October 11-15, 2010

[marceline]

I remember MarkH always used to say that's why people should look at the quarterly ratings, not the weekly. Weeklies are subject to all kinds of weirdness. Quarterly gives a much better idea of where the show really is. The weekly OLTL freakout is insane on a number of levels.

[jpoliver78]

CBS ran "Young and the Restless" repeat episodes in the 2 p.m. time slot last week leading up to the premiere of "The Talk" this past Monday. The network also used two weeks of extra "Price Is Right" episodes and one week of "Let's Make a Deal" episodes.

[Saving ATWT]

Eric, wouldn't call myself a OLTL fan. I do, though, think that the show will make ratings gains because it is the only 2pm soap in a majority of markets. I've written about this before and a majority of people in here do not agree. Because the bottom four soaps are so close in ratings even a small agin could shift OLTL into the #3 slot. I predicted a 250,000-300,000 again after the close of ATWT--everyone laughed--and it happened last week. Some amount of World Turns fans will want a soap to watch and OLTL will fill the void. If ATWT had survived, and OLTL had been cancelled in favor of a talk show, I'd be saying the same thing. Everyone is focused on 'habit', the idea of soap fans not switching channels, the growth of cable or the notion of 'why would an ATWT fan watch OLTL'; however, 30% of the country does not have cable and OLTL now has a captive soap audience. In total, I still think OLTL will gain about 400,000 viewers by years end and tie GH. Again, I haven't become a hardcore OLTL fan even though the show is, overall, fairly good. I love numbers and trying to guess ratings...that's all.

In the East, we had Y&R repeats at 2pm last week. From what I understand, it was national and shown in your market. The game shows were shown the two previous weeks. (Week 1, TPIR; Week2 LMAD; Week 3 Y&R) I think these extra Y&R shows may have appealed to former ATWT fans and slightly diminished OLTL ratings for the week.

BTW, I think Frons was playing chicken with OLTL waiting to see what CBS would do before deciding to whether cancel. 2 pm is a good timeslot and there are now 2.4 million viewers in play. I still think GH benefits from no soap competition and the same logic is being applied to OLTL. PLus, picking up PGP 'stars' like KZ, TC, RH can only help.

[Angela]

18-49

1.(1) Y&R 1.6 (+.1)/1.05 million (+37,000 Est.)

2.(2) GH 1.3 (SAME)/831,000 (+3,000)

3.(3) OLTL 1.0 (-.1)/686,000 (-28,000)

3.(4) DOOL 1.0 (SAME)/683,000 (+16,000)

3.(4) B&B 1.0 (SAME)/650,000 (-16,000)

6.(6) AMC 0.9 (SAME)/620,000 (+39,000) Est.

[Saving ATWT]

That may be true but repeats can effect the ratings of other shows.

[jpoliver78]

I don't know how many markets this applies to, but NBC's "Days of Our Lives" airs at 2:00 p.m. in some markets.

[MontyB]

I was just being silly. These threads are more fun to predict than the ratings.

[marceline]

As much as I hate nostalgia, I'm going to indulge in some of my own. I'm fondly thinking back to the days when the ratings thread was more than a glorified candlelight vigil for OLTL.

[EricMontreal22]

Odd, I guess I missed that. What year were they from?

But GH didn't when GL left, did it? I dunno, I really don't think that mentality works with soaps much anymore--and yeah here (the Seattle market) OLTL is still right up against Days.

[Bella20]

The funny or sad thing is that I think the thread changed one week last year when people realized that OLTL only had 40,000 more viewers than GL. I'm not saying that to be funny, I remember that tidbit being reported on a few sites, and it was like people suddenly realized that less than one million viewers separated GH, DOOL, OLTL, and ATWT from GL, and that all of those shows were in a statistical tie for last place. So, it's not a candlelight vigil for OLTL, it's a death watch for all soaps.

[Saving ATWT]

Thanx, I like being someone's favorite OLTL is gaining ground for a number of reasons but I, too, expect drops for this and next weeks ratings. T&R (repeat or new) just seems to have some cult-like following that reasons can not explain. Also, people will sample The Talk and the show may eventually do really well. OLTL has really cleaned up the writing and the Ford Bros. seem to have some fans. Sadly, the ratings got better right about the time KISH went away. Daytime demos aren't BMW when it comes to income and this is where the 30-35 percent of Americans without cable really do come into play. These viewers can't flip to TNT for CSI repeats and this should aid OLTL. Also, the economy getting worse (and it will) should help all soaps--less cable and more unemployed daytime viewers.

I've heard of some locals pushing Days into the 2pm slot. It was tried in the NY market for a few months and failed. I'd think NBC would love getting Days out of the 1pm cluster of AMC and Y&R but, for whatever reason, it has not happened on a national level. I miss ATWT, settle for OLTL but would probably watch Days at 2pm if it were possible. Still blown away by ATWT being gone. I understand why CBS made the move but wish PGP had been willing to sell.

I agree with the poster who said prediciting is more fun than the actual ratings. My next prediction is that AMC will get new writers within six months. Frons must miss Pratt something bad.

[jpoliver78]

I don't think this statement is correct. If I'm not mistaken, OLTL actually hit a record low in viewers after Brett Claywell and Scott Evans left the series.

[Bella20]

You aren't mistaken. OLTL's ratings did go down after Kish was let go. I don't think they were the only reason for the decline or record low numbers, but the rating's fall did show that they were not the reason for OLTL's problems.

[TeamEric]

Kish's last day:

April 12, 2010 Monday 2,267,000 1.7

Post, OLTL posted 4 straight weeks of gains in viewership:

Apr 19-23 2010 7. OLTL 2,255,000 (+2,000/-33,000)

Apr 26-30 2010 6. OLTL 2,311,000 (+56,000/-62,000)

May 3-7 2010 6. OLTL 2,325,000 (+14,000/-114,000)

May 10-14 2010 6. OLTL 2,416,000 (+91,000/-79,000)

OLTL hit record lows in June when the teens swallowed up most of the airtime.

[Southofnowhere]

If AMC stays in last place in 18-49 during sweeps , it's in mortal danger.

They need to get back into the middle of the pack in 18-49.