December 65 Daytime's Top 20

1. As The World Turns CBS 1.30 - 2.00 13.8 (NBC Let's Make a Deal,ABC Ben Casey)

2. Password CBS 2.00 - 2.30 12.1 (NBC Days of Our Lives,ABC The Nurses)

3. House Party CBS 2.30 - 3.00 11.8 (NBC The Doctors,ABC A Time For Us)

4. The Guiding Light CBS 12.45 - 1.00 11.9 (NBC Let's Play Post Office ,ABC Father Knows Best)

5. Search For Tomorrow CBS 12.30 -12.45 10.8 (as above)

6. To Tell The Truth CBS 3.00 - 3.25 10.3 (NBC Another World, ABC General Hospital)

7. Secret Storm CBS 4.00 - 4.30 10.3 (NBC Match Game, ABC Never Too Young)

8. Edge Of Night CBS 3.30 - 4.00 8.7 (NBC You Don't Say, ABC The Young Marrieds)

9. Love of Life CBS 12.00 - 12.25 9.2 (NBC Jeopardy, ABC Donna Reed Show)

10. News CBS 3.25 - 3.30 9.1 (see #6)

11. Dick Van Dyke CBS 11.30 - 12.00 9.1 (NBC Paradise Bay, ABC Missing Links)

12. Andy of Mayberry CBS 11.00 - 11.30 8.2 (NBC Morning Star, ABC Get The Message)

13. Match Game NBC 4.00 - 4.30 7.4 (CBS Secret Storm,ABC Never Too Young)

14. Yiu Don't Say NBC 3.30 - 4.00 6.9 (CBS Edge of Night, ABC The Young Marrieds)

15. General Hospital ABC 3.00 -3.30 6.9 (NBC Another World CBS To Tell The Truth)

16. News CBS 12.25 - 12.30 6.8 (see #9)

17, Another world NBC 3.00 - 3.30 6.5 (ABC General Hospital,CBS To Tell The Truth)

18. The Doctors NBC 2.30 -3.00 6.3 (ABC A Time For Us, CBS House Party)

19. Where The Action Is ABC 4.30 - 5.00 6.3 (NBC Local, CBS Local)

20. Concentration NBC 5.8 10.30 - 11.00 (ABC The Price Is Right.CBS I Love Lucy)

February 1967

Variety reports that at 3pm CBS To Tell the Truth has sunk to a 36 share up against NBC's Another World 35  and that since December 66, NBC's pm line up Eye Guess, Let's Make A Deal, DOOL, TD and AW have all picked up 4 or 5 share points at the expense of CBS.

Edited December 14, 20222 yr by Paul Raven

I always wondered why it took so long for Search for Tomorrow and The Guiding to be expanded from 15 to 30 minutes.   I think they got higher ratings than Love of Life and The Secret Storm but the latter 2 expanded earlier even Brighter Day.   

19 minutes ago, TVFAN1144 said:

I always wondered why it took so long for Search for Tomorrow and The Guiding to be expanded from 15 to 30 minutes.   I think they got higher ratings than Love of Life and The Secret Storm but the latter 2 expanded earlier even Brighter Day.   

Yes, they were very slow in expanding SFT and TGL.

Since ATWT and TEON launched in 1956 in 30 min format, every other show either expanded or debuted as a half hour.

CBS were having problems at 2pm with ATWT #1 but Password losing too much of that lead-in.

So CBS decided that Love Is A Many Splendored Thing would be the answer to their problems.

I don't know why they didn't just expand SFT and TGL to 30 min then and move Guiding Light to 2pm.

June 67

CBS 8.9 NBC 7.1 ABC 4.2

Days of Our Lives 8.0 was close to Password 8.1

AW 9.1 To Tell the Truth 8.9

Bill Bell and Agnes Nixon working their magic!

