Ratings from the 60's

[Paul Raven]

2 weeks ending August 6 1967/ 2 weeks previous/coverage

1. As The World Turns  10.9/39 (11.5/41) 99.3

2. Dick Van Dyke 10.7/50 (11.1/50) 98.6

3. Another World 9.9/35 (9.9/35) 97.2

4. Art Linkletter House Party 9.9/36 (9.0/34) 99.3

5. The Guiding Light 9.7/37 ( 10.1/39) 99.1

6. Search For Tomorrow  9.7/38 ( 10.5/41) 99.1

7. Andy of Mayberry reruns 9.6/50 (10.3/52) 96.2

8. The Doctors  9.1/34 (9.0/34) 97.6

9. Newlywed Game 8.7/33 (8.7/33) 97.8

10. Let's Make A Deal 8.6/31 (7.5/27) 86.7

11. Love of Life 8.3/34 (9.0/36) 98.4

12. To Tell the Truth 8.3/30 (8.3/30) 98.7

13. Beverly Hillbillies reruns 8.1/47 (8.4/47) 83.9

14. Edge of Night 8.1/32 (9.5/37) 98.7

15. Eye Guess 8.1/32 (7.7/30) 91.6

16. You Don't Say 8.1/32 (8.6/32) 87.4

17. Days of Our Lives 8.0/30 (7.4/28) 95.6

18. Secret Storm 8.0/31 (9.1/33) 98.6

19. General Hospital 7.9/26 (7.9/26) 98.1

20. Password 7.9/30 (7.8/30) 98.0

[Paul Raven]

Sept 15-19 1969

CBS 8.8/35

NBC 7.3/29

ABC 6.2/25

That was the week CBS launched Where The Heart Is

[Paul Raven]

 

[Paul Raven]

June 64. Clear sweep for CBS

1. ATWT 15.4

2.Password 12.2

3. TGL 11.6

4. SFT 11.5

6. SS 11.4

7. LOL 10.0

8. House Part 9.8

9. EON 9.8

10. CBS Newsbreak 12.25 8.6

11. CBS Newsbreak 3.25 8.5

12.Pete and Gladys 7.3

[Bill Bauer]

I'm surprised the ratings for Days of Our Lives were so low then. That was a really good time for the show. 

[vetsoapfan]

I agree. William J. Bell had been writing the show for a year by then, and DAYS was really rockin'; mesmerizing to watch. I imagine that the show's lack-luster first year had been disinteresting to soap fans who had tried it, so it took the audience a while to give Salem a second chance.

[Paul Raven]

Sept 22 - 26 1969

Love of Life had just been moved to 11.30 against Hollywood Squares on NBC to make way for Where The Heart Is at noon.

In the first quarter hour

LOL 6.5/35

HS 6.5/35

In the second quarter hour

LOL 7.4/36

HS 7.7/37

That was below Dick Van Dyke's numbers in that timeslot but LOL had more women watching.

At Noon,Where The Heart Is edged out Jeopardy with a 37 share v 36 share for Jeopardy.

In it's first 3 weeks WTHI had a 35 share, a 32 then a 37,so off to a strong start.

 

[Paul Raven]

October 1964

1. ATWT 14.4

2. The Guiding Light 11.9

3, Search For Tomorrow 11.8

4.Password 11.2

5.Love Of Life 11.0

6.Secret Storm 10.2

7. House Party 9.8

8. To Tell The Truth 9.6

9.  Pete and Gladys 9.2

10. Edge of Night 9.1

11. I Love Lucy 8.1

12.The McCoys 8.0

All CBS. They were making huge profits in daytime . ABC and NBC wanted a piece of that and were constantly juggling their line-ups trying to break through.

 

[Paul Raven]

NBC damaged their entire daytime lineup by losing Let's Make a Deal to ABC

LMAD had been averaging a 31 share at 1.30 up against ATWT. They replaced LMAD with Hidden Faces.

ATWT 15.1/50

LMAD 31 share

Hidden Faces 2.9/10

August 68 when LMAD lead into the NBC soaps v August 69 with HF as lead in

Days 35 share down to 29 share

Doctors 36 share down to 31

[Paul Raven]

2 weeks  Sept 29-Oct 10. 1969

1. As The World Turns 13.7/50

2. Edge of Night 10.9/42

3. Search for Tomorrow 10.2/45

4. Another World 10.0/37

5. Guiding Light 9.7/36

6. Love Is A Many Splendored Thing 9.3/34

7. Gomer Pyle 8.9/34

8. The Doctors 8.7/33

9. Secret Storm 8.6/32

10. Days of Our Lives 8.4/30

11. Love of Life 7.9/41

12. General Hospital 7.7/29

13. Newlywed Game 7.2/27

14. Dark Shadows 7.2/27

15. Where The Heart Is 6.9/32

 

[jam6242]

Column from the Sept. 9, 1967, The Burlington (VT) Free Press.

 

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[Paul Raven]

Thanks for the article. It seems every 1960's columnist had to take a shot at the soaps. Probably had never seen one.

Just part of the sexism of that time.

[Paul Raven]

August 1965

1. As The World Turns 12.7

2. House Party 11.0

3. Secret Storm 10.8

4. Edge of Night 10.4

5. To Tell the Truth 9.8

6. Password 9.8

7. Guiding Light 9.7

8. Andy Griffith 9.4

9. Search For Tomorrow 9.3

10. CBS 3.25 News 9. 2

11. McCoys 8.7

12. Love of Life 8.4

13. Where The Action Is 8.2

14. I Love Lucy 7.8

15. You Don't Say 7.8

16. Match Game 7.4

17. General Hospital 7.2

18. Jeopardy 6.7

19. Let's Make A Deal 6.7

20. I'll Say 6.4

 

[MichaelGL]

The mid 60s must have been quite the renaissance for Secret Storm. 

[Paul Raven]

I think that was the time Jane and Ira Avery were headwriters.

The ratings only give us one side of the story. For example I was surprised to see Where The Action Is scoring so high for ABC and when I investigated it made sense as ABC were showing it mid afternoon during Summer. Once school went back it was moved to late afternoon in the hopes of holding the teen audience but viewing patterns change once vacation is over and it never rated that high again.

Similar to the 70's when Happy Days repeats were scoring high for ABC daytime but it really was a Summer only phenomena.