GLATWT88

I agree on the RHOBH being contrived and the women wanting to be perceived a certain way on camera. It may not be a popular opinion, but Kyle is not a good housewife...she cares too much about what the audience thinks and this plays a role on how she maneuvers and acts on camera because she wants to be portrayed in a certain light. As seasons went on, Kyle began to demonstrate this more and more, to the point I don't even get why she's there. I think this is a big issue with many of the longstanding housewives shows, because the women know how to play the game, they want to be liked and well received, so you're getting less authenticity and more of a forced persona. There's also more hiding or control of the narrative on their part. All of which makes it less fun to watch.

While I love to see GL so high on that list, beating GH with a low 8s doesn't seem like much of a victory. Seems more like a failure for GH than anything else. GL was easily hitting 8s a few years back, it's finally finding its groove again. Would have been nice to see GL with a 9 again, but still pretty impressive that it beat out its time period competition which it hadn't in a long while. All though, I still hold that it was more impressive how strongly GL performed 78-81 when GH mania was in full force and their ratings were insane. OLTL no longer benefitting from AMC or GH as both have seemed to drop

I totally get what you're saying, but your generalization here makes it seems like one's tastes/preferences are isolated to very specific "flavors" - while the truth is we can like things that might seem as though they are opposites. Some who likes trashy reality TV shows can similarly like hard hitting investigative documentaries. Where I do agree with you is branding and identity...ABC soaps while all different did seem to be geared towards similar audiences. They had elements that carried over to each which gave them a sense of familiarity to anyone who watched the others - especially the trifecta of AMC/OLTL/GH. I also agree that while the CBS soaps exhibited this to a lesser degree, it was still there. That's why I could easily picture someone watching the entire CBS soap lineup or the entire ABC lineup...while the NBC one just didn't feel like it would appeal to the same audiences. Clealry there were many who enjoyed all of them, but on the surface they were catering to very different types of viewers as you mentioned. The issue really stems from NBC not having any long running soap debuts since the 70s. SB and Passions were the longest running new soaps on NBC from 1970s until its demise and neither lasted a decade. It is difficult to build a brand identity this way. Meanwhile the trifecta had been around since AMC's debut and had all that time to figure it out. It also helped that they were ABC's soaps. Meanwhile ATWT and GL had been around forever and YR since the early 70s. Had NBC expanded the Doctors to an hour, had Days and AW follow and potentially allowed one of the fourth soaps - Somerset most likely establish itself - it may have been able to solve this long identity crisis. A crisis which was brought on in large part to it never finding its place in daytime. Apart from a bit of success in the 70s, it began to fall apart and was always looking for something new or different to solve its daytime ratings.

Thank you. I feel like I recall seeing this now but didn't make the connection.

Enjoy! I've only ever seen her at the Sticky and Sweet tour in NYC. Would love to see her again, but when I look at the prices, I'm always a bit hesitant.

So what's the story surrounding this. I've seen it mentioned on this forum a few times that GL supposedly ranked #1 a few weeks in the summer of 1984, but others have pointed out that while GL had surpassed GH, it was not in fact #1. Where did the misinformation originate? Did the message get twisted along the way? I can see how it would be easy to assume that GL was #1 if it beat out GH considering GH was pretty much a powerhouse in the 80s. Is it possible that GL did reach the top?

The rumor going around about a complete ATL reboot is interesting. While I have struggled to follow ATL the past two seasons, it used to be one of my favorite franchises. I don't know if a complete reboot is necessary. I think a Miami style reboot would be better. I honestly think Kandi should go. She doesn't bring anything new IMO. I do like her but she's expensive and I don't think she adds that value back into the show. She had a good run, but I believe her time is up. I haven't been drawn in by Drew or Sanya, but tbf I haven't really watched faithfully these two seasons. I think the cast needs to be refocused around two or three of the girls with a few newbies. I doubt there is much truth to this rumor yet as casting decisions don't happen until after the reunion but the show is definitely in need of a refresh.

No problem. I hope you are safe and not staying in a harmful situation. I know it's not always easy to get out of such things, but there is help out there. I'm very sorry you are in this experience. Let me know if you need to talk.

Is everything alright?

Those are such sudden and significant drops for the ABC lineup. I don't think I recall seeing GH below a 9 and AMC below an 8. Also, the top rated soap at 7.8 is quite shocking...it wasn't even a very gradual decline. Definitely. Seems like the Luke and Laura exit had an impact on the entire ABC lineup.

A 12.6/37 for GH...what was that about? Nice to see GL improving.

I mean it was on at 3pm in the 70s, but that was pretty standard.

What time period are you referring to that AW was on at 3pm in NYC? Since returning to its hour long episodes in the 80s, it was on at 2pm in NYC. There was some interesting scheduling on CBS 2 NY in 1979, Love of Life was on at noon, followed by SFT 12:30pm, YR at 1pm, ATWT 1:30pm, GL 2:30pm. On NBC 4 NY, Texas started off at its intended 3pm timeslot, but eventually was moved to 11am, followed by the standard NBC lineup at the time Doctors 12pm, SFT 12:30pm, Days 1pm, AW 2pm.

So GH and YR averaged the same viewers and rating, but YR had a greater share and AMC besting both of them. Even the lowest rated soaps aren't too far off.

Seems like AW was benefiting from a stronger lead in from DAYS as well as OLTL softening on ABC and Capitol performing lower than SFT did in the timeslot.

Wow, a 7.3 for Days the week of September 5-9 tying it with GL and ATWT. What a turnaround Days is having.

WCBS NY aired GL at 10am from 1995 to the very end of its run. I honestly can't remember much of what aired at the 3pm slot after GL's move...I'm sure a bunch of talk shows, reality court shows, and programs of that nature.

Capitol is also showing some growth.

Right, clearance wasn't the issue here, but their competition was tough. However, there wasn't much room to place them elsewhere in the schedule without potentially hurting the other soaps in the lineup. I still don't understand why there wasn't more push to get EON better clearance.

Can't blame Loving's or RH's number on clearances. They're both over 95%, meanwhile EON hovering in the mid/high 70% and getting Loving numbers - just doesn't make sense.

Very interesting to see OLTL slip into the 7s especially when AMC and GH are performing in the 9s/10s. Guiding Light will show a ratings improvement compared to the past several months. It was honestly slipping after such a good run with Marland.

I would say a 2.9 is actually a great improvement. Whether or not that would have maintained in the long run is difficult to know. It also helped that the PC one off probably got the same clearance as OLTL at the time.

I think it stayed on as long as it did, because NBC knew that once Passions was cancelled they weren't replacing it with another soap and that would leave Days alone while the other two networks still had a pretty full lineup. Whether or not NBC cared, I'm not sure. I think it outperforming Sunset Beach and showing growth initially was pleasing to NBC, but it never really left the bottom.

You don't think NBC gave Passions a chance? It was on NBC for 8 years and consistently low rating. Even in the key demo it ranked low with a few good weeks thrughout its run where it was in the middle of the pack. While it did see some small growth in viewership the first few years, like all other soaps numbers were eroding and with each year less and less eyes on the screen.

I did notice that clearance was quite high for Capitol, but I do wonder what ATWT viewers were switching to at that time. Not that all ATWT viewers were also watching GL, but I assume there were many CBS households that watched the lineup through just as there were ABC households. I similarly made the inference that placing a new half hour soap between established soaps (in particular hour long ones) would likely hinder networks from preempting - which seems like the case for Capitol and BB.