JAS0N47

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 5/29/78-6/2/78 & 6/578-6/9/78:

I was just happy to get access to 3 years of ratings data, but now it's even more fun, since the data will not only fill-in the Nielsen ratings, but also confirm the preemptions for ALL the soaps. So, this is the first time I can provide some in-depth research on soaps besides Days. It will be a fun journey!

In one of Bill Bell's script logs, it lists YR airing #1380-1429 between 8/28/78-11/6/78. So, based on that time frame, which covers 51 dates, there were 50 episodes aired. So one preemption between 8/28-11/6. Do you know of any other preemptions during that time frame? Hopefully that info might solve the mystery?? Once I look through the Nielsen data, that will confirm any preemptions for all but the week of 8/28-9/1. If the YR researchers didn't have these yet, this should help them confirm at least the # of preemptions, and the general time frames of each preemption. Once we start filling in the Nielsen data, that will help confirm the exact dates.

US Open aired for 285 minutes from 1PM-545PM ET preempting As the World Turns, Guiding Light, M*A*S*H and Match Game '78. Search for Tomorrow (1230-1PM) aired a normal episode on Monday. For YR (12-1230PM) they list the Monday episode as a "breakout", meaning it's not counted with the regular ratings because a smaller amount of affiliates aired it. I can see why there was confusion. For the other 9 days of 9/5/78-9/9/78 and 9/12/78-9/16/78 YR aired on 194 affiliates (with 99 percent clearance). For the Monday 9/4/78 episode, being a breakout, it got its own separate rating: 112 affiliates (73 percent clearance), 6.0 rating, 21 share, 4,470,000 viewers. So SOMETHING of YR aired that day (perhaps they subbed a repeat?) or it was a new episode which only 3/4 of the country got to see. I guess that makes sense. The later affiliates in the Mountain and Pacific time zones probably aired the US Open live, thus having to preempt YR.

Luckily, it's the week AROUND Labor Day that gets the shaft usually. I just checked and in 1978 it's the week BEFORE Labor Day that got the shaft. So, you are in luck. What show are you looking for a preemption on Labor Day 1978?

Yes, the usual "fast national" weeks are late April, and then the weeks around July 4, Labor Day and Christmas. So those would be the other 3 weeks missing for 1978.

FULL DAYTIME LINEUP: WEEK OF 5/15/78-5/19/78: Here's a look at all of the daytime shows for the week of 5/15/78-5/19/78: FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 5/15/78-5/19/78 & 5/22/78-5/26/78: My only guess is that if maybe a local affiliate had a local preemption during the week and didn't air all 5 episodes of a show, then the affiliate is not included in the weekly ratings for that specific week? Just a guess though.

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 5/1/78-5/5/78 & 5/8/78-5/12/78:

I have a lot of TV reference books, but Unicorn Tales was pretty hard to track down. I remembered I had a syndicated encyclopedia from the 1980's and found it in that!

All the Nielsen reports list is "Special Treat" (no episode titles). So I looked in the newspaper listings, and I guess Unicorn Tales is the local/syndicated program that the New York affiliate aired in the For Richer time slot. The 4PM slot in New York is listed as Special Treat: Luke Was There (a children's story with Scott Baio). So that is the network program that was rated. Unicorn Tales was local and not listed at all in the Nielsen report.

A note for some of the Nielsen "missing weeks." 4-5 times a year, at least in the 1970's, Nielsen would have 4 weeks they skipped over and only issued fast national ratings. Those 4 weeks from 1978 are not available, but the ones from 1979 and 1980 are included. A rundown of the missing weeks of Nielsen data from 1978-1980: 1978....2 main weeks (and 5 fast national weeks) 1979...6 main weeks 1980...Complete!

They are doing it because of specials they aired on those days in the 4PM time slot (an open slot). So I guess they gave back a half hour to their affiliates by not airing For Richer those days. So far, the 4PM specials to necessitate For Richer preemptions have been several editions of "Special Treat" (I think the NBC version of ABC Afternoon Special) and a Bob Hope golf tournament.

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 3/27/78-3/31/78 & 4/3/78-4/7/78:

Someone posted on my FB page that Emily is writing for GH. Meanwhile, Days just aired the first script by Fran Myers' son, Henry Newman.

LONG-TIME "DAYS" SCRIPT WRITERS CAROLYN & RICHARD CULLITON RETIRE... In response to a "Days" fan today, Carolyn Culliton confirmed that both she and her husband, Richard Culliton, retired from "Days" in April. That should put their last scripts airing around October or November 2023. Richard Culliton briefly wrote for "Days" in 1987 and 2001, before joining the show full-time in 2008. Carolyn Culliton joined "Days" in 2010. In that span, the duo have been responsible for writing the dialogue for over 1,200 "Days" episodes. Credit:https://twitter.com/shallotpeel/status/1665789164036423681

I thought that was it. But if you add 3 000's to the total viewers (2 years and older) for Days (1278), that puts Days at 1.278 million viewers total. Yet the average column (the one we are used to looking at), is over 5 million. So, that's where my confusion comes in. I always thought the # I am used to seeing is the average number per day, but you mean to say the 5 million average is the total for the week? So, really, Days had just 1.2 million people watching per DAY, so when you average it out for the WEEK (the #'s that are the ones most usually reported), the number goes to just over 5 million? FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 3/6/78-3/10/78 & 3/13/78-3/17/78:

1977-1978 Season Averages as of January 22, 1978:

Check back in a few minutes. Hopefully you can explain some of the numbers, since I'm not an expert at looking at these things. Do you add some 0's to these numbers??

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 2/20/78-2/24/78 & 2/27/78-3/3/78:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 2/6/78-2/10/78 & 2/13/78-2/17/78:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 1/23/78-1/27/78 & 1/30/78-2/3/78:

Most of 1978 to 1980 at the moment. Hopefully more in the future!

I wouldn't have the stats on that, but I would think we have probably passed that mark by now. I don't know of any other daily scripted shows that have been on a streamer for 9 months.

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 12/26/77-12/30/77 & 1/2/78-1/6/78: In addition to historic Nielsen ratings data, these weekly charts will help fans of other soaps confirm which dates had preemptions! The stations column is the number of network affiliates which aired the soap that week. The percentage column is the percentage of network affiliates which aired the soap that week. FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 1/9/78-1/13/78 & 1/16/78-1/20/78:

Thanks for letting me know! I just posted the next two weeks (1/9/78 and 1/16/78) in that thread.