What a horrible week for soaps, damn. It looks like 2008 will be the year that viewers decrease significantly across the board.

What a horrible week for soaps, damn. It looks like 2008 will be the year that viewers decrease significantly across the board.

What scares me even more? These are writers with something to PROVE, post-strike.

I think we're going to see a very "event"-heavy May Sweeps. Shock value and all that. And we'll all roll our eyes like we always do and ask "WHERE'S THE STORY?!?!"

The other thing? I really REALLY hope I eat my words. Seriously. I do. Imagine if we had a May Sweeps of emotional reveals and unpredictable Friday cliffhangers, instead of hot air balloon collisions or whatever...

Well atleast CBS held up sort of good, ABC seems to be in freefall mode again

Am I misreading? It looks like the absolute number of viewers watching soaps is remaining approximately the same (or increasing slightly for CBS soaps) but the percentages are going down. Doesn't that translate to more people overall watching more television during the daytime hours BUT spread across more shows?

This is what, the third week that Y&R has placed below a 4.0. Is that some kind of record for them? Can't say I'm surprised. The recent batch of storylines on this show either make no sense, are coma-inducing, or both. The whole ABC lineup is dying. Debbi & Darnell on AMC are magic, but they can't be expected to rescue what is a mind-boggling clusterfuck of a show. OLTL is just boring, but I'm not sure its low ratings are the result of its dullness or the fact that it bridges 2 faltering shows. And what's there left to say about GH? The best shows on the air now are probably ATWT and DAYS, and even they are so-so at the moment. I think the genre is just slowly dying, and despite our pleas for new HW and EPS, I'm not sure anything can be done to shift the tide. Very, very sad.

Wow........this is just bad.

Seriously, if ATWT and DAYS are the best shows on the air right now? We're in trouble. They're both easy on the eyes, at best. And that's about it. Certainly not interesting or ground-breaking. They're managing not to piss off anybody right now (until Martha's last air show, that is), and that's about all they have going for them.

It does seem as if there are more total viewers from a year ago, but since the important demos keep going down, my guess is we're seeing more baby boomers retiring (or people over the age of 55). And those people are home during the day.

But that's just me pulling that out of my @ss. :-)

Yep, I'm sure everyone is running scared, which can only translate in huge spectacle-type event-laden plots for sweeps with little story to back them up. Geez, I can't wait.

Am I misreading? It looks like the absolute number of viewers watching soaps is remaining approximately the same (or increasing slightly for CBS soaps) but the percentages are going down. Doesn't that translate to more people overall watching more television during the daytime hours BUT spread across more shows

Yeah, it's something like that.

As the HHs ratings point increases every year, the HHs numbers are expected to go down every year, but that doesn't mean the Total Viewers will also decrease. Look at Y&R for example. Even though they tied a new low in HHs, they are actually up 243,000 Total Viewers from a year ago.

That's why I would look at Total Viewers more than HHs because it's inevitable that the HHs will go down every year as the ratings point increases.

OMG, look at ABC! Fons must be going crazy!!

Ugh, the ratings are not good. ABC soaps will be the first off the network and onto cable at this rate. Their audience is in freefall. CBS is hanging in there. I wonder abou the demos.

And here's hoping that GH's ratings continue to fall.

And here's hoping that GH's ratings continue to fall.

Ouch. Wasn't expecting any of this at all.