October 19-23, 2009

[Soapsuds]

LOL..I dont think ATWT could have done that. The promo for ATWT this week was pretty good. I'd love to see ATWT hit 2.0 next week but I have a feeling it will only get a 1.9 for the week. It's going to take more good storytelling for it to hit 2.0.

How do you think the numbers will be with Jonathan Jackson back??

[Guest dc cubs]

I was expecting Days to drop some in total number of viewers after a couple of weeks of increases. I'm glad it wasn't a huge drop and they maintained their household rating. The good news is they held their own considering AMC was the only soap this week to increase in number of viewers.

[Cheap21]

Woohoo for AMC beating GH

[jfung79]

Because you're making it seem like the decline of the 90s to today (cable/Internet) is a continuation of the decline of the 70s/80s (women entering the workforce) by putting them all on the same graph. So then it looks like, soaps are definitely dead because of something that has started in the 70s and is still going on. Look, there is forty years of evidence that there is an inexorable downward trend! We're doomed! It's over!

But no, actually, it is

- one decline in the 70s/80s driven by less people being at home, a decline that has stopped.

- a second decline of the cable/Internet age, which may or may not be ending.

- aging that is a constant throughout in killing off soap viewers.

If the cable/Internet revolution had not happened, soap viewership would probably have leveled out after the 80s even with the aging of viewers (because there would have been new viewers to replace them).

I appreciate your interest in historical ratings, though. Thank you for your posts! I just don't see the value in extracting any trends from forces of the 70s/80s which are long since in the past. I hope I have not been rude in my disagreement, and if so, I apologize.

[EricMontreal22]

What would be interesting I think is to compare the relative ratings of the top primetime dramas with the top daytime dramas in tv every five or so years--only a few have noted that the primetime numbers have fallen since the early 90s at a percentage not all that far from the soaps...

I have no idea why AMC is pumping numbers right now and I admit the show is a mess but I can't help but pleased whenever it does better than GH (and while I think OLTL currently deserves to do better, I get a shot of glee whenever I see that poor TVguide Canada's Nelson Branco's AMC boycott and OLTL must watch seems to be making both shows have the opposite fate he wants (of course really it has nothing to do with him)

[EricMontreal22]

It would have definetly slowed, but the amount of women who were deciding (or having to) work instead of staying at home didn't stop right come the 80s--it's steadily increased including now.

[Angela]

1.(1) Y&R: Monday: 3.8/5,059,000 (+124,000)

2.(2) B&B: Monday: 2.4/3,283,000 (+44,000)

3.(3) DAYS: Monday: 2.4/3,257,000 (+224,000)

4.(4) OLTL: Monday: 2.0/2,823,000 (+302,000)

5.(7) AMC: Monday: 2.0/2,751,000 (+365,000)

6.(5) GH: Monday: 1.9/2,727,000 (+218,000)

7.(6) ATWT: Monday: 1.7/2,298,000 (-102,000)

1.(1) Y&R: Tuesday: 3.7/4,922,000 (-137,000)

2.(2) B&B: Tuesday: 2.5/3,280,000 (-3,000)

3.(3) DAYS: Tuesday: 2.3/3,076,000 (-181,000)

4.(5) AMC: Tuesday: 2.0/2,690,000 (-61,000)

5.(6) GH: Tuesday: 2.0/2,628,000 (-99,000)

6.(4) OLTL: Tuesday: 1.9/2,461,000 (-362,000)

7.(7) ATWT: Tuesday: 1.8/2,459,000 (+161,000)

1.(1) Y&R: Wednesday: 3.7/4,961,000 (+39,000)

2.(2) B&B: Wednesday: 2.2/2,962,000 (-318,000)

3.(3) DAYS: Wednesday: 2.1/2,897,000 (-179,000)

4.(4) AMC: Wednesday: 2.0/2,598,000 (-92,000)

5.(5) GH: Wednesday: 1.9/2,539,000 (-89,000)

6.(6) OLTL: Wednesday: 1.9/2,385,000 (-76,000)

7.(7) ATWT: Wednesday: 1.7/2,287,000 (-172,000)

1.(1) Y&R: Thursday: 3.7/5,169,000 (+208,000)

2.(2) B&B: Thursday: 2.5/3,378,000 (+416,000)

3.(3) DAYS: Thursday: 2.0/2,706,000 (-191,000)

4.(4) AMC: Thursday: 2.0/2,613,000 (+15,000)

5.(5) GH: Thursday: 1.9/2,518,000 (-21,000)

6.(7) ATWT: Thursday: 1.8/2,474,000 (+187,000)

7.(6) OLTL: Thursday: 1.8/2,340,000 (-45,000)

1.(1) Y&R: Friday: 3.6/5,169,000 (SAME)

2.(2) B&B: Friday: 2.3/3,301,000 (-77,000)

3.(3) DAYS: Friday: 2.3/3,073,000 (+367,000)

4.(6) ATWT: Friday: 1.9/2,717,000 (+243,000)

5.(4) AMC: Friday: 2.0/2,699,000 (+86,000)

6.(7) OLTL: Friday: 1.9/2,449,000 (+109,000)

7.(5) GH: Friday: 1.9/2,413,000 (-105,000)

[BlueLick]

I agree with you, soaps still got a lot of time left especially those that are either doing a solid job in the ratings or are owned by the network.

