24 minutes ago, JAS0N47 said:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 11/27/78-12/1/78 & 12/4/78-12/8/78:

 

11/27" All My Children Number 1 with a solid lead over General Hospital. Strong Guilding Light at Number 3 edges out One Life to Live.

 

Nov. 1978 Sweeps:

All My Children Number 1  4 weeks.

Guiding Light  Number 1   1 week.

 

12/4: All My Children loses a full ratings point and falls to Number 4. As the World Turns and Guiding fight it out for No. 1 and General Hospital is only a tenth of a ratings point behind at Number 4.

Another World at Number 6! One Life to Live falls to Number 7 and loses seven tenths of a ratings point.

It's fascinating to see how much the ratings could fluctuate from week to week, especially compared to the ratings nowadays which hardly has any movement at all.

On 12/8/1978, look at Y&R way down at #8 (although there's only 1.2 difference in #1 & #8, as the ratings are so close that week.  Six different shows have an 8.0 to an 8.3)  

No idea that ATWT was back at #1 that late in 78. Wonder what caused that jump?

12 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

No idea that ATWT was back at #1 that late in 78. Wonder what caused that jump?

Agreed but I think it may the last time at Number for ATWT. But who knows we shall see.

4 hours ago, I Am A Swede said:

It's fascinating to see how much the ratings could fluctuate from week to week, especially compared to the ratings nowadays which hardly has any movement at all.

Yes, I was surprised to see that as well. Sometimes when it's such a big change, I think I have misread the number! Each time after I type everything in though, I do a double-check to make sure I didn't mis-type anything. 

I look forward to seeing the ratings for the Marco/Mario story with Viki’s murder trial on OLTL, not sure it was a ratings winner and almost difficult to determine the OLTL ratings as it wedged between the leading of the pack AMC and GH 

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 12/11/78-12/15/78 & 12/18/78-12/22/78:

 

Note about Love of Life. I was surprised to notice today that its runtime each day was only 24 minutes. It aired from 1130-1154, followed by 6 minutes of CBS Mid-Day News. So, with some commercials, I guess it was the shortest runtime of any of the soaps.

12 hours ago, JAS0N47 said:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 12/11/78-12/15/78 & 12/18/78-12/22/78:

 

Note about Love of Life. I was surprised to notice today that its runtime each day was only 24 minutes. It aired from 1130-1154, followed by 6 minutes of CBS Mid-Day News. So, with some commercials, I guess it was the shortest runtime of any of the soaps.

I think most half hour shows around 1978 with commercials ran around 28 min. Close to 22 min without. Maybe CBS had slightly less commercials for Love of Life but I'd still guess it must have ran around 18 - 19 minutes without commercials. 

21 minutes ago, will81 said:

I think most half hour shows around 1978 with commercials ran around 28 min. Close to 22 min without. Maybe CBS had slightly less commercials for Love of Life but I'd still guess it must have ran around 18 - 19 minutes without commercials. 

All of the other soaps are listed by Nielsen as either 30 or 60 minutes. Love of Life stood out since it is listed as 24 minutes. There are 1-2 minute Newsbriefs rated separately by Nielsen, which air during the soap broadcasts, that are technically included in the 30 or 60 minute broadcasts. I guess those aired as part of a commercial break during some of the soaps.

For the week of 12/18/78-12/22/78, for instance, here are the additional daytime programs aired during soaps:

CBS Mid-Day News-Edwards 11:54-12:00 (5.5 rating/23 share)

ABC Newsbrief is aired during All My Children (sustaining, no rating)

NBC News Update is aired during Doctors & Another World (both sustaining, no rating)

Edited June 18, 20232 yr by JAS0N47

5 hours ago, JAS0N47 said:

All of the other soaps are listed by Nielsen as either 30 or 60 minutes. Love of Life stood out since it is listed as 24 minutes. There are 1-2 minute Newsbriefs rated separately by Nielsen, which air during the soap broadcasts, that are technically included in the 30 or 60 minute broadcasts. I guess those aired as part of a commercial break during some of the soaps.

