JAS0N47

7 hours ago, will81 said:

Oh yeah but I think networks counted the last commercial after the end credits. Y&R would run to 12:28 and then there would be commercials between it and Search. This was the same in Primetime. Most shows ended 1 - 2 min before the half hour or hour with a commercial break. But these shows were all listed as 30 or 60 min shows.

In the 90's I think NBC started getting rid of this between certain shows so people had less chance of changing the channel. Friends would end on the half hour so the new show at 8:30 would start immediately but that show would end 2 min early and another commercial break before Seinfeld. Then Seinfeld would end right on 9:30 and the next show would start immediately. 

In the 70's, I don't think any show in primetime or daytime ended bang on the half hour or hour. 

in terms of those other news shows. It might have been down to the network not seeing those as official, but likely part of a mid show commercial break that included a news update and CBS saw Mid-Day News as part of the daytime schedule. 

Yes, I know. "Days", when it aired on NBC until last year, would end at 58:11, but the final commercial break of 1:49 until the next show started would be counted as part of the 60-minute Days Nielsen telecast.

I was just pointing out about Love of Life. Since it aired for only 24 minutes (including commercials), followed by a 6-minute CBS newscast, Love of Life was probably the shortest runtime of any soap (when you removed the commercials), being less than the average 22-minute half hour soap. Possibly only being 18 minutes or so.

21 minutes ago, will81 said:

I think most half hour shows around 1978 with commercials ran around 28 min. Close to 22 min without. Maybe CBS had slightly less commercials for Love of Life but I'd still guess it must have ran around 18 - 19 minutes without commercials. 

All of the other soaps are listed by Nielsen as either 30 or 60 minutes. Love of Life stood out since it is listed as 24 minutes. There are 1-2 minute Newsbriefs rated separately by Nielsen, which air during the soap broadcasts, that are technically included in the 30 or 60 minute broadcasts. I guess those aired as part of a commercial break during some of the soaps.

For the week of 12/18/78-12/22/78, for instance, here are the additional daytime programs aired during soaps:

Note about Love of Life. I was surprised to notice today that its runtime each day was only 24 minutes. It aired from 1130-1154, followed by 6 minutes of CBS Mid-Day News. So, with some commercials, I guess it was the shortest runtime of any of the soaps.

45 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Ruth Brooks Flippen was an experienced writer who had been in the biz for years and had written for GH so knew her way around a soap script. I can only guess she was brought in to implement Laemmle's template and write off a lot of those characters.

I hadn't known she had written for GH. I only list this in my bio of her on my site (which was written quite a long time ago):  "Bewitched", "My World and Welcome To It", "The Odd Couple" and "Gidget" as well as several "Gidget" movies.

I see she died in summer of 1981, so perhaps she got sick just after joining Days and that's why she left so quickly?

52 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Re Days the beginning of Nina Laemmle's run as headwriter. Characters were disappearing and newbies taking center stage. That 4.8/19 would have been the lowest in years.

TUNE IN TOMORROW WEEKLY RECAP:
4/28/80-5/2/80: A slew of Salem newcomers included Jessica Blake, a scholarship student sent by the nuns to work with Marie; Kellam Chandler, who was running for governor and courting Don's favor; Kellam's stepdaughter, jetting setting Liz; Kellam's roustabout son Todd; mysterious Josh Fallon, caretaker of the mansion Doug bought to convert into a casino if gambling were legalized; Flora Chisholm, ailing ex-owner of the mansion; and Leslie James, Chris' new executive assistant. Chris and Alex argued about the ad campaigns for the solar energy device. Alex secretly arranged for government man Harold Rankin to force Leslie on Chris. Mickey approved of Doug's investment, but Don was working against legalizing gambling.

When I eventually got all the Days script covers, it was confusing as to Nina's dates as writer, since I had always heard it was called the Valentine's Day massacre. And there's no record I can find of why Ruth Flippen, who never did soaps, was brought on for just a month until Nina took over on April 21. The soap history books always seem to credit Nina as with having written off all the characters, but they were all basically gone by the time she showed up. She was the one responsible for writing the new characters, but not for writing off all of the Hortons and others.

Ruth Brooks Flippen..............................3/17/80-4/18/80.............3634-3658       (25)

Nina Laemmle.......................................4/21/80-10/9/80.............3659-3782     (124)

4 hours ago, I Am A Swede said:

It's fascinating to see how much the ratings could fluctuate from week to week, especially compared to the ratings nowadays which hardly has any movement at all.

Yes, I was surprised to see that as well. Sometimes when it's such a big change, I think I have misread the number! Each time after I type everything in though, I do a double-check to make sure I didn't mis-type anything. 

21 hours ago, kalbir said:

@JAS0N47 Thank you for the ratings in this thread and in the 1980s thread. It's a great look back at daytime history.

You're welcome!  I mainly wanted the "Days" ratings, but it's nice to also be able to provide the other soap ratings as well, and the extra unexpected benefit is also getting all of the full preemption data for all of the soaps!

2 hours ago, YRfan23 said:

Aha!! That’s the mystery we needed Y&R was preempted in October!  I can’t thank you enough!!!

I didn't even remember when typing it today that you were on the lookout for a YR preemption at some point during this time in 1978. So the mystery is finally solved!