Ratings from the 70's

[DeliaIrisFan]

Ryan's Hope at #2-4 is really fascinating...especially at this time.  The writing was still good, but soooo many recasts/departures...especially that summer, when so many of the original cast's contracts were up.

I wonder if I was a few weeks off when I archived those recaps SoapNet posted all those years ago (SN never indicated the original airdates on their website, so I did my best).  Faith's stabbing and Jill finding Frank and Rae in bed together a few weeks later seems like the kind of drama that might give a soap a temporary boost. 

Either way, this really makes ABC's treatment of Sarah Felder a few years later all the more outrageous.  She was front and center that whole summer, and those early scenes of Siobhan butting heads with Mary, Maeve, and Jack were always some of my favorites.  These ratings definitely suggest that the years more of story she could have driven would have resonated with viewers who had watched when RH was competitive in the ratings.  There is an alternative universe where Siobhan and Jack eventually became the Bob and Kim of RH...

In any event, I'm just relieved to learn that the 1981 writers' strike and the coattails effect of GH's Ice Princess story did not mark RH's all-time highest ratings.

Edited June 11, 2023 by DeliaIrisFan

[kalbir]

So it seems August 1978 was the turning point. ABC huge rise and P&G tanking.

[DeliaIrisFan]

It's also interesting to see that AW and ATWT's falls did not (exactly) line up.  I always assumed AMC and GH supplanted them both at the same time.

[JoeCool]

Yes. RH was well written and it showed in how many writing Emmys RH garnered.

Yep. July and August 1978 was the turning point for ABC...AMC, GH and OLTL.

It is also a turning point for the Young and Restless as it will join the top 3 in 78-79 season. Restless begins to get stronger until 1980 and the move from 30 to 60 minutes plus time change.

All My Children dethroned ATWT and AW in the summer of 1978. AW fell farther first when ATWT fell out of the top spot but was still Number 4 when AMC was Number 1, followed by GH then Y and R. AW fell from Number 2 to Number 8 in 78-79.  In 79-80, ATWT fell to Number 6 and AW was Number 8.

 

Essentially your assumption is correct. AMC knocked off ATWT and AW and GH knocked them of the top 3 as did Y&R. It all happened beginning in the summer of 1978.

[DeliaIrisFan]

Oh yeah, I was referring to June/early July, when AW was still in the top three (and briefly the highest rated P&G show), but then—as you said—really cratered while ATWT at least stagnated.

[JoeCool]

Agreed. In early June/July, AMC knocked off AW first. But you are right AW cratered and ATWT was stagnating.

[Paul Raven]

To think that was it for AW. Apart from a brief spike with the conclusion of the Rachel/Mac/Janice story it sat in the bottom half for almost 20 years. Remarkable really that it wasn't axed sooner.

In response to those falling ratings ATWT changed writers, but Ralph Ellis/Eugenie Hunt didn't do much either for the story or the ratings. Guess there must have been a lot of resistance to changing what had been working for years.

ATWT had let the characters age out and not really managed to nurture the next generation. SORASing Tom and Dan had those characters already burn through a lot of story .They killed off Chuck, forgot about Don's stepdaughters etc

Meanwhile AW's answer to falling ratings was to go 90 mins, constantly make cast changes and then weaken the show to incorporate Texas characters.

[TEdgeofNight]

I don 't think that enough can be said about Jackie Smith, who was heading ABC daytime at this point. Yes, Gloria Monty and Doug Marland were spearheading ABC Daytime to the stratosphere but Jackie was leading all of ABC soaps to great ratings. 

[JoeCool]

Agreed. Jackie Smith was instrumental in ABC Daytime’s increase.  Jackie created the famous “Love in the Afternoon” promos and pushed the expansions of OLTL and GH. Fred Silverman, President of ABC wanted the afternoon block of just soaps and vigorously supported ABC Daytime and was a huge admirer of Agnes Nixon.

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 9/4/78-9/8/78 & 9/11/78-9/15/78:

 

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[Soapsuds]

AW rebounding and GL falling to #8.

[JoeCool]

Week of Sept. 4th...Erica and Tom got Married on All My Childen. ABC has the top 3 shows. Ryan's Hope Number 6. Very Close for Number 2 to Number 4.

Week of Sept. 11: ABC has top 3 spots. Ryan's Hope Number 6. Nice rebound for AW.

Edited June 12, 2023 by JoeCool

[kalbir]

So ABC summer momentum carried through the fall. This must be when ABC took off with the college crowd, students watching between classes in lounges/dorms.

[JoeCool]

Yes that is right. ABC Daytime was on the upswing. College students were ABC's new draw. But fall 1978 Y&R got strong as well.

[Broderick]

I doubt Nielsen ever really accurately captured the popularity of the shows in dorms and student unions.  Their whole ratings system was geared toward "households", and I never believed their "households" reflected the sheer number of college students who were watching.  You could probably take those Top 4 shows and double their numbers, and still not even be close to the eyeballs that were watching in colleges & universities during the lunch hour and the early afternoon.