2 minutes ago, JAS0N47 said:

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

 

1/1 and 1/8: All My Children solid Number 1. GH and Y&R battling it out for Number 2 and 3. These soaps will be the top 3 for the season. ATWT & AW began their descent of the top 3 and out of the top 5. ATWT and AW's dominance is now over.

SEARCH doesn't appear to be doing that bad at the start of '79.

34 minutes ago, MichaelGL said:

SEARCH doesn't appear to be doing that bad at the start of '79.

 Search is strong at Number 5 and 6.

Edited June 18, 20232 yr by JoeCool

5 hours ago, JoeCool said:

 Search is strong at Number 5 and 6.

This was the Corringtons. They started around September 78 so their stories were now in full swing with the Travis and Liza romance the A story. and ratings jumped from high 6's and low 7's to 8.5.

5 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

This was the Corringtons. They started around September 78 so their stories were now in full swing with the Travis and Liza romance the A story. and ratings jumped from high 6's and low 7's to 8.5.

I thought the Corringtons were head writers during the time. That explains the sharp rise.

Thanks @Paul Raven

9 hours 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.

Yeah 100% LOL was probably on 18 min without commercials. I think even B&B is close to 20 min or maybe 19 these days

38 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

This was the Corringtons. They started around September 78 so their stories were now in full swing with the Travis and Liza romance the A story. and ratings jumped from high 6's and low 7's to 8.5.

Yes I have an approximate date of Sep 11 for their start

1979 was a turning point year in daytime:

As the World Turns loses #1.

Huge rise of ABC.

Another World expands to 90 minutes.

Love of Life new time slot which isolates it from the rest of the CBS soap line up and the show tanks.

Edited June 19, 20232 yr by kalbir

9 minutes ago, kalbir said:

1979 was a turning point year in daytime:

As the World Turns loses #1.

Huge rise of ABC.

Another World expands to 90 minutes.

Love of Life new time slot which isolates it from the rest of the CBS soap line up and the show tanks.

Yep.

 

All My Children takes Number 1.  A strong General Hospital and Y&R are now Number 2 and 3 and ATWT falls to No. 4. 

 

Yes the beginning of the end for Love of Life.

 

ABC is very strong and the AW expansion fails.

Poor Love of Life. After decades of leading off the CBS soaps, it's shunted to 4pm with limited clearances and immediately tumbles in the ratings, leading to cancellation.

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 1/15/79-1/19/79 & 1/22/79-1/26/79:

 

On 6/18/2023 at 10:27 AM, 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.

You are right; I seem to recall in one of the Soap Encyclopedias (Gerard J Waggett's in 1997 I think) that Love of Life indeed held a distinction of being 5 minutes less to allow a national news break for the last 5 minutes. At one point when the show had a change in timeslot, it was a full 30 minutes, but then when it reverted back to their late morning timeslot, it was cut back by 5 minutes again. 

Edited June 19, 20232 yr by Gray Bunny

What happened on YR and SFT to cause a huge jump in ratings?

1 hour ago, JAS0N47 said:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 1/15/79-1/19/79 & 1/22/79-1/26/79:

 

1/15: Very Strong Number 1 GH and Number 2. Y&R also very strong.

1/22 The Young and The Restless at Number 1 with an 11!! Up 1.3 ratings points from 1/15. Very strong GH at Number 2 at 10.7. Strong AMC at Number 3 up. .2 of a ratings point. The top 3 soaps are above 10.0!! Search is strong at Number 4 - solid lead over Number 5 One Life.

Wow, definitely wondering what happened on SEARCH and Y&R, had CBS not changed the time slot, they may have given ABC a better run for their money.

Amazing to see SEARCH at #4 and Y&R at such a high #1

Travis and Liza were heating up around that time on SEARCH.