For the week of 12/18/78-12/22/78, for instance, here are the additional daytime programs aired during soaps:

CBS Mid-Day News-Edwards 11:54-12:00 (5.5 rating/23 share)

ABC Newsbrief is aired during All My Children (sustaining, no rating)

NBC News Update is aired during Doctors & Another World (both sustaining, no rating)

Oh yeah but I think networks counted the last commercial after the end credits. Y&R would run to 12:28 and then there would be commercials between it and Search. This was the same in Primetime. Most shows ended 1 - 2 min before the half hour or hour with a commercial break. But these shows were all listed as 30 or 60 min shows.

In the 90's I think NBC started getting rid of this between certain shows so people had less chance of changing the channel. Friends would end on the half hour so the new show at 8:30 would start immediately but that show would end 2 min early and another commercial break before Seinfeld. Then Seinfeld would end right on 9:30 and the next show would start immediately. 

In the 70's, I don't think any show in primetime or daytime ended bang on the half hour or hour. 

in terms of those other news shows. It might have been down to the network not seeing those as official, but likely part of a mid show commercial break that included a news update and CBS saw Mid-Day News as part of the daytime schedule. 

Edited June 18, 20232 yr by will81

23 hours ago, JAS0N47 said:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 12/11/78-12/15/78 & 12/18/78-12/22/78:

 

Note about Love of Life. I was surprised to notice today that its runtime each day was only 24 minutes. It aired from 1130-1154, followed by 6 minutes of CBS Mid-Day News. So, with some commercials, I guess it was the shortest runtime of any of the soaps.

12/11 and 12/18: All My Children a strong Number 1. GH, Y&R, OLTL very strong and RH strong as well. AW and ATWT begin to lose ground and are pushed out of the top 3 then top 5.

7 hours ago, will81 said:

Oh yeah but I think networks counted the last commercial after the end credits. Y&R would run to 12:28 and then there would be commercials between it and Search. This was the same in Primetime. Most shows ended 1 - 2 min before the half hour or hour with a commercial break. But these shows were all listed as 30 or 60 min shows.

In the 90's I think NBC started getting rid of this between certain shows so people had less chance of changing the channel. Friends would end on the half hour so the new show at 8:30 would start immediately but that show would end 2 min early and another commercial break before Seinfeld. Then Seinfeld would end right on 9:30 and the next show would start immediately. 

In the 70's, I don't think any show in primetime or daytime ended bang on the half hour or hour. 

in terms of those other news shows. It might have been down to the network not seeing those as official, but likely part of a mid show commercial break that included a news update and CBS saw Mid-Day News as part of the daytime schedule. 

Yes, I know. "Days", when it aired on NBC until last year, would end at 58:11, but the final commercial break of 1:49 until the next show started would be counted as part of the 60-minute Days Nielsen telecast.

I was just pointing out about Love of Life. Since it aired for only 24 minutes (including commercials), followed by a 6-minute CBS newscast, Love of Life was probably the shortest runtime of any soap (when you removed the commercials), being less than the average 22-minute half hour soap. Possibly only being 18 minutes or so.

18 minutes ago, JAS0N47 said:

Yes, I know. "Days", when it aired on NBC until last year, would end at 58:11, but the final commercial break of 1:49 until the next show started would be counted as part of the 60-minute Days Nielsen telecast.

I was just pointing out about Love of Life. Since it aired for only 24 minutes (including commercials), followed by a 6-minute CBS newscast, Love of Life was probably the shortest runtime of any soap (when you removed the commercials), being less than the average 22-minute half hour soap. Possibly only being 18 minutes or so.

Agreed. LOL was about 16 to 18 minutes on average with the commercials getting it to 24 minutes. Basically an old fashioned 15 minute drama.

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 1/1/79-1/5/79 & 1/8/79-1/12/79: