Soaps lose their ratings luster

By Jonathan Berr, Bloomberg News, May 6, 2005, Posted in the Boston Globe

When the new television season's ratings for daytime soap operas landed, CBS research director David Poltrack was so dismayed that he asked the survey company to double-check its data.

Nielsen Media Research had found that in the first three months of the season that began in September, CBS, ABC, and NBC network soaps lost 18 percent of their female viewers ages 18 to 34, another blow to broadcasters reeling from the rise of cable and satellite services.

''Soap-opera ratings don't usually change that dramatically," Poltrack says. ''They're usually fairly stable."

Nielsen's numbers not only checked out, they underlined a new reality about US daytime TV: Soap operas, once cash cows for the networks, are fading in popularity.

More women are turning to cable channels, tuning in to talk shows such as Oprah or entering the workforce. Ad revenue for soaps fell an average of 5.3 percent a year from 2000 to 2004, while that of prime-time TV rose an average of 3 percent, according to estimates by London-based TNS Media Intelligence.

Poltrack, 59, and other TV executives are concerned. Daytime dramas, which average about 23 million viewers daily, generated about $1.2 billion in ad sales last year. Evening prime time generated about $13 billion in sales.

Procter & Gamble Co., which is so keen to reach consumers in the daytime TV market that it owns two shows -- ''Guiding Light," the longest-running program in broadcast history, and ATWT -- is trying to reverse the decline in viewership.

P&G hired a New York-based agency, the Masterson Group, to create an advertising campaign for its shows for the first time, says Mary Alice Dwyer-Dobbin, who oversees production of the two soap operas for P&G.

''We intend to put some money behind this," Dwyer-Dobbin says, declining to be more specific. ''We don't know what it's going to take yet."

Daytime soap viewership has also dropped for all the networks this season in the wider group of women ages 18 to 49, Nielsen says. So far this year, ABC's ''All My Children" is the only one of network TV's nine soap operas whose ratings have gained.

Nielsen concluded that much of the ratings decline came from women watching other types of programs, with additional reasons being the growing use of technologies such as DVDs.

Fans began drifting away from soap operas during the nine-month murder trial of O.J. Simpson in 1995, when the networks interrupted their shows to cover the case, says Michael Bruno, a manager for soap actors.

Fewer women are at home to watch, further chipping away at ratings. Women accounted for 46.4 percent of the US workforce in 2004, up from 42.5 percent in 1980, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Then there's Oprah. Ratings for her show were the highest in the February ''sweeps" -- a period when local stations set advertising rates -- since 1997. She attracts about nearly 10 million viewers daily, the highest of any show during the day.

The top-rated soap, CBS's ''The Young And The Restless," is watched on average by 4.7 million people, according to Nielsen.

Soap producers are trying to keep down costs.

Actress Eileen Fulton, 71, who has appeared on CBS's ''As the World Turns" since 1960, does about three shows a month now, down from eight two years ago. ''They are cutting back on everything," says Fulton. ''They're trying to save the show."

Bruno says viewers are seeing fewer ''grand parties" on the shows. ''You will see more intimate scenes with just one or two or three people," he says.

I read that a year or so ago.

You can tell it's dated lol

AMC is now down vs last year in 18-49

Y&R averaged 5.6 million viewers for this past season up almost a million viewers from the date of this article

I wouldn't mind more intimate scenes with two or three people. Those are seriously lacking ... lol.

the problem with soaps is that they need to find new blood to write for soaps & stop recycling used writers. I think they should start looking for Viewers to become a writer. Veiwer fanfics are much better then what's going on in soaps.

But hasn't AMC had record low ratings? I don't get it.

I read that a year or so ago.

You can tell it's dated lol

AMC is now down vs last year in 18-49

Y&R averaged 5.6 million viewers for this past season up almost a million viewers from the date of this article

Thanks, I was wondering...

But hasn't AMC had record low ratings? I don't get it.

That article is from May 2005, AMC had a fruitful babyswitch climax upsurge December 2004 - February 2005.

ETA: Oops missed the reply, well two answers never hurt anyone