July 28 - August 1, 2008

[shawn Perez]

here's the Latest ratings. week of august 4/8

the Link is at the bottom. I'll post the full ABC Press Release just in case.

From the ABC Daytime ratings release:

* ABC extended its streak as Daytime's No. 1 network in key Women 18-49 to 12 straight weeks (1.2 rating/761,000 - tied on rating).

* In Women 18-34, ABC was home to 3 of Daytime's Top 5 programs for the 17th week in a row: "The View" (No. 2T, 0.8 rating/270,000), "General Hospital" (No. 2T, 0.8 rating/266,000) and "One life to Live" (No. 5T, 0.7 rating/247,000).

* In Women 18-49, for the 17th week running the net has ranked at least 3 shows among the upper echelon: "General Hospital" (No. 2T, 1.2 rating/823,000), "The View" (No. 2T, 1.2 rating/808,000) and "One Life to Live" (No. 4T - 1.1 rating/729,000).

* Ranking among Daytime's Top 5 programs for the 16th straight week in target young women, "One Life to Live" topped CBS' "As the World Turns" (2:00 - 3:00 p.m.) head to head by 39% in Women 18-34 (247,000 vs. 178,000) and by 13% in Women 18-49 (729,000 vs. 643,000).

* "General Hospital" surpassed CBS' "Guiding Light" at 3 o'clock by a solid 71% in Women 18-34 (266,000 vs. 156,000), by 36% in Women 18-49 (823,000 vs. 607,000) and by 16% in Total Viewers (2.63 million vs. 2.27 million).

http://welovesoaps.blogspot.com/2008/08/da...-of-august.html

[mamasita]

the only show that is worth watching right now is Young and Restless. I am glued to my seat with the Victor Newman's nervous breakdown storyline.

[tgilbrea69]

I remember Santa Barbara well - not from when it first ran, but when I moved to Moscow in 96 to take a job. It was one of the first US shows shown on Russian TV. The episodes were from about 10 years before, but people loved it :-)

[Jess]

Well the Marcie on the run story was just bad and Addie cured of mental illness just boring. In regard to the Emmy=quality argument, what does that say about GH and its mob mentality, which has won many Emmys? If Emmys are the sign of quality, then let's be consistent and say it always represents quality not just when we agree with them. Emmys reflect what the industry likes, ratings reflect what people enjoy watching. We all do not agree about Ron. I think he stinks and is incredibly overrated. You obviously think he's great. Hmmm, isn't it interesting that people have different opinins.

[Soapsuds]

Great post Jess. Ratings are about what viewers are enjoying. It has nothing to do with quality. If people are entertained they will watch not matter what. So what the ratings are saying is that people are not being entertained with what Ron is putting on screen.

[Jess]

Thanks suds, it's nice not to be alone in my thoughts about Ron. You know, people always say, well all soaps are dropping. Perhaps that is because none of them are that good right now. I think Young and the Restless is a lot of fun right now, but that is about it. Anyway, does the fact that all of them are stinkers mean that it's OK? The fact that all of them are dropping is not a real good excuse.

[shawn Perez]

ITA with you and jesse.

[SteveFrame]

I don't believe Carlivati is another Douglas Marland or even close to in the same ball park with him but compared to what we have been getting for a long time I will take him any day.

He is the best new head writer to come along in daytime in a long time. He is not great and he needs a lot of improvement and needs to get consistent, but he seems to be the only new head writer to get what soaps are about in a long time.

I used to think that Hogan Sheffer was that in his first 2 years at ATWT - after that my opinion forever changed on him. And I think he is a good writer but is only as good as the co-head writer working with him. Sheffer alone does not get daytime soaps at all.

The biggest problem with the writers that keep getting recycled in daytime is that they don't get what the soaps are about and don't seem to really love the shows they are writing. They come in with their own agenda and not the agenda they should have - what is best for the show and for the fans of that show.

Every writer in the last 10 years or so that has come onto a show has wanted to change that show to meet their agenda - changing the history of characters to fit a story instead of making a story fit the character. So far Carlivati has not done that.

Higley did it at OLTL. Hogan did it at ATWT and Days. McTavish did it big time at AMC. Guza constantly does it at GH (how many long time characters has he ruined with his new history.)

I would fall down and worship at a writers feet today if they followed the old pattern of writing using the history at hand. Come into a show with the agenda of making the show better without feeling like you have to right some wrong. Listen I lived through that and even though it might have been bad deal with it and go on. Don't make me feel like I wasted my time watching and being loyal to the show during that time. And don't insult my intelligence by creating a fake history for a character I love that makes no sense whatsoever.

