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Numbers are based on Live+Same Day ratings

Ratings for the week December 29, 2008 - January 2, 2009

(Compared to Last Week/Compared to Last Year)

Total Viewers

1. Y&R 5,385,000 (+131,000/-328,000)

2. B&B 3,781,000 (+213,000/-249,000)

3. DAYS 3,282,000 (+275,000/+180,000)

4. GH 2,865,000 (-90,000/-180,000)

5. ATWT 2,838,000 (+152,000/-394,000)

6. AMC 2,776,000 (+44,000/+83,000)

7. OLTL 2,710,000 (-59,000/same)

8. GL 2,232,000 (+175,000/-412,000)

HH

1. Y&R 3.8/11 (+.1/-.3)

2. B&B 2.7/8 (+.1/-.2)

3. DAYS 2.3/7 (+.2/same)

4. GH 2.1/6 (-.1/-.2)

5. AMC 2.0/6 (same/-.1)

5. OLTL 2.0/6 (same/-.1)

5. ATWT 2.0/6 (+.1/-.4)

8. GL 1.6/5 (+.2/-.3)

Women 18-49 Viewers

1. Y&R 1,127,000 (+35,000/-215,000)

2. DAYS 952,000 (+91,000/-24,000)

3. GH 905,000 (-85,000/-92,000)

4. AMC 824,000 (+61,000/+36,000)

5. B&B 797,000 (+105,000/-224,000)

6. OLTL 789,000 (-41,000/-91,000)

7. ATWT 649,000 (+30,000/-318,000)

8. GL 594,000 (+96,000/-244,000)

Women 18-49 Rating

1. Y&R 1.7/10 (+.1/-.3)

2. DAYS 1.4/8 (+.1/-.1)

2. GH 1.4/7 (-.1/-.1)

4. AMC 1.2/7 (same/same)

4. OLTL 1.2/6 (-.1/-.1)

4. B&B 1.2/6 (+.2/-.3)

7. ATWT 1.0/5 (+.1/-.5)

8. GL 0.9/5 (+.1/-.4)

Girls 12-17 Viewers

1. DAYS 89,000 (+24,000/+7,000)

2. OLTL 65,000 (+32,000/+13,000)

3. Y&R 49,000 (-5,000/+15,000)

3. ATWT 49,000 (+5,000/+21,000)

5. AMC 41,000 (+2,000/+26,000)

6. GH 40,000 (+12,000/-19,000)

7. B&B 39,000 (-8,000/-6,000)

8. GL 36,000 (+3,000/-7,000)

Women 18-34 Rating

1. DAYS 1.2/7 (+.1/-.1)

1. Y&R 1.2/7 (same/-.1)

3. B&B 0.8/4 (+.1/same)

4. AMC 0.7/4 (same/-.1)

4. GH 0.7/4 (-.1/-.3)

6. ATWT 0.6/3 (-.1/-.2)

6. OLTL 0.6/3 (same/-.3) <------- ties low rating

8. GL 0.5/3 (+.1/-.1)

Men 18+ Viewers

1. Y&R 1,292,000 (-76,000/-172,000)

2. B&B 857,000 (-17,000/-112,000)

3. DAYS 718,000 (-19,000/+7,000)

4. ATWT 610,000 (+4,000/-86,000)

5. AMC 543,000 (-31,000/+10,000)

6. GL 526,000 (+41,000/+17,000)

7. OLTL 504,000 (-28,000/+34,000)

8. GH 484,000 (-49,000/-67,000)

--------------------------------------

Day-To-Day Ratings - HH/Total Viewers

AMC

Monday: 2.1/3,000,000

Tuesday: 1.9/2,502,000

Wednesday: 1.5/1,888,000 (did not count)

Thursday:

Friday: 2.1/2,828,000

ATWT

Monday: 2.1/2,790,000

Tuesday: 2.0/2,851,000

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday: 2.1/2,874,000

B&B

Monday: 2.9/3,728,000

Tuesday: 2.6/3,694,000

Wednesday: 2.7/3,976,000 (did not count)

