Ratings from the 70's

[JAS0N47]

12/26/77, yes.

[Contessa Donatella]

Thanks I am doing some research, trying to find out how bad GH was, when they brought in Marland & Monty in 1978. My bad luck there's no '77. Anyway, thanks for the reply. 

[JAS0N47]

There will be in the future, so eventually you will have 1977.

Edited November 19, 2023 by JAS0N47

[j swift]

Found on ebay

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How cute is that? They gave out 50 cents so that people would send back their diaries.

[Contessa Donatella]

Oh, that is great news! Thanks again, @JAS0N47

[JAS0N47]

An end-of-the-year update you (and other 1970's ratings fans) will enjoy hearing!!

We are now pending getting complete April 1977-December 1977 ratings, so look for those to start getting posted soon!

[Contessa Donatella]

Fabulous! And, good to see you. Hope you've been having an excellent holiday season. 

[Manny]

Great news!! Thanks Jason!!

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[JAS0N47]

The 3/21/77-12/23/77 charts will be posted as each one is completed. The only weeks missing are the fast weekly weeks. 

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 3/21/77-3/25/77 & 3/28/77-4/1/77:

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[kalbir]

The daytime schedule (ET) starting w/ soaps until the end of the day was

CBS: 11:30 am Love of Live, noon Y&R, 12:30 pm Search for Tomorrow, 1 pm Local programming, 1:30 pm As the World Turns, 2:30 pm Guiding Light, 3 pm All in the Family reruns, 3:30 pm Match Game, 4 pm Tattletales

ABC: 12:30 pm Ryan's Hope, 1 pm All My Children, 1:30 pm Family Feud, 2 pm $20,000 Pyramid; 2:30 pm One Life to Live, 3:15 pm General Hospital, 4 pm The Edge of Night

NBC: 12:30 pm Lovers and Friends, 1 pm Local programming, 1:30 pm Days, 2:30 pm The Doctors, 3 pm Another World, 4 pm The Gong Show

So the soap time slot rivalries were

Search for Tomorrow vs. Ryan's Hope vs. Lovers and Friends

As the World Turns vs. Days

Guiding Light vs. One Life to Live vs. The Doctors

One Life to Live/General Hospital vs. Another World

Edited December 30, 2023 by kalbir

[JAS0N47]

And for some additional stats, such as the quarterly-hour ratings, here's the week of 3/21/77 charts:

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[Paul Raven]

SFT #3 Y&R #6. How things would change.

ATWT cruising along at #1. Days at #9. So no real competition there. 

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 4/4/77-4/8/77 & 4/11/77-4/15/77:

 

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FAST WEEKLY WEEK OF 4/18/77-4/22/77 NOT AVAILABLE

 

(Note: Per newspaper listings, there were several scheduled preemptions this week. On CBS, "Magazine" preempted "Double Dare" and "The Price Is Right 1" on 4/21/77 from 10-11AM.  A President Carter News Conference on 4/22/77 was scheduled to preempt "Double Dare" on CBS and "Sanford and Son" on NBC from 10-1030AM. All other daytime shows were scheduled to air every day this week).

Edited June 30, 2024 by JAS0N47

[beebs]

Well you can definitely see why NBC pulled L&F so quickly with those numbers. YIKES.

This is at the tail end of Pat Falken Smith's run as HW at DAYS, and something isn't working anymore. Around this time was a HEAVY focus on Patty Weaver's Trish killing her pervy stepdad, then developing DID so she didn't remember doing it, and setting up Sharon Duvall as something of a sex-crazed spoiler for Don & Marlena, while Mickey continued to recover from his mental break from the previous year. Even just writing this out, you can tell how very heavy the stories were at this time, and I'm sure it was starting to get a bit much for the audience. By the middle of the missing Fast Nationals week (4/20/77 according to the ever-amazing @JAS0N47's website), Ann Marcus would take over and make some really quick, sometimes jarring story and character shifts.

It's slightly surprising to see GH be threatened with cancellation with such middling numbers. They were really only about a half point below OLTL and RH at this point, so it seems a bit strange that ABC had its neck on the chopping block when it wasn't honestly doing much worse than its competition, what with AW not pulling in particularly strong numbers at this point either.

Edited December 30, 2023 by beebs

[watson71]

At the time, CBS was counter programming AW with reruns of All in the Family (primetime’s #1 show) and Match Game, so that explains the dip in the ratings.  They should pick back up again as AW tied ATWT for the top spot in the ratings for 1977-78.