,000)

3.(4) GH: Friday: 2.1/2,785,000 (+63,000)

4.(6) OLTL: Friday: 2.0/2,670,000 (+264,000)

5.(3) DAYS: Friday: 2.0/2,655,000 (-94,000)

6.(7) AMC: Friday: 1.9/2,589,000 (+192,000)

7.(5) ATWT: Friday: 1.9/2,497,000 (-109,000)

8.(8) GL: Friday: 1.4/1,992,000 (-43,000)

[JaneAusten]

Yeah makes sense. And when I look that Y&R dropped .3 in the 18-49 demo from last year, those are the folks more apt to DVR the show, watch it on Soapnet, or watch it onlne. I know it doesn't matter to advertisers, but I would love to see if Y&R got a ratings uplift on Soapnet. I know it's viewing habits primarily but it's just disappointng that the show has not rebounded at least a bit ratingswise. I do agree this week has been a big week for Y&R and next week looks to be also. Can I hope for a slight bump?

And ABC, AMC is holding. Their big tornado stunt did up the ratings and the show has not dropped back down to where it was - good news I guess. GH I'll never get anymore, unless there were actually people who tuned in to see Laura and Luke together. I don't have any idea if and what they promoted that week.

And to me reading ABCD's press release, there is no doubt what they're pushing. The View is all over their press release and their soaps really just a blip. As someone mentioned, with the election over I just wonder how well it and the rest of their daytime lineup will perform.

[marceline]

I want AMC to climb but I want them to do it slowly. The show has a lot of damage to repair and a lot to make up for in the minds of viewers. Even though I'm enjoying the show I'm still just a temporary "returnee." I still plan on leaving when Bianca does.

[VictorJrAngelBoy]

Then why are the ratings for Y&R significantly lower than they were when LML was there?

And even though I'm enjoy Y&R there's not much of a change that makes me thing "OMG why didn't fire her years ago". The only difference I've seen is in the music which is pleasant but to me the storylines, the acting, the characters themselves all appear to be going on as usual.

Of course this Paris stuff will shake things up a bit but I don't expect the rating to magically go up back to the 4.0 that seemed to be the norm when LML was in charge.

[JackPeyton]

ratings do not equal quality. also there is a reaction effect. under LML ratings fell and lost a lot of popel the show will NEVER get back, and the show kept losing, and kept going down after she was gone ebcayse people were fed up. it takes diff amounts of time for diff people to let osmething go, and a lot of times when they are gone they are gone for good.

as for the diff between during lml to psot lml, i dont see how anyone could say the characters are not 100000's better.

i dont expect anything to get Y&R back to a 4.0. I dont care either to be honest. I enjoy it.

[dm.]

ITA.

[Rocket Man]

I agree with the comments in regards to the need of major promotions of CBS soaps. Since last week was the US Presidential Election, GL was pre-empted in major markets that airs in earlier time slots (i.e. 9am, 10am) of NYC, Philly, Chicago, and other places for the election coverage on the day of the voting and the day after. Also it was pre-empted with President Bush's speech to congratulate Barack Obama and IMHO if it wasn't for the pre-emptions I believe GL would've achieved a higher ratings/viewers than what is reported. It is unfortunate that GL does not air 3pm EST/2pm CST across the country like all the other daytime soaps.

[MarkH]

Barbara Bloom has complained about this before. She is not being given the $$ to promote. This is idiocy at CBS-corporate, not Barbie's specific deficit.

Minimal promotion, at least off-network/out of daypart. I have low expectations.

As a HUGE early-LML fan, I still totally agree. Y&R now is as good as it has been since 1997-1998.

I have no hope for an uplift.

LML gets credit for ratings bumps in three phases:

- early phase (when she had help from Alden, Smith, Scott). Ratings held or went up. I think there was renewed excitement (and the show WAS better than it had been, IMO).

- major bump surrounding John Abbott's death, I guess in August 2006?

- major bump surrounding Pheila's death, I guess in early 2007?

Now, I think you can argue that the last two ratings bumps were artificial..."stunt boosts".

Notably, by the end of LML's reign, ratings were trending downward, and there wasn't even an "Out of the Ashes" bump.

Still, Y&R really plateaued at a new low level during the MAB/JG headwriting stint of early 2008. It was there that Y&R seemed to settle at its new 3.4 average, and it has hovered there for the most part ever since.

Translation: Even though the current Y&R is good, MAB and team _did_ seriously damage the show in 2008. I'm glad the show is holding now, but MAB cannot ever get credit as the "savior"...even if she holds at this level and quality for a while...because of the serious damage that was done earlier in the year. I realize some of that was during-strike and post-strike chaos, plus being saddled with LML's whole team...but nonetheless, the show was tanking creatively and in ratings during that time.

[MikeGoldy]

I'm really impressed with DAYS. It's keeping its audience and it isn't even featuring the so called major stars of the show. Good news for the show and its survival

[SOAPSFOREVER]

The sad truth is: LML did a lot of damage to Y&R, and the viewers that left don't seem to be coming back. It's true for all the soaps, really. Once the audience checks out, the check out permanently. That's why it's so critical for networks to make the right choice when they choose headwriters. It only took Latham a year or more to cause huge problems for Y&R that they may never recover for. Too bad Barbara Bloom didn't have to pay with her job, since she pushed so hard for her best buddy Latham. Even with Y&R spending big buck on a Paris remote, it's not doing to lure a sizeable chunk of the lost viewers back. I admire them for trying, and I hope it works, but it's doubtful.

[Becki]

I agree. I'm not sure we can ever know just how many longtime viewers Latham alienated to the point that they left a show, many of them after watching from the beginning. When you have a head writer come in that knows nothing of the show's history and adamantly refuses to be bothered learning about it, long time viewers are going to leave in droves. Why continue watching a show when the characters are no longer the characters you've always enjoyed? I think one of the biggest things MAB has done right is bring the core of the characters back to who they always were. They are acting like themselves again, thankfully. Also there is a wonderful balance to the show now that had been missing since Latham's early days.

Truthfully I don't expect a big bump in the ratings next week, since the network did nothing to promote it. But I do believe that if some of those folks that left knew that MAB and HS are attempting to right many of the wrongs that Latham created they might possibly be convinced to give the show another chance. The question is, how will they know if there is no promotion? All I can say is that this past week was THE BEST that Y&R has been in forever. Every story was wonderfully written and acted and I sincerely hope this trend continues even after sweeps is done.

[MichaelGL]

Congrats to OLTL for rising in total viewers.

[BadZoe]

I wonder if soaps will see a ratings boost as the unemployment rate increases and we head into a recession. Or if the viewers who have left soaps and found other things to do with their time, are never coming back.

AMC is a prime example for me of a soap that has pissed me off so much, there is nothing that can be done to win me back. Not that I was watching at the time of the unabortion, but that was the final straw for me because I used to watch it on days off. Now it gets skipped over on my remote. Same thing with OLTL and the non stop raping of Marty by Todd. I watched the original storyline and for the baby switch with Heather Tom, but will never give it another second of my soap viewing.

[Reddi]

I followed VI to Y/R but I didn't watch for the character of DC. I loved the Fisher Baldwins, and Katharine and Jill. Plus, it's heresy, I know... I like Amber.

I loved the fast paced stories, and the show had me glued to the set two months before David Chow showed up.

I never minded Victor being a villain... I DID mind the fact he was written as a spousal abuser, following a very realistic pattern that progressed.... and he was never brought down for it. I found it all kinds of offensive. I do expect 'abuse' to be more extreme on a soap, and a villain to be a villain, but the fact he's painted as romantic tragic hero after this behavior is absolutely vile to me.

Perhaps they never ought to have written him that way, but they did, and thus it needs to be dealt with.

I don't mind him being a jerk. I mind the fact the show wrote a very realistic abuse story and then made the abuser a hero.

I also liked LML's writing, especially early on. I think the show began to unravel with the 'retooling' that supposedly went on in fall of 07, and then with the writers strike it went rapidly downhill.

Yes, OOTA seemed to come from that 'retooling' and it was a pretty big disappointment. I'm not sure WHO is responsible for that 'retooling' but it came after LML was writing and had her people in place, so I'd guess it had to do with something other than LML. At the time I wondered if CBS was getting ABC-style network interference, which is a disaster for soaps, imo.