Ratings from the 70's

[vetsoapfan]

That was an excellent year for TEON, with the Whitney-family/Jonah Lockwood saga in full swing. A legendary story penned by a master writer. It was must-see TV.

[watson71]

The 70s ratings really fluctuated.  Nine months later, in September, 1972, P&G insisted upon CBS airing all of their soaps in a continuous block.  This moved Edge of Night from 3:30 to 2:30, causing the show to slide from #2 in the ratings to the bottom of the ratings.  The quality of the show didn't suffer during this time, but the large male viewership and teenagers weren't able to make it home from work or school earlier by 2:30 to watch.  P&G and CBS should have realized the error and moved the show back to 3:30, but that never happened.

The 2:30 timeslot on CBS was problematic for P&G soaps.  In 1981, CBS switched Search for Tomorrow's 12:30 timeslot after 30 years to 2:30.  Less than a year later, P&G would move Search to NBC.

[vetsoapfan]

Yes, I remember the idiotic decision to change TEON's timeslot very well. Henry Slesar did an interview at the time, acknowledging that he was being mandated to write more family and romance stories to accommodate the potential loss of younger and male viewers, and to appeal more to women. I knew it would just end up alienating everyone, and it did. Slesar continued to produce stellar material, but soap watching is largely based on habit and familiarity, and tampering with that is always risky.

[Paul Raven]

A pity that CBS didn't return Edge to 4pm when ATWT expanded. But I guess a lone soap in a difficult timeslot didn't appeal to them.

I hope to find some ratings for Edge on ABC at 4.

Hope you are enjoying the posts.

[vetsoapfan]

CBS and P&G should have both agreed to return TEON to a late afternoon timeslot, either 3:30 or 4:00, but once TPTB make a bad move, they tend not to undo it, sadly enough.

 

And...I always enjoy the posts.

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[Paul Raven]

CBS added All in the Family reruns in Dec 75 at 3pm and in its second week it was already in second place behind Match Game.

Week ending Dec 12 1975

1. Match Game 9.0

2.All in the Family 8.9

CBS 7.6

ABC 6.7

NBC 6.4

[watson71]

In March, 1973, CBS moved The Price is Right to 3:00 PM to go up against NBC's Another World.  When AW expanded to an hour in January, 1975, it was up against The Price is Right and Match Game, and then later All in the Family reruns (which was the top rated prime time program at the time).  With Price is Right/Match Game/All in the Family scoring high ratings, and Another World being the #1 or #2 soap at the time- was anyone watching ABC between 3:00-4:00 PM?   It would be interesting to know how large the combined audience share was between CBS and NBC at this time.  I would imagine between them combined, the audience share was between 70-80% of all US TV sets were tuned to CBS or NBC.  

[robbwolff]

And wasn't there talk before Edge was cancelled on ABC about shifting the show to 11:30 a.m.? 

[vetsoapfan]

Maybe, but honestly, I don't remember. I stopped watching TEON when the divine Henry Slesar was replaced by the dreadful Lee Sheldon. But if a late-morning time change for Edge had been given the green light, it would have killed the show anyway.

[Paul Raven]

Int

In its first week in daytime, AITF ranked 8th for the week.

Another World 8.2/32

All in the Family 7.8/28

General hospital 7.7/27

AITF was down 3 share points on match Game in that timeslot in the previous 3 weeks.

As The World Turns first week of 1 hour episodes -  9.1/34

Wk ending Dec 5 1975

CBS 7.1

NBC 6.6

ABC 6.1

[Paul Raven]

Feb 1978

ABC -TV, which has been steadily ganing ground in daytime ratings against long time leader CBS -TV, appears to have edged into the number one position with a string of wins since the first of the year.

The most recent Nielsen standings show ABC with an 8.2 average for the two weeks ending Feb. 3, with CBS pulling a 7.9 and NBC -TV a 6.6.