Thursday:

Friday: 2.7/3,919,000

DAYS

Monday: 2.4/3,353,000

Tuesday: 2.2/3,163,000

Wednesday: 2.3/3,076,000 (did not count)

Thursday:

Friday: 2.3/3,329,000

GH

Monday: 2.2/2,989,000

Tuesday: 1.9/2,488,000

Wednesday: 1.4/2,055,000 (did not count)

Thursday:

Friday: 2.3/3,117,000

GL

Monday: 1.7/2,212,000

Tuesday: 1.6/2,240,000

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday: 1.7/2,244,000

OLTL

Monday: 2.0/2,778,000

Tuesday: 1.8/2,441,000

Wednesday: 1.3/1,896,000 (did not count)

Thursday:

Friday: 2.1/2,910,000

Y&R

Monday: 3.9/5,193,000

Tuesday: 3.6/5,312,000

Wednesday: 3.7/5,471,000 (did not count)

Thursday:

Friday: 4.0/5,648,000

----------------------

For the SEASON September 22, 2008 through January 4, 2009

HH

1. Y&R 3.7

2. B&B 2.6

3. GH 2.3

4. DAYS 2.1

4. OLTL 2.1

6. ATWT 2.0

6. AMC 2.0

8. GL 1.5

Women 18-49 Rating

1. Y&R 1.7

2. GH 1.5

3. DAYS 1.4

4. OLTL 1.3

5. B&B 1.2

5. AMC 1.2

7. ATWT 1.1

8. GL 0.9

Edited January 10, 200916 yr by Toups

Me thinks the Y&R 4.0 projections were premature.

I'm just glad that OLTL held at 2.0. There seems to at least be a bandaid on the severed artery. Keep Marty and Todd front and center (because TSJ and SH are the bestest talent evah? And they have the most wonderfullest chemistry?). The Marty hour will eventually drive the show into the ground. Not because SH isn't talented, or Marty isn't an intriguing and strong character, or because the story isn't well written and executed, but because no single character should be at the center of the universe because there are a lot of diverse viewers and not all of them are going to be interested in this particular story. It's becoming the story that ate Llanview.

OLTL has become extremely unbalanced again. RC needs to reel it back in, and get over his own personal fascination with this story, and remember there are just as many people who are disgusted by it as are fascinated and compelled by it. And he needs to tie the Montez story to the rest of the canvas.

And John McBain sucks!

That is a perfect way to put it about the bandaid on the severed artery.

That was the point I was trying to make about both AMC and OLTL. Getting things consistenet and stagnant for awhile is what the shows need. Now if it last for more than 2 or 3 months you could get worried or make fun.

But to make fun and call someone stagnant when in AMC's case in particular they have only been at 2.0 for 2 weeks in a row (3 weeks ago they bumped up to 2.1 then back down to 2.0 for the last 2 weeks). But I guess that is stagnant so I guess B&E were stagnant too.

WOW! 2.1 and 3 million viewers for AMC. Now thats a good sign.

What's happening to OLTL. I am loving the show right now.

About OLTL, I don't watch it, but if Ron Carlivati's writing is as good as so many here say, what is happening to OLTL is just more proof to me that good ratings rarely follow good writing. Bad ratings can follow bad writing though. I feel like fickle soap fans find many reasons to stop watching but once they are lost, it is hard to get them back.

Edited January 10, 200916 yr by jfung79

way to go days! i hope it keeps rising.

Well the major thing though is DAYS does well because the kids are out of school. Dena actually had a few ratings spike for OLTL. The week of Daniel Coulson reveal and the week of the execution did extremely well. Dena kept her job awhile because of those spikes. I will give Dena some props the show since Ed Scott was let go and Gary took over has gotten better in the ratings. Also I noticed the day before New Years Eve it was everyone's lowest day, I wonder where everyone was. OLTL is maintaining steady, they have not declined or gone below a 2.0 since October. AMC since Pratt took over has stayed in the early 2's when under B&E it was such low numbers. OMG B&E crashed the show badly. I really hope Grant's return on GL soars them heavily, they need that big spike. So much is being put into Grant's return. I hope it works for them.

