January 16-20, 2012

[Scotty]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2012/01/daytime-ratings-the-talk-grows-the-revolution-stumbles/1

The Chew -- with hosts including chef Mario Batali, Top Chef's Carla Hall, chef Michael Symon, nutrition expert Daphne Oz, and entertaining expert Clinton Kelly -- is doing OK, but ABC's latest soap-replacing talk show, The Revolution, stumbled badly in its first week.

In ratings out today for last week's premiere week, The Revolution, a lifestyle-transformation series featuring Ty Pennington and Tim Gunn, drew just 1.7 million viewers.

More: Tim Gunn: 'I haven't had sex in 29 years'

That's well below the audience of the canceled soap One Life to Live, and behind CBS's competing The Talk, which claimed 2.4 million, its biggest audience in a year.

There may be hope yet for fans of General Hospital, though ABC has already handed over its current time slot to local stations for Katie Couric's new talk show this fall.

[JNewt]

GH's ratings on the surface might not be too good but you had to expect the drops. I hope everybody realizes that GH actually had to grow from the lowest lead-in its ever had. It gained about 500,000 viewers last week after The Revolution's low ratings. The Chew suffered also dropping to its lowest level in weeks when airing original episodes. This also proves that One Life to Live was the glue for that block the last year or so keeping that ship together now its collapsed and may never comeback unless GH improves which I think it will. At this point if ABC doesn't bring GH back then their going to be committing suicide.

DAYS had a better week but still has a lot of work to do.

The main story for me this week was Y&R and B&B's consistent upticks and I really think Y&R and B&B hitting these new levels has really helped out The Talk. B&B is getting back to the marks it was at around the time before Guiding Light got cancelled and Y&R is red hot right now as I really think the AMC fans have breathed new life into that show.

[Ann_SS]

GH's 18 to 49 women demo has been constantly declining for weeks. That it only lost .1 in the 18 to 49 women demo due to losing OLTL as a lead could mean there is slight hope.

True, I don't pay attention to celebrity gossip for the most part, but seriously when and how did Katie Couric become depised? And who in the general public would even care enough to despise her? The most controversial thing I have ever heard about her was that she was not a good choice for the primetime news. How does this lead to her being despised? Or is there something else? If this is true, a whole lot of people have too much time on their hands and need to get a life.

[DRW50]

The Sarah Palin interview. Those who already saw her as being too liberal jumped on that and used that as some type of proof that she was a rabid partisan liberal who was trying to throw the 2008 election.

[Max]

This is exactly right, Angela. However, the soap's most rabid fans have ignored the facts and long ago rewritten history.

Also, while GH's ratings are horrendous, AMC would be doing even worse if it was still on the air.

[DRW50]

I can't really compare AMC and GH - different timeslots. I do think AMC was more compatible with their new lineup than GH is. I could see Michael Simon or Tim Gunn popping into Fusion - I can't see them being shot by Sonny.

[Skin]

This could also simply be a role over effect. Two soaps disappearing will have more of an effect then simply one disappearing. It's likely a case of cutting out two shows and replacing them with poorer performing reality television series.

Most people thought Sarah Palin was ridiculous regardless, she thought Africa was a collective country. I mean...

Agreed. GH should in theory be benefiting more from it's timeslot as no similar programming runs against it. AMC for the most part had a lot of soap competition it went against B&B, Y&R and Days Of Our Lives consistently.

[Cheap21]

and you know that how?

[JackPeyton]

ISnt her pay spread over like 3 years?

even if it isnt, its also only 1 star, with very few hair/makeup/wardrobe/kraft/set/production/etc people. Those behind the scenes job rather well. Cutting them even in half is a massive amount of money saved.

[Ann_SS]

So basically she is "despised" by conservatives. Got to say that I do not see how that translates to her talk show failing. There are more than even enough liberal or moderate women at home during the daytime to sustain her show if they find it entertaining.

All the soap replacement shows (The Chew, The Talk, and LMAD) have all started off with rocky ratings and then managed to stablize their audience so it is way too early to know anyting definitive about the future of The Revolution. The only hope that I see for GH is if RC and FV are able to stop its 18 to 49 women demo from declining further. I do think that ABC is giving GH a chance by allowing RC to bring in some of OLTL's characters and bringing back Anna, Robert, and Holly.

[JaneAusten]

It could be as simple as not wanting the timeslot to collapse even further which could lead affiliates to moving it to a less desirable timeslot or that they are trying to get the show to a point where there might be some interest in it in other media outlets, etc.Holly, Todd, and Blair have all been confirmed to be short term so I am not sure what a financial stretch it is.Mybe the Primetime interest has some validity. I just think GH's time on ABCD is coming to a close. Days has proven IMO that bringig back vets from the 80's and 90's is great for nostalgia but does nothing for younger demos

[Eric83]

Yeah its crazy how its HH season average is up .3 compared to last year.

[JONNYSBRO]

Cancelling Amc was the right decision but canceling oltl crashed the entire network. The revolution crashed in cause crashed the chew and gh. Abc should have just cancelled Amc, they could have continued to use the surge of oltl to help the chew which it was and use oltl to lead into Katie. Instead abc got greedy crashed their entire daytime and now will probably lose their timeslot to affiliates.

[Angela]

Barring a final week surge, OLTL's ratings weren't so fantastic that it would have made that much of a difference for its companions. It's not like GH did not hit 2.2 million viewers a couple of times prior to the week without OLTL. It did. That said, OLTL was the healthiest of the three soaps in total viewers in the last year and could have helped the other shows in the line-up to some level. I think GH was maintaining over OLTL in 18-49 for most of that year, not all but most, and that may be what counted most for them. That and the fact that OLTL was probably always the soap ABC wanted to can first.

Did this chart comparing the ABC soaps in Total Viewers for the past 5 full years (Green = First, Red = Last):

[Scotty]

In head-to-head competition, The Talk also topped the premiere week of ABC's "The Revolution" by decisive margins in viewers and key women demographics. The Talk out-rated "The Revolution" in viewers by +42% (2.39m vs. 1.68m), by +50% in women 18-49 (0.9/06 vs. 0.6/03) and by +38% in women 25-54 (1./06 vs. 0.8/04).

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/01/26/the-talk-delivers-its-largest-audience-and-best-women-18-49-rating-in-nearly-a-year/117754/