Ratings from the 70's

[will81]

LIAMST, AMC and OLTL seem to be the ones that pushed one or both shows out of the top 10 during 1972, and they only seem to do that with a fairly strong rating, around high 7's or low 8's. So I am guessing LOL and SS possibly had steady ratings that would only keep their positions when those other shows weren't doing as well. Any time one of those shows had a surge LOL and SS would drop.

But hard to say how far a drop they had without seeing the bottom half of the ratings. My theory is based solely on the fact that LOL and SS only seem to reach around 9th or 10th position in 1972 with similar ratings each time.

[DRW50]

Daytime TV gives the rankings for the last two weeks in October 1971.

1. ATWT 41%

2. GH 35%

3. DAYS 35%

4. Edge 34%

5. Doctors 34%

6. Search 36%

7. AW 32%

8. GL 32%

9. LIAMST 31%

10. Secret Storm 27%

[will81]

Thanks Carl. It is interesting to see what shows were doing well in the ratings during the 70's.

[DRW50]

Daytime TV gives the ratings for the week ending June 2, 1974.

10.3 ATWT 37%

9.1 DAYS 32%

8.4 Doctors 31%

8.4 GL 30%

8.3 Search 33%

8.1 AW 29%

8.1 GH 27%

7.7 AMC 29%

7.5 Edge 28%

7.6 OLTL 26%

Game show ratings

10.1 Match Game '74 35%

8.2 TPIR 29%

7.9 Hollywood Squares 35%

7.4 Jackpot 30%

7.4 Newlywed Game 26%

[Paul Raven]

January - August 1978 (Women 18-34 Ranking)

1. Family Feud 9.1 38 ABC (5)

2. AMC 8.6 32 ABC (1)

3. AW 8.3 28 NBC (8)

4. ATWT 8.1 30 CBS (7)

5. All in the Family 7.9 27 CBS (12)

6. Y&R 7.8 31 CBS (6)

7. GL 7.5 27 CBS (10)

8. GH 7.2 25 ABC (4)

9 OLTL 7.2 26 ABC (3)

10. Happy Days 7.1 33 ABC (11)

11. RH 7.1 28 ABC (2)

12. SFT 7.1 28 CBS (9)

13. DOOL 6.9 25 NBC (14)

14. TD 6.5 24 NBC (17)

15. TPIR(2) 6.1 28 CBS (18)

16. Wheel of Fortune 6.1 27 NBC (22)

17. LOL 5.8 25 CBS (15)

18. Match Game 78 5.8 19 CBS (20)

19. TPIR(1) 5.7 28 CBS (19)

20. $20,000 Pyramid 5.6 22 ABC (15)

21. EON 5.5 18 ABC (12)

22. Hollywood Squares 5.4 27 NBC (21)

23. New High Rollers 5.1 24 NBC (21)

24. Card Sharks 4.3 24 NBC (26)

25. New Tic Tac Dough 3.9 21 CBS (23)

26. America Alive 3.5 14 NBC (23)

27. FRFP 3.4 13 NBC (25)

[beebs]

I find it REALLY odd to see that ATWT was doing better than all NBC soaps in 18-34 women. RH was HUGE with young women! I never realized that. Really, the whole of ABC. Shocked that Price Is Right was doing so lousy around this time.

[vetsoapfan]

TEON was on fire at that period, I'm surprised it wasn't rated higher, but then again, all the soaps at the top of the ratings were good, and deserved their success. Wouldn't we all love to see more vintage eps from ANY of the soaps from 1971? I have a Christmas episode of AW from that year, and it was just so natural, so realistic, so...homey. It made you feel like you were spending the holiday with old friends. Soaps lost their when when they insisted on serving gimmicks over substance.

[DRW50]

I never knew an AW Christmas episode from then was available.

[vetsoapfan]

At the Matthews house, Jim compliments Mary on being able to pull off organizing Christmas so well, and she reminds him that she's had many years of practice. Steve and Alice are happy (!!!) and discuss their future together. Russ brings along his date, Paula McCray, who tells the Matthews about her own family history. As I say, it's just as sweet, everyday slice-of-life drama which we just don't get much of anymore.

[DRW50]

That sounds nice. How long was Paula around?

[vetsoapfan]

Not very long. The character never really went anywhere, and the romance with Russ fizzled. The only reason I even remember her is because she's in this one episode I have; otherwise, she would have faded into the oblivion of soap opera history.

[DRW50]

It seemed like Russ never really had any big popular romances.

[Paul Raven]

Was Paula written out when Lemay arrived?

[vetsoapfan]

I'd say Russ' most popular romance was with the fragile Cindy Clark. Years later, he was paired with Iris, but to be honest, David Bailey (Russ) was not in the same league as Beverlee McKinsey (Iris), and their storyline never resulted in marriage. If only Sam Groom had remained in the role; his Russ was strong, soulful, noble and altruistic all at the same time. Of all the actors in the role, Groom was definitely the best Russ. He worked so well with Robin Strasser.

I believe so.

[DRW50]

In Lemay's book he made it seem like one of his early stories was killing off Cindy.