February 18-22, 2013: All Soaps Up Big in Total Viewers

[aMLCproduction]

All four shows are good right now. While I agree these bumps are abnorma I suspect drops next week.

[KMan101]

They are all on an upswing. Y&R and B&B though just aren't "grabbing" me totally back in though like GH (vet nostalgia, mostly, honestly) and DAYS.

[WorldTurningDays]

I said many times that ATWT would still be on air had they axed the vets; however, there are some exceptions such as Kay or back when Liz Hubbard played Lucinda on ATWT. These actors transend age, are generally involved with stories involving power dynamics and emotional warfare. To me, Kay may look like hell but she does not feel old like Days Alice Horton or ATWT Kim--earthy, mother-like characters. They are currently writing Kay old with her many health issues.

SF just let herself go with that bald head and bad limp. Also, her stories were stuck on repeat for the last 10 years. I think he interactions with Eric made he appear older and this was mainly when he left Donna which was just sexually unrealistic.

It all comes down to the nature of the character. I don't see Kay harming demos but SF scared anyone under 40 away.

[JNewt]

Good to see the soaps having a really good couple of months to start the year.

DAYS has really picked up these past couple of months under the new group of writers, it started out really boring but the scheming by Nick has taken it a whole new level on this show.

I was actually worried about GH losing their momentum because people were trashing the vampire stuff when it started but it looks like people stuck with the show anyways and the vampire storyline has actually been written well. It was good to see a little mini-PC reunion on there.

Y&R has been real watchable, I don't keep up with it everyday but it hasn't been this watchable in like around 5 years. B&B is just a silly show but now that the triangle is over it might pick back up in the quality era but the show has been the most consistent numbers wise of the soaps since 2011.

[JNewt]

I think it was more of a P&G problem for why GL and ATWT ended up being off the air they horribly mismanaged these shows for a long time to the point where CBS lost confidence in them. I agree about the vets too, its always good to focus on younger actors but the way the four soaps are doing it now is the way ATWT should've done it with a great balance.

I feel like ATWT and GL got cheated with the latter part of their runs and would like to see them get rebooted like AMC and OLTL are doing right now. I would love to see NBC get back to airing at least 2 soaps again and bring ATWT back.

[DRW50]

ATWT and GL were killed because no one cared. If they hadn't had the vets they still would have been killed. They just would have been even more unrecognizable at the end.

I don't think Susan Flannery scared viewers away. The writing for Stephanie sucked, and had sucked for a long time.

[QueenOfHearts]

I'm not sure Kay transends to young viewers. Foor the past few years watching her has been like watching an old bitter ass grandmother who kisses the asses of terrible men.

[jfung79]

Some soaps went up more than others.

[jfung79]

Forgot it was Presidents' Day the Monday of that week. That probably helped with the ratings regardless of any weather issues. Then people kept watching because the shows were so good.

[Kryptonite]

That seemed to be the big difference in the ratings this week was the fact that usually President's Day is the highest of the week but for most of the soaps they stayed up the rest of the week and had a pretty good Friday so I think quality is playing a strong part here than in year's past where either a stunt, holiday, or weather would be the only way you see these soaps go up now they're up due to quality.

[jo.frank88]

I know as a whole NBC is facing many many ratings problems across the board at this time.. but I just want to point out that Days of our Lives is currently getting higher ratings (at least in total viewers) than some of NBC's primetime lineup ( Do No Harm, Community, Parks and Recreation) Congrats to Days for staying strong and even growing when most every other aspect of NBC's programming is really hurting (all things primeitime, TODAY,etc)

[Toups]

No way DAYS jumps +288,000 for a normal week. There was no big revelation or a wedding or a conclusion to a storyline. Nick/Gabi's non wedding/Will is the dad secret coming out only got +209,000. DAYS they lost 126,000 last week, and when there's a 6 digit drop, there's usually an increase the week after. That and the assist from non-storyline related issue (ie the weather) helped with the unsual jump of 288,000. Same with GH. Nothing big happened to justify that big increase. GH dropped a lot last week. Now the show is back to normal numbers.

[Kryptonite]

Yeah its very interesting that DAYS has now caught up to their prime time programming on Thursdays, that's pretty embarrassing on the prime time end but really great for DAYS. I remember somebody a couple of years ago who wrote an article predicting how valuable daytime properties like DAYS would become to broadcast networks as the prime time ratings continue to slip every week to new lows. I like the idea that a poster came up with earlier of NBC reviving their soap division and adding a new partner for DAYS.

That's why I believe its quality now, when shows are that watchable during filler weeks then the ratings for the shows start to get stronger overtime. Quality always works in the long-term and not the short-term, only stunts work in the short-term. Where the soaps have finally gotten smart at is realizing if they produce a quality soap instead overbudgeting on stunts during sweep periods then they can hold onto their new audiences and make them consistently coming back.

[electrorat]

Days is still pretty horrible (they'd be less horrible without the rapemance and Dr. Dan Orangetan though), so that just shows how much NBC's primetime lineup has fallen.