Ratings from the 70's

[dc11786]

I know about P&G's decision to 'block' their soaps together and the detrimental effect it had on CBS Daytime, but I have a question about its effect on ABC. Would ABC have exploded in the way it did had it not been for the P&G move. Granted, there are only scattered weekly ratings in this thread, but it doesn't seem like AMC / OLTL made major strides until after the CBS reshuffeling in September 1972. Were the ABC soaps make a slow climb to the top or does it appear CBS viewers switched the channel when their story was changed to another timeslot?

[saynotoursoap]

I do not believe that CBS' rescheduling affected ABC much. If anyone gained from it, it was NBC. NBC and CBS still reigned supreme after the switch, and actually, GH fell in the ratings. Around 1971, GH had been one of the top three soaps. Keep in mind, too, that All My Children was telecast at 1 ET/Noon CT. At the point that AMC started a huge climb in the ratings, it had no competition at all from NBC or CBS because those timeslots were open for local affiliates to air newscasts.

[dc11786]

Thanks, saynotoursoaps. I had forgotten, not considered, AMC went without competition.

[Paul Raven]

These numbers are from based on the 73-74 season till mid May 74

10.00 CBS Jokers Wild 5.2 28

NBC Dinah's Place 4.8 20 (soon to be cancelled and replaced by Name That Tune)

10.30 CBS Gambit 5.9 30

NBC Jeopardy 5.5 27(replaced by Winning Streak in July 74)

11.00 CBS Now You See It 5.9 30

NBC High Rollers ?

11.30 NBC Hollywood Squares 8.8 37

ABC Brady Bunch 6.7 28

CBS Love of Life 6.6 26

12.00 NBC Jackpot 8.1 31

ABC Password 6.7 25

CBS Young and Restless 6.2 24(running third but doing best in the 18-34 demo)Lower ratings due to 90 per cent cleaarnce rate.

12.30 CBS Search For Tomorrow 7.7 29

ABC Split Second 7.7 28

NBC Celebrity Sweepstakes 6.7 27

1.00 ABC All My Children 9.1 32

CBS/NBC Local

1.30 CBS As The World Turns 9.7 33

ABC Lets Make A Deal 8.6 26

NBC Three on a Match ?(replaced by Jeopardy in July 74)

2.00 NBC Days of Our Lives 9.7 32

CBS Guiding Light 6.1 27

ABC Newlywed Game ? (replaced by $10,000 Pyramid lin December 74)

2.30 NBC The Doctors 9.4 33

CBS Edge of Night 7.4 26

ABC The Girl in My Life ?(replaced by Big Showdown in December 74)

3.00 NBC Another World 9.6 31

ABC General Hospital 9.2 29

CBS The Price is Right 6.4 28

3.30 CBS Match Game 10.1 32

ABC One Life to Live 7.9 25

NBC How to Survive a Marriage 6.3 20

4.00 CBS Tattletales 7.0 22

NBC Somerset 6.0 19

ABC $10,000 Pyramid 5.2 18 (replaced by Money Maze in December 74)

ATWT commanded the highest advertising rates at $20,000 for a minute. ABC and NBC's best were AMC and AW which each commanded $18,000 a minute.

Y&R doing well despite low clearances.Obviously based on that success,more stations took it on so ratings continued to climb.

[DRW50]

Thanks. So by this time 18-49 had become more important? I thought WTHI was canceled in spite of strong 18-49 demos.

[Paul Raven]

I think that whole demo thing started to gain currency in the early 70's. Remember when CBS dumped hits like Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction because they skewed too old and too rural. ABC always pushed that line because that;s the only area they had rating strength.

In daytime,the original viewers had aged along with the shows.In the 1968 NY Times article Agnes talks about the CBS shows as 'old hat'Interesting considering that she was writing for them up until that time.

The above report also mentions that SFT was doing much better in the demos than Split Second despite near identical household numbers.

[sungrey]

What's really funny about these ratings for game shows, to go off topic for a moment... Newlywed Game had an 8.5/29 in September 1974 yet was canceled three months later. Wonder if ABC regretted that move soon after...

Rhyme and Reason was the No. 1 game show in August 1975 and it was a fun show to watch. Interesting tidbit, though: Bob Eubanks wrote a book several years ago and he hinted R&R was quite popular, but ABC essentially canceled it because Mark Goodson offered them Family Feud and the only way they could have Feud was if R&R were canceled (Mark didn't like the show because it resembled Match Game too much).

I'd love to see someone do a game-show rating history. This is where I miss Steve Beverly's website devoted to games.

