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Officially, Bell was credited into 1978, but you can definitely tell the difference in tone after the switch to the hour in 1975, which is about when Bell said in his TV Archives interview (I believe, again, correct me if I'm wrong) he stopped providing projections for the show, which he'd left PFS with when he left to create Y&R. I will say, just based on what I've read, PFS does take the reigns pretty quickly after Bell left in 1973, as she almost immediately introduced some new characters and involved them heavily in story -- Neil & Amanda, specifically, are introduced very suddenly and are involved in meaty story almost immediately upon their arrival, which is jarring if you'd followed the story to that point, where Bell took pains to introduce new characters very slowly and carefully, the shift in style is very noticeable, even just in write-ups.

IIRC, PFS was fired, as Betty Corday had been, according to Ann Marcus, been trying to get Ann Marcus on board for awhile. I think the combo of all of this, plus Mike sleeping with Linda, the David/Valerie/Brooke story, complete with Adele Hamilton and her alcoholism (as well as David's and Valerie's dad Paul's), were some extremely weighty material on a show that hadn't really been quite this heavy before, and it was weighing everything down. I agree, the DID story should have (and ultimately was) wrapped up quickly, though I don't think what AM replaced it with was much better. Ultimately, Sharon shifted FAST into becoming deranged and obsessed with her friend/painting partner Julie, and was hastily shuttled off-canvas by her suddenly-appearing husband after confessing romantic feelings for Julie. Leaving Don and Marlena free for...Sam to lock Marlena in Bayview and take over her life even though Sam looked and sounded nothing like Marlena. The stories were definitely well-crafted, but you're right that there was absolutely no levity in any of the stories on the show at the time, and the only semi-happy event to occur during this period was Doug & Julie's wedding, which was back in October '76, so I think the real error in PFS' judgment was to wrap up that story with very little on the frontburner that was resonating with viewers to replace it. Honestly, to me it would've been a good time to draw Maggie back to the farm and fall for a muscled farmhand that took her mind off her struggles with Mickey, just SOME kind of levity to balance out everything else going on. PFS seemed to want every story to be deeply psychological and intense, which is great for Emmy reels and the like, but not every story can be ripped-from-the-headlines (or the medical journals, as the case may be), hyper-realistic dramas. Not in such an ensemble, daily format. The fatigue sets in fast, and I can see why a lot of folks switched over to ATWT or Family Feud as a result.

Well you can definitely see why NBC pulled L&F so quickly with those numbers. YIKES. This is at the tail end of Pat Falken Smith's run as HW at DAYS, and something isn't working anymore. Around this time was a HEAVY focus on Patty Weaver's Trish killing her pervy stepdad, then developing DID so she didn't remember doing it, and setting up Sharon Duvall as something of a sex-crazed spoiler for Don & Marlena, while Mickey continued to recover from his mental break from the previous year. Even just writing this out, you can tell how very heavy the stories were at this time, and I'm sure it was starting to get a bit much for the audience. By the middle of the missing Fast Nationals week (4/20/77 according to the ever-amazing @JAS0N47's website), Ann Marcus would take over and make some really quick, sometimes jarring story and character shifts. It's slightly surprising to see GH be threatened with cancellation with such middling numbers. They were really only about a half point below OLTL and RH at this point, so it seems a bit strange that ABC had its neck on the chopping block when it wasn't honestly doing much worse than its competition, what with AW not pulling in particularly strong numbers at this point either.

Weird seeing DAYS' ratings ticking upward during Palumbo's short run, considering how tepid a lot of his stories were. Jack and Jennifer and the con artists are a total mess, while the hunt for John's True Identity of the Week kinda worked (for me anyway), the downplaying of the John/Marlena/Roman/Isabella quad in favour of the focus on the Torres mob family was a bizarre choice. The Alamains seem to just meander during this period, antagonizing everyone with little rhyme or reason to it. I believe the Lombards and Lisanne Gardner are introduced around this time as well. How the show was netting actually reasonable numbers around this time is kinda beyond me.

