September 1-5, 2008

[Noel]

I would too, but there has to be a regime change in order to do that. You'd be surprised at the GL viewers who are not the message board kind of people like us who have quit watching the show because of various reasons. And it's surprising as well.

[Soapsuds]

Thanks for the ratings Toups. Glad ATWT and Y&R went up. A 2.1 for ATWT seems like gold now. I havent seen that number by ATWT in a while. Love seeing those 3.8's for Y&R. Hopefully, they can hit the 4's in the next weeks.

[Jess]

Except for the return to the Ryan show, I have enjoyed AMC since Jesse/Angie came back. I don't think viewers trust ABCD anymore, however. I really can not blame anyone if they decided not to invest in anything that is on ABC. The payoff is always disappointment.

[NYC123]

Yeah for AMC for their gains in Total Viewers!

[MarkH]

Remember :-)....what happens day-to-day on screen generally has no short term, and almost never a long-term, effect on ratings. A shocking recent exception was Y&R's "Sudden Impact", but extensive off-network and out-of-daypart promotion was probably part of that formula. I suspect that a long-term uptick in quality and buzz and promotion WOULD have a long-term influence on ratings...but never more than +.2 or something in the modern era.

Thus...while AMC could significantly alter its stable position in the RANKINGS, I have few expectations that any show will ever make a significant dent in ratings attrition again.

Is this real, or is it an artifact of the new "total viewers" count?

[joshua2854]

I'm glad to see that none of the soaps fell in the ratings (although some lost a little audience). Good to see 5 of 8 soaps at the 2.0 level or higher. Congrats to DAYS and ATWT for their gains. Interesting to note that DAYS with no lead in seems to be beating its competition (ATWT & OLTL) in its main time slot. Maybe we'll finally get an official word from NBC about their renewal.

Josh

[quartermainefan]

the Men demo?

Doesn't surprise me in the least. GH and ABC soaps are about couples for the sake of being couples and couples who don;t have any story whatsoever but just discuss daily how they are doing as a couple. I don't think guys tend to go for that or see the virtue in Couple A over Couple B. If the story is interesting it could star anything.

[sonyab1974]

Remember :-)....what happens day-to-day on screen generally has no short term, and almost never a long-term, effect on ratings. A shocking recent exception was Y&R's "Sudden Impact", but extensive off-network and out-of-daypart promotion was probably part of that formula. I suspect that a long-term uptick in quality and buzz and promotion WOULD have a long-term influence on ratings...but never more than +.2 or something in the modern era.

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Well, then they are going to have to promote the tornado a lot!! I wonder if they are going to advertise it. I would love to see that!

[MarkH]

I wish, wish, wish for heavy promotion. I'm afraid, though, that even if there WERE promotion it would get lost in the fall-new-series promotion. And, since there is such competition for entertainment mag and on-air promotion now, I suspect ABC will do virtually NONE.

Which, if I am right, means no lessons were learned from Sudden Impact.

But not even Y&R/CBS learned that lesson...I don't see any increase in off-network or off-daypart promotion.

[sonyab1974]

well we can have hope and faith that they will do heavy promotion. I don't see why they wouldn't. What do you mean by sudden impact?

[MarkH]

Oh, I'm sorry. Sudden Impact was the CBS Promo name given to a Friday-Monday cliffhanger of The Young and the Restless in which two (much hated) characters were killed off in a car crash. The accident got these unpopular characters off the canvas, but they also launched a new umbrella story that will drive story for months.

Not only was the event "climactic", but CBS promoted the hell out of it...by giving it a "movie-type" name, and running internet banner ads, viral videos, and even TV ads on rival networks (e.g., E!).

SON was a big part of the promotions.

Below are the quick examples I could find. Note that the first one was uploaded by our very own detroitpiston, and the second two are thanks to Errol/SON!

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

[MichaelGL]

The Hubbard's family drama are the only thing that's keeping me in tune with AMC (MCE also I might add, but Annie's destruction makes me want to change the tv). At first I didn't understand their appeal, but now I do.

[JackPeyton]

So true!