[Paul Raven]

July 73 Season to date 72-73 season

10.00 CBS Joker is Wild 5.6 29

NBC Dinah's Place 4.9 25

10.30 CBS $10,000 Pyramid 6.6 35

NBC Baffle 4.8 25

11.00 CBS Gambit 7.5 34

NBC Sale of The Century 6.9 31

CBS had recently gone to game shows rather than sitcom reruns in these time periods as the sitcoms demos were too geared towards kids.ABC affiliates were also showing kid appeal shows so they decided to go up against NBC gameshows.NBC was planning to revamp Dinah and introduce Wizard of Odds at 11.00,hoping for better demos.

11.30 NBC Hollywood Squares 10.0 40

CBS Love of Life 6.9 31

ABC Bewitched ? (to be replaced by Brady Bunch)

Love of Life was doing better in 18-34 demo than NBC.

12.00 NBC Jeopardy 9.0 32

ABC Password 7.2 26

CBS Y&R 5.2 21 (Lowest clearance on network 78per cent)

12.30 CBS SFT 8.5 30

ABC Split Second 8.4 29

NBC Who What Where Game 7.3 26

1.00 ABC AMC 8.1 28 (only 89 per cent clearance but excellent 18-49 demos)

1.30 CBS ATWT 10.6 35

ABC LMAD 9.2 30

NBC 3 on a Match 6.5 21(NBC's worst clearance 89 percent)

ABC stealing Lets Make a Deal from NBC was the breakthrough in giving them a presence in daytime.They had to agree to a nightime version and agree to buy pilots from the producers and give Monty Hall some specials to host.

2.00 NBC DOOL 9.9 32

ABC Newlywed Game 9.2 31

CBS GL 8.3 28

2.30 NBC DRS 9.2 32

CBS EON 8.0 28

ABC Dating Game 7.3 26 (soon to be replaced by Girl in My Life)

3.00 NBC AW 9.8 33

ABC GH 9.6 31

CBS TPIR 7.2 26

3.30 ABC OLTL 8.1 26

NBC PTPP 7.2 24

CBS Match Game ?

4.00 NBC Somerset 6.8 21

CBS Secret Storm 6.5 21

ABC Love American Style 6.3 19

ABC said that CBS let its soaps stagnate and Lin Bolen from NBC said CBS was back in 1958,saying that on RTPP Eliot and Connie talked about sexual issues in their bedroom whereas CBS still had people in the kitchen chatting about such things.She said CBS were still relying on 'old fashioned' controversies like rape and incest(!!) while NBC were dealing with natural childbirth,the ecology,abortion and women who were acheivment orientated-1973 issues.

There was also talk of whether 90 min daytime specials had any future.

[DRW50]

Given the big ratings losses ABC was about to experience, talk about hubris.

You should post some of the game show ratings in the game show thread.

[sungrey]

Interesting at 4:00 that Somerset won the time period, although none of the three shows garnered truly blockbuster ratings. I mentioned in the Somerset thread that the soap's ratings seemed to be on the rise during the Slesar era. So Somerset had a better clearance than Three on a Match. Wow.

[EricMontreal22]

I think Agnes was already getting a bit fed up by the P&G restrictions (things like her not being able to have a black and white woman be roomates together, etc.)--plus I'm sure she was promoting OLTL even if she was still at AW for a while longer.

I get the feeling ABC paid attention to young demos from very early on--even from the late 60s, which was one reason they saw OLTL as such a big hit out of the gate, when number wise it really wasn't all that much. I know in primetime as well ABC kinda found their niche by attracting a younger audience--and it does seem that, at least from theri cult success with Dark Shadows on, they realized that that was a strong way to try to make inroads with daytime soaps.

[Paul Raven]

ABC went after the young demo in primetime( by default to some extent),even as far back as the early 60's when they had their first hits with 77 Sunset Strip,Surfside Six and similar show. Then thru the 60's there was Bandstand,Never Too Young,Mod Squad etc.

[DRW50]

This is from the April 1977 Daytime TV, the top ten soaps, taken from the last two weeks before they went to press.

10.0 ATWT 36%

9.1 AW 31%

8.8 GL 34%

8.4 Y&R 37%

7.9 SFT 32%

7.7 DAYS 28%

6.8 Doctors 26%

6.6 AMC 26%

6.4 OLTL 24%

6.5 RH 25%

Most popular game shows

9.3 Match Game '76 30%

6.9 $20,000 Pyramid 25%

6.3 Wheel of Fortune 34%

6.3 Family Feud 24%

6.2 Price is Right 2 34%

[Paul Raven]

Amazing to think that a year or so later GH would be rocketing to the top. No other soap before or after made such a comeback.Same for AW,such a dramatic drop.

It would be so interesting to read more about GH's rise and AW's fall during that time.

[DRW50]

The ABC lineup was visibly struggling here. I never thought RH was that close to AMC and OLTL.