A number of factors have probably contributed to the turnover. ABC's recent gains in TV affiliates and the resulting improved clearances haven't hurt. All three networks lost daytime viewers with the drops in homes using television over the last year, but ABC lost less than its competitors. According to ABC's figures, its HUT levels in the fourth quarter of 1977 were 3% off what they were for the same period in 1976, while CBS was off 13% and NBC 14 %.

Probably most importantly, ABC has made a number of changes in its daytime schedule in the last year, with the goal of establishing a solid block of soap operas in the afternoon All My Children was expanded from 30 minutes to an hour last April, and General Hospital and One Life to Live both expanded from 45 minutes to an hour Jan. 16. ABC is convinced the strategy has worked, and the numbers don't contradict that view.

[Paul Raven]

Week ending Jan 22 78 

ABC 8.7

CBS 8.4

Week ending Jan 29 78

ABC 8.3

CBS 7.9

The first two weeks of the GH and OLTL expansion brought immediate improvement in their ratings.

OLTL moved from 15th-20th place to 8th/9th

GH moved from 15th -20th to 11th - 15th.

[Paul Raven]

Top 20 Nov 1970

1. As The World Turns 12.1

2. Edge of Night 9.5

3.Family Affair 9.2

4. General Hospital 9.2

5. Another World 9.1

6. Search for Tomorrow 9.0

7. The Doctors 8.9

8. The Guiding Light 8.9

9. Love Is A Many Splendored Thing 8.9

10. Gomer Pyle 8.8

11. Days Of Our Lives 8.4

12. Hollywood Squares 8.3

13. Jeopardy 8.3

14. Love of Life 7.8

15. Newlywed Game 7.8

16. Beverly Hillbillies 7.5

17. Lets Make A Deal 7.3

18. Secret Storm 7.3

19  Concentration 7.1

20. Sale of The Century 7.1

ATWT still the clear leader even without Irna at the helm.

Secret Storm and Love of Life suffering. This was after CBS took over production and started tinkering.

No sign of any other ABC soaps (AMC,OLTL, DS, AWA)

Days closing in on Splendored Thing.

[Pine Charles]

AMC didn’t really start to rise in popularity/ratings until around 1972-1973, with Erica’s abortion storyline, the Jason Maxwell murder trial (Mona Kane did it), as well as a presumed-dead Phillip returning from Vietnam shortly thereafter.

Edited September 12, 2021 by Pine Charles

[Paul Raven]

One year later Nov 71

1. As The World Turns 10.6 

2.General Hospital 10.5

3. Days of Our Lives 10.4

4.The Doctors 9.8

5. Another World 9.6

6. Edge of Night 9.4

7. Hollywood Squares 9.2

8. Family Affair 8.8

9.Search for Tomorrow 8.6

10.Let's Make A Deal 8.4

11. Newlywed Game 8.4

12.Jeopardy 8.2

13. Guiding Light 7.9

14. Love Is A Many Splendored Thing 7.7

15, Dating Game 7.6

16. Password 7.6

17. Love of Life 7.3

18. Gomer Pyle 7.1

19.Love American Style 7.1

20. One Life to Live 7.1

Big jump for Days and corresponding drop for LIAMST. Both Days and GH would hit #1 around this time, marking first time that ATWT was not top weekly soap in over 10 years.

CBS would bring Irna Phillips back to ATWT and move GL up against Days under pressure from P&G. 

ATWT did go back to being regular #1 as I never read that another soap deposed it in the weekly ratings until AMC in 74 I believe.

SFT was always a self starter as Love of Life and then Where The Heart Is never provided a solid lead in.

Interesting to see that OLTL was the first ABC soap to make an impression apart from GH.

With its 3 soap block in the top 5, NBC couldn't get its 3.30 soap to hold viewers after AW. Bright Promise is nowhere to be seen and Return to Peyton Place would be introduced in 72 with hopes of changing that ,but no dice.