Ratings from the 70's

[VanessaReardon]

As far as I know, yes Daytime TV posted the ratings until its demise. There is ALOT more to come. I found a huge stash in my basement of old daytime tv’s and a newsletter from the 80’s and 90’s that published the ratings. Stay tuned.

[VanessaReardon]

Daytime TV February 1979 so the ratings must have been from a couple months before that.

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[Soapsuds]

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[Paul Raven]

SOD published some ratings for week ended Dec 12 1975. No numbers just ranking

1. Match Game

2. All in the Family

3. ATWT

4. Y&R

5. SFT

6. GL

7. AW

8. AMC

9. DOOL

10. GH

[VanessaReardon]

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[Paul Raven]

Thanks for these. 

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Hopefully there will be more 

 

Surprised to see AW doing much better than I thought. Once the 90 min format/time change took effect, it started to drop.

[watson71]

In looking at the ratings from Spring 1979, here is some information to see what was going on at the three networks as NBC and CBS made changes to their lineups at this time.   Another World expanded from 1 hour to 90 minutes on March 5, 1979. The Price is Right moved to 11:00 AM time slot on April 23, 1979.  Also on this same date, CBS moved Love of Life to the 4:00 PM slot that had opened when Match Game was canceled.  

 

While Another World was not the ratings powerhouse it once was, at the time of these ratings, it was still NBC's top rated soap and was holding its own against the other P&G soaps.

 

The Edge of Night, The Doctors, and Love of Life are not on the ratings charts at all.  The switch to 4:00 PM was clearly the nail in Love of Life's coffin.

 

Surpised to see how low As the World Turns and Days of our Lives are in the ratings. On the May 1979 ratings chart, As the World Turns is the lowest rated P&G soap, other than The Edge of Night.  Was this the time when Days of our Lives went through numerous headwriters, because something clearly was not working.

[Paul Raven]

Elizabeth Harrower took over as Days headwriter in Feb 79 from Ann Marcus.

Marcus had been headwriter just short of 2 years.

Harrower lasted about a year.

Ratings continued to drop during those years and Days ranked 10th each season.

[VanessaReardon]

I will post more ratings. I just have to find the time. Just keep in mind that the ratings I post are from Daytime TV magazine and the month and year handwritten is the issue date, so most likely the ratings are from a few months earlier. 

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[VanessaReardon]

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[VanessaReardon]

While I’m not sure exactly what week the ratings represent, the 12/79 issue of Daytime TV shows that The Doctors bumped Another World out of the Top 10. 

[Paul Raven]

So Y&R was regularly hitting #1 in the latter half of 79, outrating all the 60 min shows.

 

No wonder CBS pushed for it to expand.

 

SFT hitting #3 - the Carringtons were working wonders, but couldn't sustain it.

 

And GH was inching up month by month...

 

Hope you can post more!!

[VanessaReardon]

I’ll definitely keep posting. I think I’m going to move the next set of ratings into the 80’s thread. While I know that the ratings are a few months behind, the Daytime TV issue for the next set of ratings was January, 1980, so I’ll go with that. 

[robbwolff]

 

When did the Corringtons leave Search?

[Paul Raven]

The Corringtons began in Aug 78 and departed June 1980 to work on Texas portion of AW

I get the feeling that they lost enthusiasm for Search way before that. I had always assumed they'd left before that and that Beau and Cissy were introduced by the next writers as the tone and direction seemed to change..