Ratings from the 70's

[Paul Raven]

ATWT March 76

The ruling in the custody case came through and the Ellisons retained custody of Teddy, Joyce and Grant's child. Joyce was in a car crash that may have been deliberate. Joyce's dramas continued to annoy Lisa.

John was in trouble over trying to frame Bob over the death of Norman Garrison. He was asked to resign and refused.

[kalbir]

1976 recaps in this thread starting on page 18

 

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 4/5/76-4/9/76 & 4/12/76-4/16/76:

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[JAS0N47]

FAST WEEKLY WEEK OF 4/19/76-4/23/76 NOT AVAILABLE

(Note: Per newspaper listings, there were no scheduled preemptions and all daytime shows were scheduled to air every day this week).

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 4/26/76-4/30/76 & 5/3/76-5/7/76:

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Edited May 31, 2024 by JAS0N47

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 5/10/76-5/14/76 & 5/17/76-5/21/76:

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Edited June 1, 2024 by JAS0N47

[kalbir]

I noticed ABC had no pre-emptions in February for Innsbruck Winter Olympics and CBS had no pre-emptions in April and May for NBA playoffs. We might see ABC pre-emptions in July for Montreal Summer Olympics and CBS pre-emptions in September for US Open tennis.

[Paul Raven]

Amazing to see all CBS and NBC soaps (bar Somerset) ahead of ABC.

That situation would be reversed in 4 or so years with all NBC soaps at the bottom.

Jackie Smith's arrival at ABC really turned things around.

[Contessa Donatella]

What about Dinah Shore? "See the USA, in your Chevrolet." 

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Yeah, that, and I am anxious to see 10-1-1976, which is Doug & Julie's first wedding, which supposedly had 16 million people watching & caused it to be the first daytime soap wedding to be of interest to mainstream media because of the gross number popularity. (I feel the need to say "supposedly" every other word!! LOL) 

Edited June 2, 2024 by Contessa Donatella
combine

[kalbir]

 

I was not aware of Dinah Shore talk show. Thank you.

So the main 1970s talk shows were Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Donahue, Dinah Shore. Dinah Shore ended in 1980, Mike Douglas ended in 1981, Merv Griffin ended in 1986, and Donahue ended in 1996.

Oddly enough, Merv Griffin last episode was Friday September 5, 1986 and the following Monday (September 8, 1986) Oprah went national.

[JAS0N47]

No, 1976 was pretty low on preemptions. They didn't air Olympics in the daytime back then. I have completed the 1976 charts, so skimming them just now, the only main event left for preemptions in 1976 are a few days of the RNC and DNC conventions and Thanksgiving Day. That's about it, other than some breaking news President Carter press conferences. 

I think there was a discussion last year about the number of viewers, and if they were using "Total # of Viewers" in those press reports instead of the # used here ("Average # of Viewers").

Days got a 8.9/31 for the week of 9/27/76. Average # of viewers: 6,340,000. Total # of viewers: 7,970,000.

 

[kalbir]

@JAS0N47 Thank you for the info re 1976 pre-emptions. 

Looking back in this thread, that means 1977 was the first year CBS had pre-emptions for US Open tennis.

Also from this thread, Christmas 1979 was the first CBS pre-emption for an NBA game. CBS last pre-emption for an NBA game was Memorial Day 1990.

Edited June 2, 2024 by kalbir

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 5/24/76-5/28/76 & 5/31/76-6/4/76:

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There were no preemptions at all in September 1976!  A lot of soaps from late September to early November 1976 aired compressed episodes (25 minutes instead of 30 minutes; 55 minutes instead of 60 minutes) due to the Paid Political Ads that would air for 5 minutes at the end of the shows. But that just meant they aired 5 minutes less of commercials during those episodes.

Another fun ratings fact: "The Price Is Right" was rated as one full hour until 9/17/76. It was split into the two half-hour ratings we know it as to this day ("The Price Is Right 1" and "The Price Is Right 2") on 9/20/76. So it took CBS four years to realize they could get a higher-rated show in the rankings by making the second half hour of TPIR its own individual rating!

Edited June 2, 2024 by JAS0N47

[YRfan23]

Does Y&R have any preemptions you know of between August-December 1976? There’s one date that definitely had to have been in those months unless there’s another one in June/July 76. I know 7/15/76 was a preemption date. 

[JAS0N47]

 

7/15/76 was not a YR preemption. The DNC aired pretty much all day on CBS (10-11AM, 130-530PM and 630PM-1216AM) but there was a break from 11AM-130PM, so Gambit, Love of Life, Search for Tomorrow and YR all aired that day,

 

Here are the YR preemptions for 6/76-12/76:

 

2 Preemptions:

Preempted Monday 8/16/76- Campaign 76: Republican Convention
Preempted Thursday 11/25/76- Famous Classic Tales

 

1 Compressed Episode:

Thursday 10/7/76 episode (24 minutes) (followed by Ford For President ad, 1224-1230PM)

 

1 Short Episode (or triggered full preemption?):

Wednesday 11/3/76 episode- 1211-1217PM (6 minutes)

[BoldRestless]

I think that might be the case, because there's another unaccounted for preemption... @will81 and @YRfan23 what do you think?