I'm glad you told me not to treat it as a guilty pleasure as I've heard from a lot of viewers today that they are liking what they are seeing on ATWT lately. This upcoming stunt for November Sweeps should help get the ratings up.

Any soap can be saved at this point, its not writing on the wall just yet. DAYS was only an hour away from getting cancelled at one point then it seemed to have gotten this freakish rebirth and it went from a 1.6 to a 2.4 in only a short amount of time.

Anything is possible!

[BlueLick]

The DAYS comeback story is an amazing one. I can't believe this soap reached a 2.4 and a 2.3 in the same week. If I'm not mistaken DAYS is doing better than NBC Late Night except in the demos. DAYS has an amazing opportunity coming up to reach 2nd place but B&B is making it tough on them as they seem to have their weaker days when DAYS has their 2.0 and 2.1 days.

Y&R was stronger than what as I thought it was going to be and that's a good sign as it has a chance to hang between 3.7-4.1 for the whole sweeps stretch.

ATWT had a great Friday, that is the highest I've seen it in a minute. I heard its doing better than Let's Make a Deal so this is a good sign right now but the odds are still against them for renewal next spring at this point. I think CBS should be able to handle 3 soaps better than they did with 4.

The ABC Soaps had a decent week but OLTL is the best of these soaps right now on the Alphabet. If OLTL had some more money put behind it and confidence by the network then this soap could be doing as well as DAYS. GH has gotten so hard to watch lately but there's still some storylines that interest me enough to comeback and watch it. I plan on watching the Claudia getting killed by Sonny stuff coming up for Sweeps. GH is just not a balanced show right now, its a hot mess and I'm surprised ABC let the show hit rock bottom like this when there were plenty of chances to save the soap with the biggest fanbase. I think GH should just go the direction that DAYS went and just rebuild around their young new characters b/c the show's reputation is really bad right now.

Overall, this is a better week than I expected for the soaps and this promising as soaps just started today so the ratings next week should see some big increases. Did I mention that it still pains me not to see GL on the screen anymore.

[JackPeyton]

Days was bound to lose some at some point, its been on a steady gain pattern for far too long without some loss. the good side, as you said, is that they didnt lose by much. it also looks like they went up in shares, yes?

Ehhh, while i will say OLTL is a better soap i find AMC easier to watch... if anyone gets that.

[Ann_SS]

Exactly. The number of women entering the workplace has steadily increased. There are more women working outside the home now than ever before. Even in this hard economy, women are more likely to keep their jobs because they get paid less. The soaps' real problem is the socio-demographic shift that has taken away its 18-49 women audience. Nothing can reverse this which is why the soaps will eventually be cancelled for cheaper daytime programming.

[EricMontreal22]

Well said. I love the way some people speak where they make it sound like suddenly around 1970 there was a ten year period where women all entered the workforce and then it stopped and stuck to how it's been in 1980 or so.

Anyway, your postmademe think--if you read soap books in thelate 70s and early 80s there was a lot of talk about how soaps were now not just for women, people like Agnes Nixon would point out in interviews how 30-40% of AMC viewers at that time were male, etc, and several books I have from that time point out that the stigma about men watching soaps was fading and in another decade or so that would probably all be gone and it would be seen truly as a medium for both genders. Yet that never happened. The stigma about a (straight) guy watching a soap still definetly exists and if anything the stigma has now started up stronger with women watching too.

In LaGuardia's book Soap World (from 79or so I thik) there's a whole chapter where he talks about how during rhe 70s soaps came of age, peopel were starting to recognize them for their talent and writing, it was less of a stigma to be a soap actor, etc, and he had proposed scenarios about how soaps would grow in even the next ten years with Barbra Streisand tellign her agent she wanted a lead on a soap, soaps being seen by the leading playwrights as a much mroe satisfying medium for them, male and female (tasteful) nudity being accepted, etc, etc It all reads as beyond silly now

[DRW50]

I don't think there's a stigma with soaps now.

The problem isn't a stigma so much as a, "Who cares?" "Is that still on?"

The soaps have made themselves irrelevant by catering almost exclusively to a subsection of viewers and then showcasing crappy stories and bad actors in attempts to cater to that market. Most of whom weren't that interested in vapid teens or twentysomethings with killer abs and deadlier line readings.

If soaps hadn't destroyed so much of what made them special in attempts to get a new audience, they would have more support now. You don't have to have a big audience to be relevant.

[marceline]

I guess it depends on how one defines "stigma." Are soaps on par with porn? No. But IMO, they are considered on the same level as game shows and judge shows. The people who watch those shows don't see a stigma. The ones who don't, do.

[DRW50]

I don't see it as a stigma so much as people just not caring. Soaps used to be a joke for people on a cultural level. As the Stomach Turns. Now, soaps are seen as more of something of the past.