Interesting to see OLTL already starting to rebound during early Gottlieb, even if I suspect a lot of that is down to AMC's growth, as OLTL's in some major transition at this point.

Beyond gimmicky, it was MEAN. The energy in a lot of scenes and confrontations just had such nasty energy to them, I've felt a visceral discomfort watching them. For example, Erica and Travis fighting over Bianca made me particularly uncomfortable. I can understand the need to show how divorce can bring out the ugly monsters in people, but it honestly just made me feel like neither of these unhinged people deserve this child, instead of feeling pathos for anybody involved.

The beginning of 1992 will see AMC explode in the ratings. I guess everyone tuned in during the holidays and got hooked back onto the show, as the ratings stayed way up into 1994.

Not including the summers, which is what I've been posting as we've been going along here. That year they finished 6th with summer numbers included.

PHEW @ OLTL. That is embarrassing. DAYS' drop is almost as bad, but considering SB didn't have as far to fall, that's almost worse than OLTL. The Bell soaps are really the big winners here, and yet I don't really think most of the other soaps (especially outside the CBS shows) were emulating their formula to guide their way out of the rut they were in at this point. OLTL and GH would to some extent, but it took them years to figure out how to make it work within the heightened identities they'd created for the shows in the 80s. It's a big contrast to the almost-immediate jump to copy the outrageous style of Reilly when DAYS took off in the mid-90s. An aside: 1990-91 is the first year since 1977-78 that ATWT finished higher than #5. Marland really held the show together during this period in a way that should truly be commended. They'll do even better in 1991-92.

End of season 1990-91 vs. 1989-90: 1. Y&R 8.0 (0.0) 2. GH 6.3 (-0.7) 3. AMC 6.0 (-0.3) 4. ATWT 5.9 (+0.1) 5. B&B 5.6 (-0.1) 6. OLTL 5.3 (-0.7) 6. DAYS 5.3 (-0.1) 8. GL 5.2 (-0.1) 9. AW 3.9 (0.0) 10. SB 3.1 (-0.4) 11. LOV 2.9 (-0.4) 12. GEN 2.3 (-0.2) Really, the goal of 1990-91 was to try to hold steady. The fact ATWT is the big winner of the year simply by gaining 0.1 is telling of how things were going in this era. Another year of HUGE losses for OLTL, it's surprising it's taken ABC this long to ditch Rauch, considering they've dropped by a minimum of 0.5 every season since 1987-88, when they were at a 7.4 and #3. Despite Palumbo's middling writing, DAYS manages to tie for #6, no doubt their two summer events (J&J's wedding and Marlena and Roman's return) bolstering their numbers for the season. AW does a great job of maintaining their numbers, but SB is less lucky. The Dobsons really botched their return, and I'll never understand writers' pretending a certain period of time never happened. SB realistically should've been able to flourish with NBCD stabilizing and GH sinking with Monty 2.0. GEN really didn't get a fair shake, considering they performed about as well as they had the previous two seasons, with only a minor ratings drop in the Fall of 1990 sealing their fate. It feels like NBC gave up on them the minute they debuted with such low ratings vs. Scrabble. A shame, really. Y&R still stable, head and shoulders above everybody else. Their strength at least helping to keep CBSD's numbers stable, though B&B's relatively weak numbers not keeping eyeballs on the lineup across the daypart.

I'd make the argument that AMC's rise under McTavish in 1992-93 will definitely challenge Y&R's dominance, but it's definitely short-lived.

JEEZ Curlee really did clean house FAST upon her arrival!

They definitely do, you'll see how bad it get by summertime, when they start to fall to the middle of the pack. I think the combination of Monty's failure, Rauch's OLTL tanking causing issues as their lead-in, and a resurgent GL under Curlee really combine to torpedo GH's fortunes.