Oct 67- April 68 

1.ATWT 13.6

2. House Party 10.7

3. AW 10.2

4. Dick Van Dyke 10.0

5. TGL 10.0

6. SFY 9.9

7. TD 9.7

8. You Don't Say 9.7

9. To Tell the Truth 9.5

10. Andy Griffith  9.5

11. EON 9.4

12. SS 9.4

13. Match Game 9.3

14. LOL 9.2

15. Lets Make A Deal 9.2

 

April 22 – May 5 68

CBS 7.7

NBC 7.6

ABC  4.2

Days, The Doctors, Another World and You Don't Say were all timeslot winners 2-4 pm. Snap Judgement  at 10 am also won its timeslot.

That lead CBS to revamp Splendored Thing to hopefully boost its rating and retain more of the ATWT lead in as well as a flow on to the rest of the afternoon.

The Lucy Show replaced Candid Camera as 10 am lead in SFT expanded to 30 min at 12.30, TGL was moved to 2.30pm displacing Art Linkletter, Secret storm was moved to 3pm to replace To Tell the Truth  and Art Linkletter sent to 4pm.

CBS was now all soaps in the afternoon.It also meant that for the first time all 3 networks programmed a soap in the same timeslot. At 3pm it was AW v SS v GH. 

By Nov 68

CBS 9.2

NBC 7.5

ABC 5.5

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing was  now #2 in timeslot.  and CBS had its biggest margin since Aug 67 with 7 7 of the Top 10

 

 

 

CBS had such a strong lineup back then.

 

Sadly they now have 2 soaps remaining and it’s none of these.

Weakened by inroads from other networks, network ownership and interference (Secret Storm, Love of Life), time slot changes due to P & G block scheduling (Edge of Night, Secret Storm, Love is Many Spendord Thing), 2:30 change for SFT and sponsor moving it to NBC and erosion, deviation from original focus as well as poor writing for all

  On 12/4/2022 at 8:46 PM, Paul Raven said:

October 1965

1. As The World Turns 13.0

2. Secret Storm 11.0

3. Password 10.8

4. Houseparty 10.8

5. Guiding Light 10.6

6. Search for Tomorrow 10.4

7. Edge of Night 10.3

8. To Tell the Truth 9.8

9. Love of Life 9.3

10. CBS News 3.25 9.3

11. Dick Van Dyke 9.1

12. Andy Griffith 7.6

13. Match Game 7.4

14. You Don't say 7.1

15. CBS News  12.45 7.1

16. NBC News 4.25  6.7

17. Another World 6.4

18. General Hospital 6.3

19. The Doctors 6.1

20. Jeopardy 5.6

AW beating GH which earlier had been the clear winner b/w the 2 and even worrying CBS who instituted changes on To Tell the Truth to bolster its ratings.

I wonder if losing Roy Thinnes as Phil was a factor in GH dropping a little.

Of course the next rating report could be very different as ratings fluctuated more back then.

Expand  

Interesting that Guiding Light was ahead of its lead in Search

 

GL regularly beat Search as GL was on at 12:45 and Search at 12:30.

August 66

ABC replaced Confidential for Women with Dating Game at 2pm and it became the best rating ABC show since GH.

Within weeks it was beating Password 35 share to 28 and that was with lower clearances  than GH.

And then Days took off on NBC so CBS dumped Password for Love Is A Many Splendored Thing.

The first chink in the CBS armor.

The decision to preempt Password the day Dating Game premiered is what sent Password on it's downward spiral.  In a book on Allen Ludden, another factor was that based on the rules of the time, there were only about 3000 words that Password could use.

I guess the problem with Splendored Thing is that like Password before it,it lost too much of the As The World Turns lead in. Days of Our Lives had proven to be tough competition. So eventually P&G pressured to have all its soaps in one block.

Paul Raven, the biggest issue with Splendored Thing became cast changes in the leads.  LIAMST finished the 1969/1970 season about half a point ahead of Days (9.5/8.8).  CBS cooked the goose that laid the golden egg when it offered David Birney (the most popular soap actor according to the Daytime TV readers poll) and salary cut!  He left just as Donna Mills was leaving, and since she was dating Birney, so did Leslie Charleston who went with him to Hollywood.  When those cast changes hit in May/June 1970, LIAMST fell from 1st in the readers poll to 8th.

