Ratings from the 70's

[Broderick]

During its third year on the air (1976), it shot up from 9th place to 3rd place. 

From then on, it consistently remained in the "top tier".

In its 50 years on the air, its only disappointing years ratings-wise were its first two years (1973-1975, when it was brand new), and its dismal performance in the very early 1980s after its expansion to an hour.  Even by 1984, it was occasionally inching back to #1.      

 

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 12/10/79-12/14/79 & 12/17/79-12/21/79:

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS (FAST NATIONALS): WEEK OF 12/24/79-12/28/79:

Join us in the 80's ratings thread to continue with the weekly ratings! Coming later this year, check back for the first posts from 1977!

[YRfan23]

Greatly appreciate all this fine work you have done!  looking forward to 1977! 

[JoeCool]

Thank you so much Jason. Love seeing all the soaps in the ratings especially All My Children's ascent to number 1 in 1978-1979 season and the strong performances of The Young and the Restless. Cannot wait for 1977.

[kalbir]

1979 Y&R had so much momentum heading into 1980 but the expansion derailed it.

1977 will be interesting to see the lead up to GL expansion in November that year.

[JoeCool]

Restless was still strong in 1977. In July 1975 AMC lost its momentum when it was moved to 12:30PM from 1 for Ryan's Hope until January 1977 when it moved back to its 1PM slot then it expanded in April 1977. Agnes Nixon said that derailed AMC from getting to the Number 1 in the season rankings. She was upset about that. She had just sold AMC and OLTL to ABC in January 1975 for almost $10 million and then ABC made the change with RH which they did not own! Ryan's Hope was an awful lead-in to AMC.

Edited August 4, 2023 by JoeCool

[Paul Raven]

Search dropping a bit but then back to #4 in December. So sad to see all that destroyed in coming years.

[GLATWT88]

It feels like a lot of the damage done to soaps in the 70s/early 80s came down to scheduling. Very poor decisions by execs which ultimately ended up destroying some great soaps. 

[JoeCool]

ABC made a poor decision by giving Ryan's Hope All My Children's time slot at 1PM. AMC was already established for 5 years in the slot. Yes that 1PM had no soap competition at that time. But doing that to AMC caused the a ratings drop for AMC.

 

Agnes Nixon thought when Loving in 1983 would debut at 1:30 sandwiched between AMC and OLTL. All My Children would move to 12:30 to 1:30 and go head to head with the Young and Restless. But ABC decided to put Loving against Search for Tomorrow and the strong Young and the Restless. Restless destroyed Loving and seriously damaged Ryan's Hope when it was at 12:30PM.

Bad moves and decisions!

[Paul Raven]

Agnes Nixon thought when Loving in 1983 would debut at 1:30 sandwiched between AMC and OLTL

Loving was slotted at 11.30 am in 1983 up against the second half of The Price Is Right on CBS and Dream House on NBC.

It followed Too Close for Comfort sitcom reruns and was followed by Family Feud.

That was terrible scheduling as soaps in the morning had never worked and it was completely isolated from the rest of the ABC soap lineup.

it might have done better at noon leading into RH?

It wasn't until Oct 84 that Loving was moved to 12.30pm.

[JoeCool]

I forgot Loving did not start at 12:30. It should have been at 1:30PM like Agnes wanted and suggested. Loving would have not done any better at Noon. Loving should have had AMC's lead-in followed by OLTL.

 

I forgot all about that ABC morning nonsense. Terrible. Thank you for reminding me and correcting the history!

What is interesting is that ABC was offered Restless before CBS. But ABC passed and wanted to focus on All My Children. ABC later said it should have taken Restlesssoon after it debuted. It would have been better for the ABC. Bad decisions. IF ABC chose Restless there would have been no Ryan's Hope and possibly GH would have been canceled in 1978 like Fred Silverman wanted. Restless and AMC on the same network pure ratings gold!

[kalbir]

This is the first I've read that ABC was in the running for Y&R. I've read before that NBC passed on Y&R but Bill Bell disproved that by saying he always intended for Y&R to go to CBS.

[JoeCool]

In the biography of Bill Bell, Screen Gems, a SONY company, offred Restless to ABC and they passed stating that ABC wanted to focus on Agnes Nixon's All My Children mostly and One Life to Live and only CBS was left which is what Bill wanted all along.  Screen Gems had a lot of production deals in the 1960s and 70s with ABC so it would have been a natural fit. Yep ABC had a shot and turned it down and shortly after regretted it.

Edited August 6, 2023 by JoeCool

[kalbir]

@JoeCool Thank you for the additional info.

[JoeCool]

You are welcome. @kalbir

Michael Eisner was VP of Daytime at ABC  and was one of the executives involved. Later, of course he became CEO of Disney which owns ABC. Eisner green-lit All My Children and worked at ABC in programming since the late 60s.  He stated in an interview, he regretted passing on Restless. ABC executives regretted soon after Restless premiered noting its youth and freshness which would have been an ideal fit with All My Children.

Edited August 5, 2023 by JoeCool