Network ratings- rises and slides

[Paul Raven]

Oops,I meant late 70's.

It's interesting that AMC was the lone soap on ABC surrounded by game shows.It debuted with A World Apart and The Best of Everything but by 72 was the sole survivor.

I wonder about the overall daytime ratings of that era.I know that some of the game shows had beter ratings than the soaps.Did NBC ever dethrone CBS in overall daytime ratings?

1972-1973

1. As The World Turns 10.6

2. Days Of Our Lives 9.9

3. Another World 9.7

3. General Hospital 9.7

5. The Doctors 9.3

6. Search for Tomorrow 8.6

7. One Life To Live 8.3

8. All My Children 8.2

8. The Guiding Light 8.2

10. The Edge Of Night 7.9

11. The Secret Storm 7.3

12. Love Of Life 7.2

13. Return to Peyton Place 7.2

14. Love is A Many Splendored Thing 7.1

15. Somerset 6.8

16. Where The Heart Is 6.4

17. The Young And The Restless 5.0

1973-1974

1.As The World Turns 9.7

1.Days Of Our Lives 9.7

1.Another World 9.7

4.The Doctors 9.5

5.General Hospital 9.2

6.All My Children 9.1

7.The Guiding Light 8.1

8.One Life To Live 7.8

9.Search for Tomorrow 7.7

10.The Edge Of Night 7.4

11.Return to Peyton Place 7.0

12.How To Survive A Marriage 6.4

13.The Young And The Restless 6.2

14.Somerset 6.1

15.Love Of Life 6.0

16.The Secret Storm 5.8

1976-1977

1. As The World Turns 9.9

2. Another World 9.0

3. The Guiding Light 8.9

4. The Young And The Restless 8.7

5. Search for Tomorrow 8.6

6. All My Children 8.2

7. Days Of Our Lives 7.8

8. Ryan's Hope 7.3

8. One Life To Live 7.3

10. General Hospital 7.0

11. The Doctors 6.9

12. Love Of Life 6.3

13. The Edge Of Night 6.2

14. Somerset 5.2

15. Lovers And Friends 2.9

By this time Days and The Doctors had fallen while GL and Y&R had had major rises.

[David V]

In a few short years the Doctors lost the Pollocks and then Marland to GH! Questions can be asked about NBC's scheduling and support for its soaps as always, but it wasn't just its Daytime division that was in trouble by the late 70s. And, in fact, it seems history repeats itself because NBC has fallen behind the other big two networks as a whole once more and seems to rely on the L&O franchise and more speficially SVU to carry it.

[Sean]

I recall someone on the old WoST board posting an article from an old soap magazine which contained the 18-49 demo data for 1978. AMC was clearly in the lead, with RH coming in second. OLTL and GH were virtually tied for third, with Y&R and GL (I think?) close behind. The Soap Opera Book by Manuela Soares, published in 1978, noted that the ratings/demos for AMC and RH in particular skyrocketed during the summers of '76 and '77. There's a clip on YouTube from the 1981 Emmy telecast which contains a promo in which ABC touted the fact that they had the top four programs among young women, which were, in order, GH, AMC, OLTL, and RH.

[David V]

Ryan's Hope remained solidly mid-pack until about '82 or '83, and lost more viewers from that point on. Loving's debut season (83/84) was poor ratings-wise but a fair way above the worst-rated soaps by then (SFT and EON). It was the 84/85 season that saw the timeslot swap that gave Loving its best ratings around '85 or so, they remained at that level for the remainder of the decade.

In any case, Ryan's Hope in its last couple of years got ratings that were abysmal even by more recent standards. Same can be said for For Richer, For Poorer.

[TC]

Aside from the 80's, it seems like OLTL is doomed to middling or less.

[David V]

Are you implying that like B&B its high ratings came off the success of soaps around it?