On 5/27/2025 at 9:26 PM, Paul Raven said:

It's interesting that LIAMST got cancelled over LOL or SS , both of which rated lower.

I guess other factors came into play.

I suspect the fact that LMST aired right after ATWT and lost a SIGNIFICANT amount of their lead-in, which would cause no end of trouble for the rest of the lineup, made it an easy move for CBS to 3, where it could easily be dumped, running a distant third behind GH and AW. Too bad, in doing so, they basically caused the slow death of EON, when they could've just kept EON at 3 where it would've been competitive, if not for P&G dictating their shows air in a bloc. I'll never understand their logic in doing that.

Just catching up on this thread, and am LOVING seeing all the new content. Much much thanks to you, as always, @JAS0N47 for everything you do!

12 minutes ago, beebs said:

Just catching up on this thread, and am LOVING seeing all the new content. Much much thanks to you, as always, @JAS0N47 for everything you do!

Thanks Beebs!  I've been posting the 2005-2015 preemption data in the 1990's ratings thread, so if you have any interest in that, check there. We now have (almost) complete preemption data for 1973-2015!

And for everyone, 1972 is scheduled to come later in the year, although I believe 3 full months are missing for that year, but at least we'll get 75 percent of the year!

24 minutes ago, beebs said:

I suspect the fact that LMST aired right after ATWT and lost a SIGNIFICANT amount of their lead-in, which would cause no end of trouble for the rest of the lineup, made it an easy move for CBS to 3, where it could easily be dumped, running a distant third behind GH and AW. Too bad, in doing so, they basically caused the slow death of EON, when they could've just kept EON at 3 where it would've been competitive, if not for P&G dictating their shows air in a bloc. I'll never understand their logic in doing that.

September 11, 1972 CBS rearranged the soap schedule (all times ET)

11:30 am Love of Life

Noon Where the Heart Is

12:30 pm Search for Tomorrow

1 pm Local programming

1:30 pm As the World Turns

2 pm Guiding Light (moved up from 2:30 pm)

2:30 pm The Edge of Night (moved up from 3:30 pm)

3 pm Love is a Many Splendored Thing (moved down from 2 pm)

3:30 pm The Secret Storm (moved down from 3 pm)

We know the move for The Edge of Night was an epic failure. The moves of Love is a Many Splendored Thing and The Secret Storm look like tank jobs.

March 26, 1973 the soap schedule changed again (all times ET)

11:30 am Love of Life

Noon Y&R (series premiere, replaces Where the Heart Is)

12:30 pm Search for Tomorrow

1 pm Local programming

1:30 pm As the World Turns

2 pm Guiding Light 

2:30 pm The Edge of Night 

3 pm The Price is Right (moved down from 10:30 am, replaces Love is a Many Splendored Thing. 10:30 am had the series premiere of $10,000 Pyramid)

3:30 pm Hollywood's Talking (series premiere, replaces The Secret Storm)

4 pm The Secret Storm (replaces The Vin Scully Show)

Isolating The Secret Storm from the rest of the soaps, that looks like sabotage.

 

Edited June 27Jun 27 by kalbir

On 6/4/2025 at 8:31 PM, vetsoapfan said:

What was most frustrating, is that RTPP was weakly written at the beginning and remained tedious for what seemed months on end. Then, in its last stretch, it suddenly perked right up and turned itself around significantly. Unfortunately, by that time NBC was fully committed to How to Survive a Marriage, and went ahead and cancelled the flourishing RTPP in favor of HTSAM. 

Ironically, history repeated itself. HTSAM was dreadfully written in its opening months. NBC fairly quickly gave up on it and changed its time slot to compete with the ratings powerhouse ATWT. Wouldn't you know it, NBC hired Rick Edelstein to take over the writing reigns and the quality soared. It turned into a rich, layered, deep psychological drama along the lines of Harding Lemay's Another World. Alas, NBC axed this newly-shining soap too.

Fascinating too, seeing as it's obvious that RTPP was finally starting to find its audience at the end, regularly netting ratings above 7.0, after languishing about 1.0 lower or worse in the summer of 1973. HTSAM lost that audience almost immediately, and never gained it back, despite improvements in its quality as its run progressed.

On 6/26/2025 at 9:02 PM, kalbir said:

Isolating The Secret Storm from the rest of the soaps, that looks like sabotage.

 

Absolutely! SS had remained lower-rated, but competitive (mid-7.0s), up until Y&R's debut, and then shed 1.5 ratings points the week it moved, and never cracked 7.0 ever again. Any chance that show had to bounce back at that point was lost, it's evident. For CBS to move LOL clear across the schedule to that timeslot a few years later exposes THAT move as a tank job in the same way. Especially when you see that the 1973 move lost SS 20 affiliates (or about 8-9% coverage), overnight.

Edited June 28Jun 28 by beebs

1973 weekly ratings added to archive: https://www.jason47.com/days/ratings1973.html

On 1/29/2024 at 10:26 AM, Contessa Donatella said:

Wasn't it the Hollands who located the show in Port Charles for the first time?

I was looking around at GH stuff. It was actually the Pollocks that named Port Charles according to an article by Jon-Michael Reed. They took over maybe around late Feb or early Mar 1976.

Bryna Laub in her Daytime Serial newsletter synopsis mentions Port Charles for the first time in April 1976 when Terri's place opens.

1 minute ago, will81 said:

I was looking around at GH stuff. It was actually the Pollocks that named Port Charles according to an article by Jon-Michael Reed. They took over maybe around late Feb or early Mar 1976.

