GLATWT88

Definitely. I think clearance and scheduling were the greatest downfall of soaps in the 70s and 80s.

Wow, I never heard of this supposed cut to OLTL. Seems like a really bad move. The obvious choice would be to drop PC and return the half hour, instead of cutting OLTL which was fine (as fine as soaps in 2003 could be) and putting PC which was showing little to no signs of life and had been weakening for a few years in the other half hour. I mean the networks have made poorer choices...

If anything YR is proof that a new soap debuting after the 60s could be HIGHLY successful. I do consider RH to be a successful 70s debut as well, but it was stable in the middle of the pack- what I'm saying is YR was able to get to the top. While there were a few soaps that debuted in the 70s and 80s that had moderate success, none really were a top ratings contender. Some may argue that BB, but it never outdid Capitol at its peak and it lagged in the key demo until the 2000s when all the soaps were floundering anyway.

Thanks for pointing that out. Seems very unlikely that this 20 million figure is accurate with a 7.8/31. Unless the other days were really low rating, there's no way the week would have averaged pretty much where ATWT is currently rating for the weeks above in March 83. I wonder the source of this "fact" because it's been repeated countless times and in many publications.

I think pushing AMC to 12:30 and sandwiching Loving between AMC and OLTL would have been beneficial to Loving and the network as AMC was on fire and would have been a much better match up against YR (also doing extremely well) instead of a new soap trying to establish itself. I am curious to see what the affiliate numbers will be for Loving in the ratings thread. I feel like affiliates would have been less likely to preempt Loving if it was between AMC and OLTL as placing local programming between the two soaps just seems unlikely but who knows.

I watched the clip you posted. Some good stuff. I am curious what the numbers for Betsy and Steve's wedding in May 84 will turn out to be. I know there's the much repeated 20 million, but there's also much doubt surrounding that figure.

Thanks for all the insights into ratings history. I love looking back with an analytical lens. On the latest ratings, ATWT is showing growth after trailing in the previous years. And Days almost hitting 7s!

That's a decent start. I doubt it will mean much in daytime numbers. Also, interesting to see a repeat of Trapper John at the very top.

It had a two hour premiere in primetime on a Sunday night. It just cracked the top 30 against mostly repeats I'm assuming since it was in late June. I'm wondering how that translated to its first week in daytime.

I wouldn't be surprised if it could have performed well beyond that. Just a few months earlier it was able to get a 5 with 157 stations and 80 pct clearance. Unfortunately EON never got full clearance or anywhere near it after its switch to ABC.

Thanks for the insight. I didn't realize that someone else was recast as well. I thought maybe there were more mysterious reasons for the change.

Yet, it's performing at the same level as SB and SFT which have higher clearances. It really was poorly handled and could have succeed under the right hands.

Wow, quite a read. Such a fascinating backstory. It says a lot about his character that everyone seemed to love him and had such high praise. Seems like the EON cast was really supportive. I am curious about the details of Joey being cut from EON. It was so vague.

Could a 4th hour of soaps been successful on ABC? After acquiring Edge and expanding three soaps, ABC had a four hour block of soaps that consisted of RH, AMC, OLTL, GH, and EON. NBC would later have a similar situation after picking up SFT. Neither network seemed to make these 4 hour blocks work. While NBC was in terrible shape, ABC soap trio was booming. RH and EON were performing reasonably for a time considering clearance. Could ABC have done more to maintain this fourth hour? It held on to the 12:30 slot for a while but never really seemed to make it work.

I think she's great for the show. I'm just not sure if these accounts stanning for her are actually condoning her weird/sometimes rude behavior or if they're saying she's great for TV. I'm curious as to her age when she moved. I worked abroad for a few years and just moved back and a great number of my colleagues were from South Africa. We were a good mix of accents - the only one that really struck me was a British woman who had worked abroad many years and her accent was Americanized but there was a uniqueness to it that didn't quite fit. Everyone else regardless of time abroad seemed to retain their national accent - I do know that some adults can experience a bit of a change after many years but usually very subtle.