Joanne Gardner Barron Tate Vincente Tourneur lived on my screen for 35 years (16 of which of I watched). In those 35 years she didn't have her history changed. She didn't have one child to suddenly show up that she didn't remember having. She didn't have a child that she buried suddenly turn up alive. She was an active vital character who went from lead to supporting back to lead back to supporting often during her 35 years, but writers back then wrote for her without having to invent some made up history for her.

I am just waiting to find out any day that John Black isn't really the son of Santo DiMera. After all how many times have we been told who John was and the next writing staff change it again. It gets so ridiculous how often they change characters history on soaps these days. and is another reason fans are so tired of it all.

[daysfan]

Exactly, Steve! We have often disagreed in the past but you hit the nail on the head for me.

[DaytimeFan]

Y&R has been terrific and deserves these ratings, I hope the momentum keeps going and the show gets back to the 4s...that would be terrific.

B&B has been very good as well.

The rest of daytime sucks and it shows.

[MichaelGL]

Great post Steve. RC the best HW right now who has not tried to change what OLTL is about.

[boldfan01]

From the way the previews read, they didn't wrap the hot story up so much as put it on the backburner, but even that was a mistake. I don't know why TPTB at B&B just can't accept that pushing the Forresters to the backburner doesn't work. It didn't work when Brad Bell tried to reinvent B&B in 2004 with the Marone and Ramirez families as the focals, and it isn't working any better using a reinvigorated existing family (the Logans), a character/actor who has built up a decent sized fan-following on his time on the show (Jack Wagner/Nick) and a recast with an actress who was popular on other shows (Heather Tom) as the linchpins. To make matters worse, they alienate existing viewers even more by making Bridget the doormat again. Revisiting Nick and Bridget as a couple again was a risk given the history of the Brooke/Nick/Bridget triangle, but they're just doing the same thing all over again, only substituting Brooke's sister for Brooke. And they've already milked the drama and angst of the heart transplant story to death already, so Katie's "miracle baby" by Nick just drags it out more.

I don't understand why Bell and Alden decided to give up on the momentum they were building with the Eric in a coma story, since that left so many doors open. Even with the inexplicable absence of Susan Flannery/Stephanie, this story had the potential to put Ridge, Brooke, Thorne and Felicia back on the front-burner, to use Jennifer Gareis/Donna in something more than sex-kitten scenes with Eric and to showcase newcomers like Marcus, Steffy and Owen. They even could have found ways to throw Ashley into the mix, getting her out of the limbo she's been in since Eileen Davidson was dropped to recurring status. And if you want a B-story using Nick and Katie, you can have one there, too. Play up Katie having to choose sides between her sisters. Have Nick torn between supporting his wife while her dad is in a coma and helping his mother take advantage of the chaos at Forrester to try and promote Spectra and its "M" line. But rather than thinking about the tried and true rule on B&B that all roads lead to Forrester, they drive off the road to Nick-and-Kate-land instead for a week and lose the balance they were on the way to rebuilding the week before.

I'm wondering how things will be for this past week with the days of the funeral. Episodes like that tend to be a bit slower moving, especially since Sabrina was only around for a short time and didn't have a huge connection with the audience. But even with that, it's still better than the months that MAB was on her own. She and Sheffer seem to have meshed well together, so I'm hopeful that they can keep climbing and maybe even get to that 4.0 again.

[LoyaltoAMC]

Happy that Y&R went up again, since it's been good, but I think it's just a temporary spike. If you look at the dailies, they trended downward through the week, back to the mid-3 by Friday, their usual spot for the past several months. My guess is that's an omen for next week, and that they'll drop to a 3.5/3.6 average next week. Could be wrong, but JMO. Just an observation.

[TMOTVSoaps]

The Olympics have been a beast in the ratings department and there's some good action airing right before DOOL serving as a lead in. I think DAYS numbers are going to swell to 3-4 million viewers and get in the upper 2s or low 3s.

I agree with you boldfan01 about both B&B and Y&R. I think it was a terrible decision to close the book on that storyline, but after watching today's eppy its back on track.

Y&R's MAB and Sheffer have worked well together so far and that's a good thing. The eppys last week had to give Y&R a 3.8 on some days. This week looks good too and the show is getting better and better.

[Errol]

A few observations...

- Men hate ABC Daytime soaps....biggest loss year-over-year in Men 18+.

- People hate ABC Daytime overall....biggest loss year-over-year in all viewers.

- Y&R/B&B, while increasing week-to-week and year-over-year, only seem to have taken the missing audiences from the other soaps.

- Other than Y&R/B&B, OLTL seems to be the only soap to gain in a demographic....albeit Teens 12-17 isn't a large audience overall, but it is still an

increase. Shows Ron is building the new viewers ABC is craving for, but he's losing the overall audience at the same time.