"Let’s Make a Deal" ratings are up but... mostly made up of older viewers

[Rakesh]

Well, after two weeks of episodes, "Deal" is drawing a few more viewers than "GL" overall, up 7 percent in overall households (1.6/5) vs. the soap's 2008-09 average (1.5/5).

But it looks like most of those extra viewers are older. In the key daytime demographics of women 18-49 (0.7/4) and 25-54 (0.8/5), "Deal" is down 13 percent and 20 percent, respectively, compared with the "GL" average. The gameshow is flat vs. "GL" with women 18-34.

Not surprisingly, because it's not a soap opera, "Deal" has ticked up a tenth of a ratings point in all the key male demos.

http://tvbythenumber...-is-right/31282

[dragonflies]

I don't even know when LMAD airs here. At 3pm we get Dr. Phil

[P.J.]

LOL...what did they expect, "reinventing" a 40 year old gameshow? Serves them right...I guess it's at least some kind of moral victory they're doing worse in their prize demographic.

[bellcurve]

Bring on Million Dollar Pyramid with Ryan Stiles!

[Soapsuds]

Totally agree!!

[Ann_SS]

I don't get the problem. There is no way to spin this as bad for CBS or good for the soaps. Sure some of the increase in viewers are older, but LMAD is cheaper produce and is doing even or better that GL ratings wise. LMAD goes up against GH in my market so it is a credit that it has held its ground. If anything this should give Pyramid a good shot to get on the air and replace ATWT.

[tanyia2]

The networks and the advertisers want the coveted 18-49 demo not the older audience. I am so glad that they are not getting the viewers that they want.

[All My Shadows]

ITA. Yeah, LMAD is a 45-year-old game show, but it replaced a 72-year-old soap opera that was as dead as dead can be by the time it got its cancellation notice. Game shows don't have nearly as bad a stigma as soaps.

[Ann_SS]

Exactly. The fact that the ratings increased in the 2nd week is good news. Usually, shows that going to fail have a ratings dip after the week of the premiere. On top of which, the sources of the info points out that TPIR got its best ratings since January with LMAD as its lead in last week in most markets. CBS must be thrilled and wondering why it didn't cancel GL sooner. It isn't difficult to think that ATWT is in serious danger of cancellation if LMAD continues to do so well and help TPIR.

I think that people did not read the source of this blurb carefully: http://www.thewrap.c...deal-doing-9059

[RoseVioletDaisy]

Even though I was a GL fan, I'm rooting for LMAD to succeed because some GL fans have developed a bizarre obsession with wishing demise on LMAD and CBS in general. That kinda crap is so freaking childish it drives me nuts.

Guiding Light, as someone else said, was already dead. It was dead. It wasn't the show that it's fans truly loved anymore and it hadn't been in a long time. We who stuck with it, spent the last 2+ years watching it decompose before our very eyes. It was ugly and it was time for GL to go. It was beyond time for it to go. CBS was never gonna replace it with another soap. That was never even on the table and I'd much rather a game show than some horrid reality show or yet another talk show.

I'm not surprised that LMAD is pulling in slightly better numbers than GL. As a game show, it has a big advantage over a soap in terms of pulling in casual viewers and channel flippers who only want to get involved with something for 60 minutes at the most and not have to worry about figuring out what's going on like they would if they landed on a soap. CBS didn't cancel GL and replace it with LMAD because they thought that LMAD was the ticket to pulling in the 18-49 female demographic. They did it because GL was bleeding viewers and not making money and never would again and LMAD was a cheap alternative they could get on the air quickly. That's it. It seems to be doing it's job. Nothing more, nothing less.

[DRW50]

I don't think LMAD is going anywhere and I still think ATWT is going next year but I do believe CBS expected better demos than this. Price is Right was, at least for a while, very popular with college students. Wayne Brady is well known among younger viewers for his cameos on stuff like Chapelle's Show. They could have come up with an even cheaper program for these demos.

[jfung79]

So you seem to be saying that people who loved the GL they were watching to the end, and appreciated it, were not real fans? And "it was beyond time for GL to go" is the attitude real fans should have had (as opposed to "Get this daytime institution a bigger budget, bring back __ characters and ___ writers, get new writers and producers" if they disliked the direction -- or simply keeping quiet, not watching the show, and letting people who did still like watching the show, enjoy it)? Wow. Some so-called fans did openly call for cancellation like you seem to endorse, and sadly I think it may have helped CBS make its cancellation decision.

Anyway this isn't just about GL. LMAD tanking combined with the soaps' newfound stability in the ratings will save the remaining soaps. Most syndicated game shows are older-skewing, and LMAD tanking would be more proof that game shows don't get the prize demo. Ratings also wouldn't be good for a lineup full of talk shows. That would be saturation. There is already too much syndicated competition in talk shows, and there is already "The View."

[Ann_SS]

LMAD failing will not save the remaining soaps. Ratings wise the soaps are not stable. Days is the only soap trending upwards, the other soaps are merely declining at various rates, GH being the fastest. The networks will continue to cut the soaps budgets and search for cheaper alternative programming which might be game shows, reality tv, judge shows or talk shows.

[bellcurve]

Chill CarlD2. Wayne Brady will not have to choke a bitch for his coveted 18-49 Females. Besides, most of my friends and people I talk to don't even know Let's Make a Deal is back on the air. CBS may not have the money to properly promote the show.

If the numbers increase, they will over the summer.

Here's the big question: IF(and I do mean IF) CBS were to can ATWT for a new gameshow or talkshow, given how strained Bloom's relationship is with Queen Bee, do you think she'd put Y&R in ATWT's timeslot nationally(or with O&Os) and put the new talk or gameshow in its place?

Think about it, CBS2 and other affiliates have all paired Deal with Price. What's stopping Bloom from developing a third show to sandwich in between Price?

If Bloom hates Queen Bee as much as it is being alleged, I don't see her wasting any time getting rid of Y&R or really screwing the show over to get rid of having to deal with that sort of ego and the negative backlash.

When has oversaturation stopped the talk show and court show genre? When there is too much of one type of talk show, the trend tends to go towards the next style of talk show. The 90's dominated with trashy topics and OTT guests. Now, it's either the roundtable discussion or the fun family friendly host with nary a political agenda.

It doesn't matter whether Deal is targeting the prized demo. Deal will do its job over the summer when the tots are home for summer vacation and it will keep affiliates from gaining control over their daytime lineup.

No affiliate has ever said, "Let's cancel Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! because they skew an older audience." People young and old watch Wheel and Jeopardy! because for years, they've resonated with the audience. It's a family show with a name brand and recognition. Not to mention people waiting to watch Wheel/Jeopardy! are fabulous lead outs and lead-ins to local news broadcasts and primetime programming.

Rome wasn't built in a day. Roger King, when developing Wheel of Fortune for syndication, only chose smaller markets to carry Wheel and waited to see if the show would grow. By the end of the season, Wheel had taken the #1 spot from Family Feud and with a few unfair exceptions(f&ck you Ken Jennings!), Wheel has always been the #1 Gameshow in syndication AND the #1 show in Syndication.

[Sylph]

There is so much cancellation craze going on around, it's hilarious. Not only are network executives quick to cancel a show after five episodes, the fans' favourite solution cancellation is, too.