I'm not a Jessel fan and I'm not getting the hype over on Twitter either. I see the insecurity from a mile away - it's in her weird marriage situation to a guy she definitely feels is beneath her. I think in her mind she should have done better but in reality that was what she could get. She treats him horribly and you can't tell me 2 years of no sex is normal in a relationship and that she has other friends that think that's okay. There is some other problems there. Her reaction to Jenna's gift sucked. Was it ugly? Yes. But it brought out her own insecurities...instead of owning it and playing with it...you can tell from her whole demeanor, her frumpy walk, her attitude and what she was saying that she was so uncomfortable in how she looked. Also, did she go to the Dorit school of accents. Her accent is neither here nor there. I can understand that accents evolve over time, but for the most part they're pretty fixed after puberty unless you are forcibly trying to make some drastic changes.

GL has taken a tumble. It was doing so well. Days seems to be on an uptick. It's performing solidly in the 6s or high 5s.

Who do we know? I'm really so unaware when it comes to these things. Also, I looked up Chris Bernau's wiki (I've been watching a lot of 1981 GL) and saw that he died of AIDS related complications in the 80s. My first assumption was he may have been gay 😳 I did see his name on the list up a few posts, so seems it's true. Do we know if he was out to cast or if he had any partners?

Yes, you're right!

I'm curious what a YR/ATWT/GL vs AMC/OLTL/GH at 1/2/3pm would have looked like. I do believe YR benefited from its 12:30 timeslot, but it was obviously successful for just being a solid soap. YR and GL were performing well. GL performed solidly until 1985 and then it started to slip. The 84/85 season had YR and GL ranked 3rd and 4th above OLTL (5). YR was a tenth of a point below AMC and it was only up from there. The 12:30 slot proved to be less successful on the other networks starting in the 80s with several half hour soaps taking up short residencies. BB's success is in large part due to not being placed at 12:30 like most of the other soap and being bookended by two established soaps, one of which would soon lead daytime for decades.

Wow! Ryan's Hope beating out GL and YR. It pains me to see GL in the 6s after such incredibly strong weeks and numbers. I think ABC's dominance in the late 70s/ early 80s really played with networks decision making. They were making choices that would ultimately further harm their long running soaps. I've been watching bits of 1981 GL and the ratings here support how well the show was performing in spite of heavy competition from GH, but it seems like even CBS wasn't satisfied. I found the following on Wikipedia, unsure of how true it is but it definitely fits the narrative of the networks making such impulsive decisions around these years... Writer Marland quit in 1982 due to a dispute over treatment of his friend Jane Elliot, when the Carrie multiple personality disorder storyline did not carry Guiding Light's ratings to #1 above its rival, General Hospital. Elliot was fired by Allen Potter, and Marland ended the storyline. Before Marland quit, Guiding Light won its second Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Daytime Drama, for the 1981 – 1982 television season, and despite Marland's departure, things looked very well for this long time CBS drama.

Thank you, thank you!

Wow! Thank you @JAS0N47 Comparatively, would you be able to pull YR demos for around the same period. If it's too much, no worries.

I'll have to check it out. I think the stories at this time are well executed and I can understand why GL was holding up so well against GH. On a separate note, I don't understand CBS's motivation to part with SFT. Its numbers have dipped from a year ago when it was performing very well, but so have YR's. Either way, the numbers are still reasonable. It could have easily been retuned, although its dip most likely had to do with timeslot change more than anything else. I wonder if demos weren't as great due to it being an older soap.

Watching bits of Nov. 1981 and Diane has been killed (September) and Alan is in Tenerife hiding out with Hope. Vanessa was a suspect but a housekeeper has corroborated one of her lies. Ross and Carrie (Jane Elliot) seem to be quite romantic, but Ross is unaware that Carrie actually killed Diane- so I'm assuming that was revealed sometime between Nov and Jan., because Ross and Carrie get married sometime in Feb. 82. Nola is pregnant and seems to have caused a big mess in her friend group because of her last for Kelly. Ross is also aware that Phillip isn't Alan's and something about getting him to sign something in the will. Sorry, I couldn't be more detailed. On a side note, Anna Stuart as Vanessa is fantastic.