Ratings from the 70's

[kalbir]

1975 a pivotal year in daytime:

Another World, Days, As the World Turns expand to 1 hour.

How to Survive a Marriage ends.

Ryan's Hope premiere.

The Edge of Night moves from CBS to ABC.

Wheel of Fortune premiere.

The Price is Right expands to 1 hour.

[will81]

Not to mention Jacqueline Courtney and George Reinholt leaving AW for OLTL along with Virginia Dwyer and Susan Sullivan leaving/being written out

Bill Espy and Donnelly Rhodes exiting Y&R and David H coming on

Bill Bell stepping down as HW at Days and Susan Flannery departing

Bridget and Jerome Dobson leaving behind GH for GL

Along with plenty more that made the Daytime headlines that year

 

[kalbir]

@will81 Thanks for the additional info. 

[JAS0N47]

 

As a heads up, there are some books at the moment missing from 1973 (along with two fast weekly weeks: Late June/Early July and Late August/Early September), also all of 9/2/73-10/28/73, but based on the "Days" Watergate preemptions (5/17/73-8/6/73, with one more 9/25/73), it looks like most of those should be covered by what we will be getting. We'll be missing whatever the fast weekly week is (either 6/25 or 7/2), plus that September week. So, a majority of the Watergate stuff should be available to us.

[will81]

Thank you for the update.

I think the big issue for Y&R was that it was on 12pm eastern and the hearings were supposed to break each day at 12pm eastern for lunch until 2pm, but sometimes went over.

I have all the dates CBS broadcast the hearings, but not 100% sure which days the committee decided to keep going with testimony and CBS pre-empted Y&R. 

We know the number of pre-emptions from 1973 were 15. One being for Thanksgiving but not Christmas. Also from some other research I have 4 confirmed from Screen Gems from May. So I guess we could just do a process of elimination on the final 10. I have a rough idea so even having ratings weeks around that time might be helpful.

There is one possible Oct 25 one for Henry Kissinger's press conference that would be the only one I would not be able to fully confirm.

Edited September 3, 2024 by will81

[JAS0N47]

Other than the fast weekly weeks, we will still have the # of telecasts to compare, so that will be helpful too. Although during the big gap (9/73-10/73) the season changes in September, so we can't compare it to the August stuff, but the first data we get from November 1973 will list how many telecasts there were of each soap from season debut to that date. And the late August check would help confirm how many telecasts there had been from 9/72-8/73. Of course, we will never know the fast weekly preemption data, and in 1973 (like 1978), there may have been FIVE of those weeks, instead of the usual four. 

[will81]

That's awesome, yes would be very helpful. Thank you so much for all the help with this and sharing everything. Has made such a big difference.

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 3/10/75-3/14/75 & 3/17/75-3/21/75:

Please register in order to view this content

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 3/24/75-3/28/75 & 3/31/75-4/4/75:

I just finished typing out the 4/14/75 week, and can confirm an end date change to How To Survive a Marriage. The show ended Thursday 4/17/75 (not 4/18/75), with a 90-minute First Ladies Diaries airing on Friday 4/18/75. I see Wikipedia has the competing info (one area says 4/18/75), but another area does note the 4/17/75 date. 

I was just planning on this mainly to get the Days ratings, but it has conveniently turned into a nice project involving ALL the soaps, and the additional fun of getting a majority of the preemption data too!

Since this could involve Days as well (although I already have all the Days preemption info), what is this research involving Screen Gems??

[will81]

Oh it was just correspondence between Bill Bell and an exec at Screen Gems who wasn't as optimistic about Y&R in 1973. They included the first 10 weeks of ratings and how many telecasts for each of those weeks, only missing one week for the Fast National.

If there was any Days stuff I would 100% share with you

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 4/7/75-4/11/75 & 4/14/75-4/18/75:

Please register in order to view this content

FAST WEEKLY WEEK OF 4/21/75-4/25/75 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 4/28/75-5/2/75 & 5/5/75-5/9/75:

Edited September 3, 2024 by JAS0N47

[YRfan23]

You are totally on a roll my friend!!  

Edited September 3, 2024 by YRfan23

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 5/12/75-5/16/75 & 5/19/75-5/23/75:

Please register in order to view this content

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 5/26/75-5/30/75 & 6/2/75-6/6/75:

[Khan]

It's weird to see SFT still so high in the ratings, knowing that in another eleven years, the show would be history.

Edited September 3, 2024 by Khan

[JAS0N47]

When we get to 1966, you could say sort of the same thing (but opposite) about Days!  We were so low in the ratings in 1966, and yet still chugging along now towards the 60th anniversary!!

[EONGLOLTL]

Search for Tomorrow #1?   I had no idea that they pulled that off in the 1970s!  What happened to The Edge of Night?  Last place while on CBS? What "Edge" storylines where on in June 1975?