Great work. And what's especially jarring is that all of GL's loss is from 1989-90. Most of ATWT's as well. All in all, CBS soaps' ratings really held up well during the late 80s, and it kinda surprising that GL would post such losses during what was, by all accounts, a very good year for the show, creatively. NBC really lost its groove fast, losing by far the most, in general and relatively speaking. Unfortunately, shifting trends and circumstances kinda doomed them, after being surprisingly consistent during the mid-80s. Loving's losses don't look so bad, until you realize they had a lot fewer viewers to lose.

to a great degree, yes. Though I've also keeping track of the summer periods (the period after Nielsen declares the season "over"). I suspect DAYS had a decent summer 1990 thanks to the Cruise Of Deception, which sort of....mitigated their decline for that period. But I would have to agree, two years of steady HUGE declines is shocking, really.

Season vs. season update: 1. Y&R 8.0 (-0.1) 2. GH 7.0 (-0.5) 3. AMC 6.3 (-0.3) 4. OLTL 6.0 (-0.9) 5. ATWT 5.8 (-0.5) 6. B&B 5.7 (-0.1) 7. DAYS 5.4 (-0.8) 8. GL 5.3 (-0.7) 9. AW 3.9 (-0.6) 10. SB 3.5 (-0.7) 11. LOV 3.3 (-0.2) 12. GEN 2.5 (+0.1) Let's just be clear: this season was one of unequivocal collapse for nearly every show. The only soap to gain viewers is Generations (which, to @Khan's point, did break 3.0 a handful of times, once being its premiere week...barely). I do feel like the show was starting to build an audience during 1990, but this was just a rough year to launch a soap, and it never stood a chance under these circumstances. A slight ratings dip in the fall of 1990 sealed the deal, and by early 1991, GEN was done. LOV held surprisingly steady during 1990. Can't recall what was happening on that show at the time, but apparently the viewers...didn't hate it as much as most other shows? AMC strengthening under Agnes Nixon's pen, though still unable to prevent some bleeding of viewers. Obviously Y&R and B&B had extremely strong years, nearly holding onto all of their previous season's audience. Can't underestimate Andrea Evans' departure on OLTL. That is one hell of a drop in one year, and worse is to come.

A tough year for most soaps, though things seemed to stabilize during Summer '89. Interesting to see the changing trends, as B&B and Y&R appear to be the real winners of the year, reflecting the shift away from the action-oriented style of the 80s. Here's 1988-89 (vs. 87-88) 1. Y&R 8.1 (+0.2) 2. GH 7.5 (-0.2) 3. OLTL 6.9 (-0.5) 4. AMC 6.6 (-0.7) 5. ATWT 6.3 (-0.2) 6. DAYS 6.2 (-0.8) 7. GL 6.0 (0.0) 8. B&B 5.8 (+0.5) 9. AW 4.5 (-0.5) 10. SB 4.2 (-0.4) 11. LOV 3.5 (-0.5) 12. GEN 2.4 (new) 13. RH 2.3 (-0.3) Seems like DAYS really sh*t the bed this year, with the combination of shifting tastes, Anne Howard Bailey's unsuccessful writing, Al Rabin's departure as EP (temporarily), Scrabble being replaced by a relatively weak Generations as its lead-in, and Y&R and B&B's ascent really wreaking havoc on the show. The fact the show reached as high as 8.1 and as low as 5.0 within about three and a half months shows just how quickly the wheels fell off. And while I recognize the holiday boost plays into that high, it's still a significant drop, considering how consistently well the show had been doing the previous year. AMC seems to have the opposite situation happening. While it lost almost as many viewers as DAYS, they were struggling to build back their audience after the ratings crashed in the first half of 1988. Things don't pick up until Summer 1989 for them, with Felicia Menei Behr and Margaret DePriest tightening the ship through 1989, before Agnes Nixon returns in the fall. Interesting to note that, though we've been talking a lot about GL's ratings troubles, it has stayed remarkably consistent the last three years, averaging a 6.0 and 7th place every year since 1986-87. Though Pam Long hasn't managed to move the needle upward at all during this period, she should be commended for at least maintaining stable numbers despite most soaps losing viewers over the past few seasons. I should also note that, despite it being down slightly for the year, 1988-89 is the first year ATWT ranks 5th or higher since 1982-83. No doubt Marland was keeping the show on stable footing during this period.

