Ratings from the 70's

[Contessa Donatella]

I totally love that you know this. And, of course, share the knowledge. Imagine. You're at the studio. You know you have only one more day of show in the can. You literally have no idea what you're going to be doing the next several weeks. Then the news comes out. A vote was taken. We're saved! 

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 8/12/74-8/16/74 & 8/19/74-8/23/74:

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FAST WEEKLY WEEK OF 8/26/74-8/30/74 NOT AVAILABLE

(Note: Per newspaper listings, on 8/28/74 The Doctors, Edge of Night and Girl in My Life were preempted by a Ford News Conference from 230-3PM; there were no other scheduled preemptions and all other daytime shows were scheduled to air every day this week).

[Manny]

Y&R and AMC really popped up in this period, wow!

[Khan]

IKR?  Especially Y&R. To go from #10 in May to #2 in August...that might be the second most remarkable thing to happen in the '70's ratings after GH's turnaround in '77/'78.

[JoeCool]

Yes AMC really popped in July and August 1974. AMC I think hit number 1 for the first time in 1973. Restless steadily moving up in the summer and then pops. I think in the fall of 74 AMC and Restless have good ratings but not great ratings.

[Khan]

Still, it goes to show you what can happen when TPTB exercises a little bit of patience with a show or shows that have potential.  Nowadays, AMC and/or Y&R probably would be off the air within six months, lol.

[Paul Raven]

Meanwhile How To Survive A Marriage was stalling at the bottom of the list.

When did Anne Howard Bailey get the axe? Were there any other changes made to address the dire ratings situation?

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 9/2/74-9/6/74 & 9/9/74-9/13/74:

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[Soapsuds]

YR cooling off in the ratings.

Surprised at how low GL was doing during this time.

ATWT still strong with almost a 10 rating.

[Khan]

Longtime fans like @vetsoapfan and @Reverend Ruthledge might have a better understanding of this, but from everything I've read, 1966-1975 was a very rough time for GL.  Robert Soderberg and Edith Sommer wrote some key material of that period.  Otherwise, GL was struggling when the Dobsons came in and re-energized the show.

[Reverend Ruthledge]

Yeah, I think the show suffered from the revolving door of head writers during that time. It was a weird mix of too many cooks in the kitchen and stagnation as they tried to hold on too much to a certain pace and way of doing things because of the lack of cohesive forward-focus. They weren't going forward like the other soaps during that time. Or, at least, not as much. Other shows were more ok with doing new things and stepping up the pace. There wasn't a clear direction on how to go evolve and so the audience, I'm sure, looked at the show as stale and boring. I, personally, don't think it was either of those things but there was a huge shift in the late 60s/early 70s culturally. 

[vetsoapfan]

@Reverend Ruthledge summarized the situation perfectly, as always, but I would like to add my personal opinion from viewing that time period of the soap.

Agnes Nixon only left at the tail-end of 1966, if I recall correctly, and TGL was excellent for most of that year.

Then the revolving door of writers began. Perhaps P&G kept hiring and firing different scribes in an attempt to find the perfect one to helm the show, but there were probably more than a dozen head writers credited from the time Nixon departed to when the Dobsons came aboard in 1975. The quality of their material was uneven, to say the least. Some very capable writers were hired, like Jane and Ira Avery, Robert Soderberg and Edith Sommer, even Irna Phillips. Unfortunately,  there were dregs among the choices, too, like James Lipton (who somehow managed to get hired twice--UGH) and Gabrielle Upton. The constant shift in quality, tone and focus was jarring and off-putting.

IMHO, the weakest years of the show were 1973, 74, and into 1975 until the Dobsons arrived.

Of course, TGL had the misfortune of heavy competition from NBC (Another World) and ABC (General Hospital) in the early 1970s. Both those shows peaked from, say, 1971-74. A disorganized soap with poor writing was bound to falter in such conditions. (I still remained steadfastly loyal to Springfield, however!)

Then, General Hospital completely fell apart around 1975, with its own revolving door of weak writers.

With one of its principle competitors sinking fast, and with a renewed vigor thanks to the Dobsons, TGL started to rebound in the ratings. Even in a few years, when Gloria Monty and Douglas Marland brought GH back to new heights of popularity, TGL continued to acquit itself nicely with solid ratings. (By that time, it was AW's turn to wane.) 

Anyway, all this to say: back in the 1960s and 1970s, all soaps had their ups and downs. Fans just understood that if we remained patient, the ships' courses would be corrected soon enough. That has not been the case for decades now, however, as soaps have been allowed to sink into a state of lethargy and disrepair, and remain that way indefinitely. So many soaps have ended in cancellation, with the same hacks in place who helped destroy the genre in the first place.

At least in the early 1970s, TPTB knew TGL needed help and working on fixing it.

(BTW, I am not saying that I totally loved everything that happened to TGL under the Dobsons, but I'd take them as writers over James Lipton any day.)

[Reverend Ruthledge]

Truth. Back then, when the quality of the shows went south, you could count on them scrambling to try and fix it. Nowadays, nobody cares enough to improve the quality. 

The only thing worse than James Lipton's writing was his acting. 

[will81]

The kids go back to school and Y&R drops. I wonder what it's demo's were, especially in the summer. Was it the young person's soap back then? 

[Maxim]

Another World doing great!    Hitting 9 million!

@Contessa Donatella