Good grief, those ratings are horrible! Just goes to show you, don't believe ABC press releases. Those numbers are nothing to brag about.

GH can't pull a single 2.0 anymore and summer hasn't fully started yet? I doubt Franco returning will help much. Spoilers leading us to believe there are a few breakups on the horizon just means more disappointed fans. I hope they have a plan to turn the downward trend and aren't just hoping for guest stars to save the show.

Why were the Thursday episodes of BB & YR counted since they were impacted by the Obama news conference pre-emption? Who makes the decision as to whether a show that has been partially pre-empted counts in the ratings?

Why were the Thursday episodes of BB & YR counted since they were impacted by the Obama news conference pre-emption? Who makes the decision as to whether a show that has been partially pre-empted counts in the ratings?

But where they pre-empted for everyone? The CBS station here doesn't even show Y&R until 4 pm ET.

That totally blows that the Friday episode of DAYS was barely watched. That was one of the best episodes of the year, Vivian and Victor's Wedding! DANG.

Let me get this straight, you are assuming that Leslie Moonves and his crew don't have a plan for when ATWT goes off the air, you are assuming they don't have a plan for when they yank the other two soaps too?!!! You are saying that the #1 network and also noted for its excellence doesn't have a game plan for all of this. I think they have a game plan and that's why they can do all of this. CBS being held hostage is not going to work!!

The Bells' writing/production stinks, everything about them shows that they don't have what it takes anymore to produce a good soap any longer. Nor it seems that they can produce the soap that CBS expects and wants which is their right since they are the ones paying for it. It's the same regurgigated stuff year after year. Heck MAB alone is even regurgigating her stuff from 6 months ago. She can't string together one original thought. And even if your budget is slashed, you are supposed to be experienced enough to know how to make it work, good CEOs make that work, it's her show, she said so. And No, Maria it's not your show...when you put it on your OWN network, then you can say it is your show. At the rate they are going, their soaps won't be that "special" anymore. CBS as everyone knows don't own their soaps, they pay a significant licensing fee to have the products developed for them and I am sure they have a target plan every year of where they want to see the ratings/viewership so that they can justify to their board, shareholders and to their own employees why they should continue to buy a product where they are not making the profit they want when they could be using that budget on something else that could turn a profit or developing other new products.

I am now in my own countdown mode- month 3 of how long it will take LM to say the words "Y&R has been cancelled, it's time". So I will try and enjoy as much as I can of the show till then though right now the show stinks so bad that I am hardly watching. It's like the show got its marching orders but can't EXECUTE!!! Everything falls flat.

I forgot to say I do agree with you about the demos and the importance placed on them because I don't care about them either, I just want good stories and good production. But I think the importance placed on demos is not just about soaps but for pretty much about everything you can think of. Heck, even the current Health care reform act is driven by demos too, by age/population etc.

Let me be clearer--I in no way think CBS is worried about a daytime ratings crash; however, I would still love to see it happen. If anything, LM is probably hoping for the crash and already has a plan in place for daytime. Since the break with Viacom, CBS is under great pressure and I'm sure Mooves is looking into some innovative means to cash in on daytime. Personally, I think he will copy the cable model and repurpose top prime time shows: repeats of Cold Case are currently out ranking ATWT.

As for the issue of demos, I understand why they are important; however, most of daytime is basically tied in 18-49 with AMC only garnering slightly more ad revenue than ATWT. A few ratings points make little difference and I think way to much focus is being placed on .2 points.

With the development of DVR and Google TV, all networks, whether broadcast or cable, will be airing less and less new content. There are already too many shows for any viewer to watch and this means the era of a full-service network is dead. I expect, within ten years, that we all will be downloading shows very much in the way we do songs from the iTunes Store. The real question is whether there are enough viewers to keep the 'special soaps' alive during the switch. I could see a cable network picking up two or three shows due to the low production costs. Days is damn cheap to produce and has more viewers than Mad Men save the good demos. Actually, I could see the soaps being a great fit for something like Ion TV--not every network is striving to be number one and are happy to settle for smaller returns.

Yeah.... ...Ain't no way Frons can justify to his bosses canceling OLTL over AMC (or even the expensive GH) with these ratings. History/buzz/name-recognition/whatever....AMC will be cut before OLTL if the ratings trend of late continues. It's all about $ for the networks, nothing else.