On 9/3/2015 at 3:12 AM, Paul Raven said:

June 64

3pm timeslot

To Tell The Truth on CBS led the way with GH on ABC second with a 9.2 rating and month old AW on NBC long behind with a 2.8 (lowest rating daytime show)

Paul, these numbers must have had Irna have a potty accident!  No wonder she moved to melodrama to goose up the ratings.

 

On 10/22/2014 at 9:42 AM, danfling said:

The show was hurt by too many of its popular characters who were in a love quadruple leaving the show: Donna Mills, Leslie Charleston, David Birney, and (eventually) Ed Power. Their replacements (Michael Hawkins, Tom Fuccello, Veleka Gray, Barbara Stanger, Brett Halsey) were not as popular with the audience.

 

Also, Ira and Jane Avery divorced. CBS, the owner of the show, wanted them to continue to write the show. However, one of them (Jane, I believe) refused to work with the other, and CBS did not want Ira Avery to write the show by himself.

 

So, a change of headwriters was necessitated. Jane and Ira Avery had introduced the Garrison family (Margaret, Chandler, Spencer, Nancy, Sarah, Jean and Jean's son Andy) into the story, and they were quite popular. The Hale family was introduced next, but that family fizzled. (I think that the family should have stayed around longer and been given more to do.) The Chernak family was then introduced. Mrs. Chernak eventually married into the Donnelly family, as had Helen Elliott.

 

In 1972, when Procter and Gamble made demands of CBS for the timeslot, the show was moved into the former timeslot of The Edge of Night. The decision was made to turn the show into a crime-mystery since The Edge of Night had been so popular there. Both shows were hurt by the moves that CBS made.

Actually, LIAMST was moved to 3:00 PM and TSS at 3:30.  I think that having an hour of crime would have been good if TSS had stayed at 3:00 and moved fully to that arena.  LIAMST could have survived if ti became more relevant in its love story to compete against OLTL.  Instead, that 1972 move gave both NBC and ABC their best shot at taking over CBS and they made the most of it.  That is the year AMC and OLTL made the top 10 and GH I think tied AW for #3.

Paul Raven, wow!  CBS has the top 12 shows.  Another World has gained in that it beat The Doctors.

On 8/6/2021 at 12:41 AM, Paul Raven said:

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.

I knew WTHI started strong and suddenly took a dip.  I wonder what happened to turn people off.  Was it the move of Password on ABC to noon from 4:00 PM?

On 9/12/2021 at 5:02 AM, will81 said:

I didn't even get to see those years but still prefer them. I grew up with the 80's/90's, which still had some good things going for it, and I consider it the silver age of soaps. I think the day that white Ford Bronco screamed down a Los Angeles highway was the beginning of the end. I would say O.J/Melrose Place/JER Days all led to the death of daytime serials and those three events all hit their stride around the same time 94 - 96. 

I will give an exception to Y&R, only because I know Bell's illness would have contributed to that shows decline and he would have been getting symptoms by 1995 at the latest.

Bill Bell retired in 1995.  I think his last great creation was Phyllis Summers.

I love seeing old ratings… 

On 12/26/2022 at 11:24 PM, TVFAN1144 said:

I always wondered why it took so long for Search for Tomorrow and The Guiding to be expanded from 15 to 30 minutes.   I think they got higher ratings than Love of Life and The Secret Storm but the latter 2 expanded earlier even Brighter Day.   

I think the issue is where would one of them go?  SFT/TGL became lunch time favorites and one would lose that position.  I think when TGL moved in 1968, it fell to 9th for awhile.

2 hours ago, DM James Fairbanks said:

Bill Bell retired in 1995.  I think his last great creation was Phyllis Summers.

Bell officially stepped down as HW of Y&R July 1998. 

3 hours ago, DM James Fairbanks said:

Paul Raven, wow!  CBS has the top 12 shows.  Another World has gained in that it beat The Doctors.

House Party did well in the ratings.   That would change after moving it to 4 to accommodate the expanded TGL at 2:30