In short: Anne Howard Bailey.

A bit late to post this, as I've been out with COVID, but here's the 1987-88 season + summer figures vs. previous year. 1 . Y&R 7.9 (+0.1) 2 . GH 7.7 (-0.2) 3 . OLTL 7.4 (+0.2) 4 . AMC 7.3 (+0.3) 5 . DAYS 7.0 (+0.2) 6. ATWT 6.5 (-0.2) 7 . GL 6.0 (0.0) 8 . B&B 5.3 (-0.1) 9 . AW 5.0 (0.0) 10 . SB 4.6 (+0.3) 11 . LOV 4.0 (+0.1) 12 . RH 2.6 (-0.1) There were a lot of gains made Post-IRAN Contra that got wiped out by the writers' strike, it seems. Most shows were trending up, but Summer 1988 was rough all around. Of course, we all know 1988-89 is gonna be rough on most soaps, but it's interesting to see the calm before the storm. Surprised to see ATWT trend downward when they were so solid storywise.

I see OLTL is starting to struggle after the goofy Old West story got bogged down and confused by the scab writers who couldn't decide if it was fantasy or reality. A real shame since they'd been in SUCH a strong position going into the strike.

Well, already I'm seeing an impact in that it is greatly impacting CBS' numbers negatively. B&B and GL are especially put in danger from this, with AW beating GL, and everyone but RH besting B&B multiple weeks. Obviously this shifts over time, but it has a very positive impact on ABC soaps. Since we've now hit the beginning of the 1987-88 season, here's how 1986-87 panned out (vs. 1985-86) 1. GH 7.9 (-1.2) 2. Y&R 7.8 (-0.6) 3. OLTL 7.2 (-0.5) 4. AMC 7.0 (-0.9) 5. DAYS 6.8 (-0.6) 6. ATWT 6.7 (-0.1) 7. GL 6.0 (-0.6) 8. B&B 5.4 (--) 9. CAP 5.2 (0.0) 10. AW 5.0 (-0.3) 11. SB 4.3 (0.0) 12. LOV 3.9 (-0.2) 13. RH 2.7 (-0.4) 14. SFT 2.5 (-0.3) GH and AMC really saw a steep decline this year, which, of course, impacted OLTL, but they were a much stronger show at this point and managed to hold their ground relatively well. Realistically, the name of the game this year was simply to lose as few viewers as possible, which was a challenge, especially during the summer pre-emptions thanks to Iran-Contra. ATWT held onto their previous year's numbers right up until the People Meters came in, and that made them lose ground vs. 85-86, but otherwise, they're among the strongest of the lot.

Fair point! I did notice a few more discrepancies than you did, as I have been following week by week with the data I have (which I copied into Excel as they were posting them), but you are correct that the numbers were almost always spot-on and in-line with what you have, so I don't mean to cast doubt over their work entirely, but just to point out that there are some differences here and there, usually with only one entry on a week. Your point about breakouts makes their data make a lot more sense as well.

I joked that they were secretly Jill Farren Phelps (they became extremely defensive whenever anyone would disparage JFP's work as EP), but ultimately, no I don't think anyone ever confirmed/retained contact with them after they left. They were a somewhat...caustic personality. I've also caught some errors in their ratings posts (certain shows being either .1 up or down, usually...though I have found one or two instances of some rather major differences on certain shows), so while it's beneficial to have their data in the thread, we shouldn't take it as gospel either.

Yeah, you notice almost instantly ATWT suffers from having B&B as its lead-in as opposed to Y&R. While I recognize there's a major drop-off in everyone's ratings, its impact on ATWT would likely have been lesser had they remained at 1:30, considering their ranking pre-vs. post B&B.

Absolutely, I remember seeing that the official cancellation notice came in December, so I'm sure folks behind the scenes could see the writing on the wall at this point.