It's wishful thinking on some people's part. All that junk about OLTL going before AMC has absolutely no basis to it. I'm not just saying this as a OLTL fan. The simple fact is no one at ABC has ever said such a thing. It's all rumors from certain sites and some ex-fans.

It's what you say Carolyn1980. OLTL is the cheapest show for ABC to produce. Even though the ratings looking bad to us, they are basically the same across the board for most shows. OLTL is pulling the demo so yes, it comes down to the dollar.

Edited June 7, 201015 yr by MontyB

Really?!?! OLTL had Eterna, the Wild West crap, scads of poorly done mob stories, and that's just the 1980s. AMC imo was always much better than OLTL because it stuck closer to reality (until unaborted fetus boy). I just can't see how anyone could call OLTL better than AMC in the long haul.

AMC had Erica defeating a bear, Erica chasing Nazis, Janet, Natalie, and the well, Gillian's months as a ghost, Jamaica, Santa Claus...

The problem isn't unrealistic stories so much as poorly done unrealistic stories. Viki going to Heaven or Janet putting Natalie in the well >> plenty of attempts at realism AMC or OLTL have tried.

Edited June 7, 201015 yr by CarlD2

It's what you say Carolyn1980. OLTL is the cheapest show for ABC to produce. Even though the ratings looking bad to us, they are basically the same across the board for most shows. OLTL is pulling the demo so yes, it comes down to the dollar.

Is OLTL still the cheapest show? I keep hearing how good they are with a budget from fans of the show but I haven't seen where they're getting that info. I know there was talk years ago about Valentini's talent with money but the point of moving AMC was to cut costs and now OLTL is doing stunts like the snowstorm and the musical which must've cost a fortune. Do we know how the budgets are now?

Of course the influx of teens and newbies probably helps keep costs down.

CBS shouldnt have counted Thursdays B&B and Y&R. Just goes to show they dont even care about their soaps.

Go OLTL!!! Only soap to go up from last week and last year and tying GH in Frons favorite demos. Lets just say Frons didnt get much sleep this weekend. GH needs to wake up before its too late. It can only get worse.

Is OLTL still the cheapest show? I keep hearing how good they are with a budget from fans of the show but I haven't seen where they're getting that info. I know there was talk years ago about Valentini's talent with money but the point of moving AMC was to cut costs and now OLTL is doing stunts like the snowstorm and the musical which must've cost a fortune. Do we know how the budgets are now?

Of course the influx of teens and newbies probably helps keep costs down.

To be honest. Who really knows? I've heard it said on the Podcasts on DC, then again I take some what they say with a grain of salt. I like them, but I don't know about all that inside track stuff.

CBS shouldnt have counted Thursdays B&B and Y&R. Just goes to show they dont even care about their soaps.

I think it's the opposite -- they are not obsessed with a single day or week of ratings. So what if there was an impacted episode? Honestly, as disappointed as I am about ATWT being cancelled, if ATWT & GL were on NBC or ABC, they would've been canned at least five years ago.

It's kind of sad but not surprising to see almost all of the soaps stuck in this 1.8 swamp of mediocrity. I wonder if they're ever going to spread out again or will they all just shift the same 100,000 - 200,000 viewers between them. I miss MarkH's graphs.

I didn't realize that that one premption would affect the other four days

I thought it would just affect Thursday not the whole week.

I just don't think that it has a lot to do with the trend these shows are hitting the onesies more often than not

premption doesn't have anything to do with that. And that some got the same #s and it wasn't on Thursday...

Edited June 7, 201015 yr by Cyberologist

CBS shouldnt have counted Thursdays B&B and Y&R. Just goes to show they dont even care about their soaps.

I disagree, they did the right thing. They lost 371,000 from Monday to Tuesday, lost another 136,000 from Tuesday to Wednesday, on Friday they gained back 345,000 with the same 3.3 rating as Wednesday. I think they know it wouldn't have made a lick of a difference.

Damn, they dropped +.3 from Monday to Tuesday, that should have been one of te strongest day. I swear the trend these days is Monday starts of strong and then people just tune out by the end of the week.

those are SHITTY ratings! WOW at GH's almighty fall...hopefull theyll regain.