Staying stangnant isn't much for AMC, or OLTL to brag about. In many ways that's much worse than going down. It means nothing is drawing in new viewers

No, no, no. Did I mention no! In a declining market, stagnant is a VERY VERY GOOD THING. It means that your slope differs from your competitors. YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE HOLDING ON TO CUSTOMERS.

Even your conclusion may be false. Stagnant ratings DOESN'T EVEN MEAN that new viewers aren't tuning in (although, new viewers arent...not anywhere). Stagnant ratings COULD WELL mean that the rate of viewer loss is MATCHED by the rate of viewer gain. In contrast, declining viewers means that you are unable to adequately replace viewer loss.

In this declining market, stagnant ratings is a blessing from the heavens, and that is a statistical fact.

So now, for those of us who follow the genre, several questions become pertinent. FIRST, how? Why? What is Days doing that no other show is capable of doing? I'm guessing the answer is "generating some kind of buzz among young viewers"...but this is really quite worthy of study. SECOND, how long can Days accomplish this? The longer it does, then on pure statistical grounds, the closer Days moves to the top of the pack. How long can Days resist the normative trend? My guess is "not for long", but I am hopeful.

It appears that DAYS is gaining mostly in younger viewers, so the former Passions stars being there had to help somewhat, not to mention many high school and college students being home. Also, in September, DAYS switched back to its 1:00 PM timeslot in the NYC tri-state area (the biggest television market in the country). For the 2007-2008 season, they had switched it to the 2:00 PM timeslot, where it was in direct competition with OLTL and ATWT. It also switched back to its original timeslot in a few other affiliates.

What a cogent, helpful analysis. I did not know about the Tri-State switch! See, for those who SIMPLY discount this ratings bump as "holiday viewing", it does not compute. Days' trend (as viewer gain) has been going on for a while. Alvin gives us some evidence regarding why this might be: Passions and time slot switches. THESE are the kinds of things that can meaningfully alter the trend for a soap. To discount it as state-like fluctuation (i.e., due to the holidays) is to take your eyes off what is FAR more important: The long-term (multi-month) trend.

Oh and one more thing. Stagnant is not always bad.

Remember just this year alone Days remained stagnant at 2.0 for weeks and weeks and weeks. Look at them now.

Ratings have got to stablilize before they can go up. For quite awhile now the ratings have slowly been going down for both AMC and OLTL just like they did for DAys.

The stablilzing and getting stagnant with no big fluctuations is actually a good thing. It means that more of the fans are actually sticking with it. AMC needs that. OLTL does too.

Steve, you always give the factual, non-emotion-based analysis. Everything you say here is gospel correct!

Yes IMO stagnant ratings are ALWAYS bad. It means not drawing in NEW viewers. Sure it's important to keep the ones you have, but it's also important to bring in new viewers as well. When nothing is doing that, that is bad. Where would tv shows be if they didn't bring in new viewers every week? Cancellation heaven.

I have tried to refute this argument, on basic quantitative grounds, above. SteveFrame's analysis really is closer to the truth.

I cannot think of a network show alive, today, that would not donate body parts of their cast and crew to hold on to the viewers they have. The era of growing viewership is DEAD DEAD DEAD. Of course, everyone would like it...but it doesn't happen for the most part. Instead, if a show doesn't DEBUT BIG, it gets cut...because history has shown that shows ONLY LOSE...they seldom gain. There are, of course, exceptions...but certainly not in the daypart--not since 1989.

By your criterion (stagnation = cancellation), no shows should have remained after 1990. Just look at the trends.