Bryna Laub in her Daytime Serial newsletter synopsis mentions Port Charles for the first time in April 1976 when Terri's place opens.

Thank you! Are Laub's newsletters archived online somewhere?

10 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Thank you! Are Laub's newsletters archived online somewhere?

@FrenchFan  has provided most of them in the "Look Into the Past" thread below. I also added a few that I had from 1973. It's a bit out of order though. There are a few missing from 1973 and 1974 but 75 - 77 is all there. Bryna's newsletter started Dec 72 and went up to 1978.

 

@JAS0N47  hi, out of complete ignorance, I'm just gonna ask. What page would the GL preemptions from the '90's be on? 

7 minutes ago, P.J. said:

@JAS0N47  hi, out of complete ignorance, I'm just gonna ask. What page would the GL preemptions from the '90's be on? 

They are here  page 11

 

Edited July 15Jul 15 by BoldRestless

1 hour ago, BoldRestless said:

They are here  page 11

 

Thanks!

On 8/1/2025 at 5:28 PM, Soapsuds said:

 

Here's the full list (Note: 11 shows changed timeslots after September or premiered during the season, so only the most recent timeslot is listed for those averages):

 

Season Average Ratings/Shares (as of 6/22/75)

 

Match Game '75 11.4/35

As the World Turns 10.7/37

Another World 9.7/31  (114 telecasts at 3PM)

Search for Tomorrow 9.5/36

All My Children 9.0/32

The Price Is Right 9.0/30

The Doctors 8.8/32

The Young and the Restless 8.5/33

Hollywood Squares 8.4/36

Guiding Light 8.4/30

General Hospital 8.3/26

Days of Our Lives 8.2/31 (40 telecasts at 130PM)

Let's Make a Deal 7.9/27

$10,000 Pyramid 7.9/28 (114 telecasts at 2PM)

Edge of Night 7.4/27

Jackpot 7.4/29

Big Showdown 7.1/26 (115 telecasts at 230PM)

Love of Life 7.1/31

One Life to Live 7.1/22

Tattletales 7.1/21

Blank Check 6.8/26 (115 telecasts at 1230PM)

High Rollers 6.8/33

Wheel of Fortune 6.4/32 (115 telecasts at 1030AM)

Gambit 6.3/32

Musical Chairs 6.3/21 (5 telecasts at 4PM)

Somerset 6.2/19

Split Second 6.2/23

Now You See It 6.1/30

Password 5.4/21

Celebrity Sweepstakes 5.3/28 (115 telecasts at 10AM)

Joker's Wild 5.3/28

Money Maze 4.6/14 (120 telecasts at 4PM)

Spin-Off 4.3/24 (5 telecasts at 10AM)

Blankety Blanks 3.3/16 (40 telecasts at 1130AM)

1 hour ago, JAS0N47 said:

 

Here's the full list (Note: 11 shows changed timeslots after September or premiered during the season, so only the most recent timeslot is listed for those averages):

 

Season Average Ratings/Shares (as of 6/22/75)

 

Match Game '75 11.4/35

As the World Turns 10.7/37

Another World 9.7/31  (114 telecasts at 3PM)

Search for Tomorrow 9.5/36

All My Children 9.0/32

The Price Is Right 9.0/30

The Doctors 8.8/32

The Young and the Restless 8.5/33

Hollywood Squares 8.4/36

Guiding Light 8.4/30

General Hospital 8.3/26

Days of Our Lives 8.2/31 (40 telecasts at 130PM)

Let's Make a Deal 7.9/27

$10,000 Pyramid 7.9/28 (114 telecasts at 2PM)

Edge of Night 7.4/27

Jackpot 7.4/29

Big Showdown 7.1/26 (115 telecasts at 230PM)

Love of Life 7.1/31

One Life to Live 7.1/22

Tattletales 7.1/21

Blank Check 6.8/26 (115 telecasts at 1230PM)

High Rollers 6.8/33

Wheel of Fortune 6.4/32 (115 telecasts at 1030AM)

Gambit 6.3/32

Musical Chairs 6.3/21 (5 telecasts at 4PM)

Somerset 6.2/19

Split Second 6.2/23

Now You See It 6.1/30

Password 5.4/21

Celebrity Sweepstakes 5.3/28 (115 telecasts at 10AM)

Joker's Wild 5.3/28

Money Maze 4.6/14 (120 telecasts at 4PM)

Spin-Off 4.3/24 (5 telecasts at 10AM)

Blankety Blanks 3.3/16 (40 telecasts at 1130AM)

Random aside: surprising to see The Big Showdown performing so well when it only lasted this one season, performing well above shows that had far longer runs (Wheel Of Fortune, in particular, which debuted January 1975). I suppose its mid-afternoon timeslot did it no favours, but you'd think they'd move it to a morning slot rather than just cancel it altogether with those numbers.

A SURPRISE FROM 74 YEARS AGO!  THE SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER 1951 SOAP RATINGS, INCLUDING THE DEBUT WEEK RATINGS FOR "SEARCH FOR TOMORROW" AND "LOVE OF LIFE"

 

While we are awaiting the 1972 ratings, in the meantime, this surprise arrived from 1951!

 

Notes: These are the two-week averages for each soap. Nielsen weeks ran from Sunday to Saturday in 1951. The week of 9/23/51-9/29/51 was a dark week. Random programs that did not have sponsors were unrated, as was the case with "The Egg and I." Any programs unrated are not listed at all in the book, so no preemption data is available for that soap either.

 

 

Will post this in the 1950's thread as well!

Edited August 13Aug 13 by JAS0N47