April 20-24, 2009

[SweetPea36]

That might be tad bit funnier if Sam hadn't been one of women Sonny impregnated.

Ann_SS, I agree with your take on Jason and Sonny's hypocrisy, particularly Jason's. He's Port Charles' Captain Saveaho. If only he hadn't killed as many people as he's saved, that might work a little better.

[DRW50]

I hate Jason no matter who he is with (my dislike for Liz comes from how she looks down on people while ignoring her own flaws, but this is all made 10 times worse when she's around Jason). I don't think putting him with Sam is an improvement. An improvement would be writing Jason out if Steve Burton refuses to make big changes to the character and to stop phoning it in.

I just don't get this idea which I often hear at places like DC that the show would get better if Liz and Jason were back together, that people have stopped watching because of Liz and Jason. Even if I loved Jason and Liz, then I would find this sad, because a soap can't be about one couple. If Jason and Liz got back together and had brilliant stories and wonderful writing (unlike the baby Jake storyline, with the most heinous character assassination possible), the rest of GH would still suck.

I also don't think GH tries to sell Jason and Sonny as being criminals and murderers. They always try to find someone we are supposed to see as being worse, whether it's AJ, or Ric, or this recent story where Spinelli let us know the mob is much better than the feds.

[Cyberologist]

Frons will never fire him imo

he just hired his wife

They'll ride GH in the ground together

The drama is still imbalanced by writing for just their favorites,

I''m glad to see Alexis and Helena. I like that the focus is on the hospital

the mob will morph into those storylines as well.

I'd like to see Matt in his own storyline.

As for the Elizabeth/Jason fanbase from those I post with stopped watching a long time ago

so I don't know if it would still affect the ratings...some posted the reason why

was not only they refused to tell their story with a positive focus but

had to do more with the

"rumors' surrounding it and the favoritism "involved in them refusing to

tell their story" couples break up to make up all the time

this is what soaps have always done. Many are also Robin fans who didn't

like the PPD storyline that much.

GH won't write well for the "pairing driven audience" they have created and market for.

They want the demo group well, the young group they cater to

like pairings and romance and GH won't write good stories

I don't do couples on GH they are all "written to be" silly and lack substance like most soaps do

but I just don't find their stories that "interesting"

and certainly don't like many of my favs in the storylines they are in now

so I have other choices.

I think its sad that their writers refuse to step outside the lines they basically tell the same ole' story and

that's ok but if the outcome is always the same and that is not ok imo. Its predictable so why watch?

[JackPeyton]

ABC Daytime needs a complete overhaul. Starting from Frons and going down to Guza, Pratt, and even RC. All soaps could also use a new EP and they need to refocus the show.

Question is - does anyone higher up care for that to happen?

Anyways, YAY for Days. So much for John, Marlena, Patch, Kayla, Tony, and Anna being off the show being the death of it.

[SteveFrame]

Wow Y&R & Days are the only ones up in HH's from last week.

ATWT & B&B stayed the same and the rest dropped .1.

Another depressing week for ratings.

I wonder if GL will continue to drop now or if they will rebound. You would think that some might want to tune back in to see the show end but so far it looks like no one wants to see the end.

[Cyberologist]

What does an EP do?

[Cheap21]

Their attempt at fixxing will most likely be to retain the current viewers they've still got, but unfortunetly for them, they most likely wont regain the viewers, like myself, which they lost

[Ann_SS]

The truth is nothing really can be done to save GH. Most of the viewers that have left are not coming back. My only hope that GH continues to move away from the mob wars and focuses on the family/relationship stories. It would be good if they use that new hospital set.

[JackPeyton]

I disagree, and i think Days of our Lives should show us that soaps can bounce back. No, not the glory days, but they can GAIN an audience. Be it new, old, or whatever.

[Jane1978]

OMG, what happened with ABC daytime? It´s really so bad? I can believe DAYS is more then 500 000 viewers ahead of GH. And the demos are downright scarry as well. No matter how much people want to believe otherwise, I´m pretty sure ratings still matters and those numbers are scary. I believe any soap which gets under 2.0 in HH and 1.0 in demos is marked for cancelation no matter the network. If CBS just canceled GL because it apparently wasn´t profitable anymore even with the radical change and drastic budget cuts, I cannot see ABC feeding the black hole of much more expensive shows like GH and AMC forever. They need to rebound and soon.

On the other side, I´m so happy with DAYS numbers. It really shows how wrong Corday was with his "let´s bring back anyone who is familiar and people will watch no matter how the stories suck" policy he applied for most of the last decade. It also shows the soap are not dead yet and they don´t have to turn into museums of 80´s and 90´s featuring the same characters forever just so the few remaining viewers stays till the bitter end.

Tomlin made a lot of very daring decisions Corday would never be able to do and they seem to pay off now.

[DRW50]

It's kind of hilarious, in a perverse way, in that ATWT is reportedly the next soap to be canceled, and yet they're now outrating all of ABC Daytime. I guess the demos will just be used as the reason, but wow, ABC Daytime has fallen so far. My heart breaks for OLTL because it was so good a year ago and you could practically sense those viewers waiting and waiting and waiting for improvement until they finally gave up.

[NYC123]

OUCH to ABC.

Sad to see OLTL that low. I don't think it is at it's best but still better then GH.

[Scotty]

So much for the days of GH being leaps and bounds ahead of AMC and OLTL.

[dowwwe]

In Households:

CBS - 2.4

NBC - 2.2

ABC - 1.8

DAYS continues to carry NBC and I'm so proud of their numbers this week.

[MarkH]

Roger Newcomb has added in the last week/last year comparisons for the total numbers, appropriately crediting Toups for this week's numbers. Not a great week for a lot of soaps

Total Viewers (Compared to Last Week/Compared to Last Year)

1. Y&R 5,109,000 (-171,000/-224,000)

2. B&B 3,488,000 (+14,000/-292,000)

3. DAYS 2,900,000 (+88,000/+16,000)

4. ATWT 2,488,000 (-42,000/-428,000)

5. AMC 2,423,000 (-149,000/-43,000)

6. GH 2,360,000 (-265,000/-668,000) - New Low

7. OLTL 2,288,000 (-275,000/-373,000) - New Low

8. GL 1,969,000 (-276,000/-405,000)

Household Rating (Compared to Last Week/Compared to Last Year)

1. Y&R 3.6/13 (-.2/-.2)

2. B&B 2.6/9 (same/-.1)

3. DAYS 2.2/8 (+.1/+.1)

4. ATWT 1.9/7 (same/-.2)

4. AMC 1.9/7 (-.1/-.1)

6. GH 1.8/6 (-.2/-.5) - New Low

6. OLTL 1.8/6 (-.1/-.3)

8. GL 1.5/5 (-.1/-.2)