When you look at this Pratt has broken the trend of tie the low rating taht was a very common thing under B&E.

And if you want to talk about stagnant ratings, Pratt has only had 4 weeks taht the ratings stagnanted the same and that was early. The rest of the time he has stayed the same only 2 weeks in a row.

If you look at B&E they were the ones who were stagnant more often, and at the end just bled the show down from 2.2 all the way to 1.8.

So even though some of you are wanting Pratt to fail ABC is actually looking at the ratings under so far as very good esp. when they are compared to B&E's dismal ratings at the end.

Again, this is the kind of cogent, fact-based analysis that fans of the soap genre need. My analysis concurs with yours. AMC and OLTL have had, PROPORTIONALLY, the lowest amount of viewer loss in 2008, relative to all the other shows that lost viewers.

Me thinks the Y&R 4.0 projections were premature.

Nope, Y&R got a 4.0 on Friday. That is actually remarkable, in light of all the things ZendallFan has said. This is a DECLINING market. Any sign of growth (see: Days) is breathtaking.

Now, I don't believe Y&R is going to reach a 4.0 average again, much as I wish it to be true. BUT, your average is determined by your range. In other words, a 4.0 average rating is NOT EVEN POSSIBLE if your dailies NEVER INCLUDE 4.0 as a rating. The maximum daily rating defines the maximum possible range an average could, eventually, obtain. (For example, if one week the show rates 4.0 every day, then suddenly the average can become 4.0).

There is GREAT HOPE for a show when the range moves up. Like everything else, the secret is in the TREND. For how many weeks can Y&R obtain an average of 4.0? The fanboy in me hopes it will happen for many, many weeks.

Sorry about the font size at the top. Apparently, people can't read small fonts so I thought I'd make it bigger.

Only Canadians have this reading problem eh?

What a month of December for the soaps. These ratings are positive, there's not one thing bad about the soap ratings right now even GL, which is expected to stay around 1.6 and 1.7 with its horrible timeslot. The ABC Soaps could be doing better, but even they reached 3 million viewers this week.

DAYS has made the biggest turn around for soaps since the whole genre started its decline in the 90s. This is huge for DAYS and NBC. I think the word got out about the renewal and how great the show is becoming and people are slowly coming back each week. DAYS hadn't had a week like this in two years where they had 2.3s and 2.4s in 3.2 million viewers all in one week. THIRD PLACE, if they keep this up they might be fighting with B&B for second place later this year.

Y&R has officially improved and its helping out the rest of the CBS Daytime lineup. Back to 4.0s as this soap is so hot right now.

19 week intervals for AMC; Averages

B&E's First 19

2,759,000 Viewers

HH Rating 2.2 (2.178) (1 under 2.0)

18-49 Demo 1.3

B&E's Middle 19

2,631,000 Viewers

HH Rating 2.1 (2.057) (2 under 2.0)

18-49 Demo 1.3 (1.289)

B&E's last 19 weeks

2,510,000 Viewers

HH Rating 2.0 (1.963) (8 under 2.0, 11 2.0 or above)

18-49 Demo 1.2 (1.157)

Pratt's first 19 weeks

2,570,000 Viewers

HH Rating 2.0 (1.957) (9 under 2.0, 10 2.0 or above)

18-49 Demo 1.1 (1.115)

-----

DAYS, 15 week intervals

15 Before

2,414,000 Viewers (Including Olympics)

HH Rating 1.9 (1.94)

Last 15

2,743,000 Viewers (Including 2 Holiday Weeks)

HH Rating 2.0 (2.02)

DAYS HOLIDAY BUMPS

12/11/06...*4.....2.4.....08.....3) 1.7/11.....5) 3,070,000

12/18/06.....4.....2.6.....08.....3) 1.8/11.....4) 3,329,000 (+259,000) (Not Really a Holiday Week)

12/25/06.....4.....2.7.....08.....3) 1.7/09.....4) 3,612,000 (+283,000)

