http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i4dc46381a1986fb0d7121cee4445effc

Is that a good thing?

Is that a good thing?

It explains to me why a show can be +150,000 viewers over last year and still get the same crappy 1.8 rating

Right and it doesn't really mean people will be tuning more into network tv (let alone daytime network tv...)

Is that a good thing?

It just means the ratings points will be designated at a different number. Now 1.0 will be worth 10,000 more sets more or less.

I don't think that's fully true. I do think a lot more straight guys watch than the cliche that still exists--and maybe it's a lot more than gays, but there was a study done in the mid 90s (it's talked about in the book Worlds Without End which is a collection of essays around the Museum of Broadcasting's soap exhibit at the time). Anyway they found AMC *at the time* had the largest gay viewership (this was just before they did their gay story) the reasoning why was they liked the campy comic characters like Opal, and the divas like Erica--those were the overwhelmingly chosen reasons. All the gay guys who watch soaps watch primarily what every show(s) they formed their habit on. It's true as a young teen I started watching One Life after AMC because of the Billy douglas gay storyline but all my gay friends who watch ATWT (except maybe a few who have seen some Nuke on youtube) watched years before Nuke came on.

I just have this feeling that a lot of str8 guys watch soaps but it is a downlow sort of thing. Can you imagine a layed off contruction worker talking Y&R with his buds over beer? In the 1970's, OLTL was known as the 'Thinking Man's Soap' due to it's large male viewership of college guys and seniors. Clearly, gay men watch soaps but they probably make up less than half of the total number of the total male demo (gays in general are less than 10% of the total population thus you're gonna have some major math issues if you remove hetro males from the numbers). In general, I agree with Eric on soaps being all about habit. I grew up on CBS, my ex BF watched ABC--we hated each other shows! It is almost like how someone can be a Mets fan for no real reason aside from thier Dad being a Mets fan. Since the 1980's, I feel like we've seen somewhat of a pattern regarding show rankings with Y&R, B&B and GH being the tops fan favs. Certainly, since the mid 1990's, GL, ATWT and OLTL have been the weakest shows with only a few short term ratings surges.

I've enjoyed Nuke, but it was a stunt that got ATWT mentions on CNN, ET and various other programs. It was strong enough to boost the show into 3ed place for 07-08 but didn't have enough staying power. The writing, overall, became weak and any gains were lost. I consider it sort of sad because out of all the soaps, ATWT seemed like it had the biggest chance to reboot and pick up new fans due to all that press.

b&b doesn't look so bad for once

b&b doesn't look so bad for once

B&B has been in a creative swing as of late. I hope they can maintain it. How I wish Barbara Ryan would come over to B&B and have her clothing line (is it Ryan Originals?) compete with Jackie M and Forrester Creations. I can see Stephanie and Barbara going head to head. I just don't want Barbara bringing any of her kids with her.

B&B has been in a creative swing as of late. I hope they can maintain it. How I wish Barbara Ryan would come over to B&B and have her clothing line (is it Ryan Originals?) compete with Jackie M and Forrester Creations. I can see Stephanie and Barbara going head to head. I just don't want Barbara bringing any of her kids with her.

I really like that idea, even if they had to give CZP a new character to play.