JoeCool

True. But GH has double digits in May. So the numbers are high and they are not much higher for OLTL and AMC vs May. ABC just killing it.

The week of 7/20, GH, OLTL and AMC all over 10+ in the ratings Wow!

If this is true, Disney would have to buy the 100% of the Bell Serial Company that owns B&B and a share of the Y&R. I see nothing in the press about this. Disney would own B&B outright and a share of Restless as well. Would be interesting if true. I do not see Disney's Bob Iger doing this but who knows,

General Hospital honestly was not a good show after 1982...all the action adventure stories were awful. The double digits were temporary and really not warranted and the other show that really competed with GH was Guiding Light. No real competiton from NBC at all. After Genie Francis left in 1981, ratings started to drop. All My Children almost beat GH for the crown for the 1982-1983 season. Honestly, if GH had to compete against Restless it would have been an entirely different ballgame. The fact GH is still on the air baffles me. All My Children and One Life to Live were always (for the most part) better than GH. That's an entirely other matter though!

ABC's "temporary" success in the ratings ...depending when you start to measure started as early as 1978 or as late as 1981 and lasted until late 1984. So 6+ years or 3 years. Bill Bell ran a tight and good ship at Restless so I think CBS forcing Bill to go to an hour in Feb 1980 rattled his cage a little storyline wise. Bell seemed to get his mojo back in late 1981 and he never really faltered after this period until he retired in 1998. Very impressive!!

The drop-off of Restless' ratings might not be a "tanking" but it is significant drop off. ABC had been rising for quite a while and Restless was right up in the top 3 or even close to Number 1. 6th place is not where Restless should reside. SOunds more like the transition to an hour plus the schedule change and the storylines shifting to Newman and Nikki and the Abbotts slowed Restless down a bit.

Week of 6/22: Ryan's Hope in 4th place WOW! ABC soaps rank in top 4 spots! RH beating Restless wow!! And the entire CBS lineup and NBC lineup!

Very strange that all these storylines are climaxing and the ratings tank!

Wow! Week of 6/1/81 to 6/5/81: Young and the Restless in 7th place. Ryan's Hope beating Restless!! What was going on with Restless in May and early June 1981? The week before 5/25 Restless was 6th! 5/18 Restless 4th place...5/11 6th place.

Yep typo. Corrected it. Screen Gems offered ABC Restless and passed on it.

In the biography, Michael Brockman a high ranking ABC Daytime executive and others watched the debut episode of Restless and at the end admitted ..wow how fresh, bold and new ...and then we are in trouble! HA! The Bells yes wanted CBS. I doubt they would have sabatoged the deal. In 1972, the Bells were not in a position to turn down a network and a production studio. CBS had a lot of PG owned soaps. The Bells wanted CBS and they got CBS...after ABC passed and NBC passed...CBS was the only network left. Remember when CBS wanted to expand Restless, Bill resisted and the network told the expansion would happen with or without him. Bill relented.

You are welcome. @kalbir Michael Eisner was VP of Daytime at ABC and was one of the executives involved. Later, of course he became CEO of Disney which owns ABC. Eisner green-lit All My Children and worked at ABC in programming since the late 60s. He stated in an interview, he regretted passing on Restless. ABC executives regretted soon after Restless premiered noting its youth and freshness which would have been an ideal fit with All My Children.

In the biography of Bill Bell, Screen Gems, a SONY company, offred Restless to ABC and they passed stating that ABC wanted to focus on Agnes Nixon's All My Children mostly and One Life to Live and only CBS was left which is what Bill wanted all along. Screen Gems had a lot of production deals in the 1960s and 70s with ABC so it would have been a natural fit. Yep ABC had a shot and turned it down and shortly after regretted it.

I forgot Loving did not start at 12:30. It should have been at 1:30PM like Agnes wanted and suggested. Loving would have not done any better at Noon. Loving should have had AMC's lead-in followed by OLTL. I forgot all about that ABC morning nonsense. Terrible. Thank you for reminding me and correcting the history! What is interesting is that ABC was offered Restless before CBS. But ABC passed and wanted to focus on All My Children. ABC later said it should have taken Restlesssoon after it debuted. It would have been better for the ABC. Bad decisions. IF ABC chose Restless there would have been no Ryan's Hope and possibly GH would have been canceled in 1978 like Fred Silverman wanted. Restless and AMC on the same network pure ratings gold!

ABC made a poor decision by giving Ryan's Hope All My Children's time slot at 1PM. AMC was already established for 5 years in the slot. Yes that 1PM had no soap competition at that time. But doing that to AMC caused the a ratings drop for AMC. Agnes Nixon thought when Loving in 1983 would debut at 1:30 sandwiched between AMC and OLTL. All My Children would move to 12:30 to 1:30 and go head to head with the Young and Restless. But ABC decided to put Loving against Search for Tomorrow and the strong Young and the Restless. Restless destroyed Loving and seriously damaged Ryan's Hope when it was at 12:30PM. Bad moves and decisions!

Restless was still strong in 1977. In July 1975 AMC lost its momentum when it was moved to 12:30PM from 1 for Ryan's Hope until January 1977 when it moved back to its 1PM slot then it expanded in April 1977. Agnes Nixon said that derailed AMC from getting to the Number 1 in the season rankings. She was upset about that. She had just sold AMC and OLTL to ABC in January 1975 for almost $10 million and then ABC made the change with RH which they did not own! Ryan's Hope was an awful lead-in to AMC.

Thank you so much Jason. Love seeing all the soaps in the ratings especially All My Children's ascent to number 1 in 1978-1979 season and the strong performances of The Young and the Restless. Cannot wait for 1977.

Wow Fred Silverman made more of mess with AW to 90 minutes! Awful....

GL is strong. Y&R is struggling within itself I guess. With the time change and expansion to an hour it lost its footing but I consider Y&R strong in 1980. All My Children was on fire then and One Life was coming into its own. I know Agnes Nixon was still HW at AMC. I consider All MY Children's best and golden years as 1978 to 1984. I think she also may have been doing some writing for OLTL or consulting. NBC was a mess, both daytime and nighttime.

@kalbir you are very insighful. So Y & R at 1PM Eastern was directly against AMC and DAYS. I bet when Y&R at 11AM must have dominated in that time slot.

I am not sure when Y&R made the shift in all the markets. I know the expansion from 30 minutes to 1 hour slowed its strong performance and path to Number 1. Maybe the Y&R expert @kalbir can provide some insight.

ABC soaps dominated the 18-34 demo and the money came from increased revenues from ads and higher household ratings. All My Children Number 1 in the demo, Number 1 soap, number 2 overall in daytime and not surprising at Number 2 in the demo is Ryan's Hope...it was on fire then and on the East Coast was All My Children's lead-in from 12:30 to 1 then AMC at 1.

Fred Silverman and Jackie Smith - VP for Daytime were instrumental in ABC Daytime's rise. Fred could not do anything about NBC Daytime when he got there...it was a mess.

Summer dropoff for the top 3 shows GH, AMC and OLTL but still strong...nearly 2.0+ higher than Restless, GL and ATWT ABC dominating.

3/12: All My Children Number 1. 3/19: Restless, ATWT and GL top 3 Great week for CBS. AMC bumped to Number 4.