12/17/07...*5.....2.0.....07.....3) 1.3/09.....5) 2,606,000

12/24/07...*5.....2.1.....06...*3) 1.4/08.....5) 2,950,000 (+344,000)

12/31/07...*4.....2.3.....07...*2) 1.5/08.....4) 3,102,000 (+152,000)

12/15/08...*4.....2.1.....07...*2) 1.4/08.....4) 2,808,000

12/22/08.....4.....2.1.....06...*3) 1.3/07.....3) 3,007,000 (+199,000)

12/29/08.....3.....2.3.....07...*2) 1.4/08.....3) 3,282,000 (+275,000)

Yeah, Dena won't be fired any time soon.

Glad that some soaps had a spike for the holiday's though. And nice to see that 4.0 for Y&R on Friday.

Am I missing the good news for Days here? They're way up from a week ago, but still the same or lower from a year ago in all the important numbers.

<great stuff deleted>

Thank you, Angela. I see no sign of stagnation there. I see what is likely non-significant growth...nonetheless notably when the rest of the field is in decline.

All I can see is that only Days shows a sign of significant growth. (And also a huge base on fans that will tune in at various points during the year)

Y&R is solid.

The entire ABC line up sucks. Loss/Growth/Whatever ever way you spin it or look at it.

OLTL's demos across the board and viewership numbers across the board are horrendous.

Frons should be embarrassed. GH at a 2.1. Embarrassing. OLTL at a .6 in the 18-34- Embarrassing.

All I can see is that only Days shows a sign of significant growth. (And also a huge base on fans that will tune in at various points during the year)

I see growth from a week ago... but they're just recovering from the HUGE losses over the last year.

I just think it's way too early to be congratulating a show that traditionally spikes in late December/early January anyway, while ignoring the fact they're still down from a year ago.

When that number has a plus-sign next to it for any show? Then you're golden. But the fact that it's still down from a year ago proves that on a year-to-year basis, they're still losing viewers.

ETA: And it's true - they're up in total viewers. But the advertisers don't care about that number because it doesn't tell them who they're advertising to.

Edited January 10, 200916 yr by brimike

ETA: And it's true - they're up in total viewers. But the advertisers don't care about that number because it doesn't tell them who they're advertising to.

DAYS turn around started 12 weeks ago, turn around as in they wouldn't drop below 2.6 million from that point on. In a 15 week period their 18-49 is up .2, their 18-34 is up .2 as well. What changed on DAYS since the week of October 13, did they bribe Nielsen? lol

I've started watching OLTL again since Tea came back. While I like some parts of the show its just not compelling enough for me to continue watching it after she leaves I think. I know I'm fickle but sadly I am afraid so is much of the soap audience. I like Natalie but find her storyline a snooze. I've never liked Marty and her being on all the time is not helping. I also miss plotting Blair. I don't think the show is horrible in the same way I think GH is, but its just not drawing me in the way it did in the ninties when I could'nt wait to watch. AMC I can't watch because basically I hate every character on the show but Adam. I just find ABCD so plot-driven I can't seem to hang onto a show for more than a few months.

I think maybe Days is going up because Higley's style suits the show. My friend has watched it since high school and can tolerate alot. She actually finds it enjoyable again and is watching whenever she can. Her teenager daughter is watching with her also when she can. I don't get it but I've never gotten Days. I don't know how the massive firings will affect the show in the long run.

DAYS turn around started 12 weeks ago, turn around as in they wouldn't drop below 2.6 million from that point on. In a 15 week period their 18-49 is up .2, their 18-34 is up .2 as well. What changed on DAYS since the week of October 13, did they bribe Nielsen? lol

I'm not saying they haven't gone up in the last three months. They have. But until that second number is in the positives, there's no reason to cheer that loudly. They're gaining back lost viewers, but there's a bigger picture to look at here - and that's how the show looks from year to year. When they start gaining viewers from a year ago, then there's reason to shout from the rooftops.