April 29 - May 3, 2013: Bad Week For All Soaps

[Toups]

Ratings for the week April 29 - May 3, 2013

[Toups]

Were there any pre-emptions to cause the big drops in practically every category?

[jfung79]

What if it's a Prospect Park effect? AMC/OLTL fans who were watching TV soaps now back to their "home" soaps.

Also, I think it's good that even with the "bad week for all soaps," in terms of total viewers all soaps are still up year-to-year.

[BadAddiction]

Well, I know since the premiere of PP's OLTL and AMC, I really haven't watched the Network soaps. With the exception of a very few characters - the Network shows generally hold no interest for me. It took PP's relaunch to bring to light the depth of my dissatisfaction with BB, Days, GH, and Y&R. I record them all, but over the last 3-4 weeks they've inspired little to no desire in me to watch them. As for preemptions, I can't recall any.

[rhinohide]

I don't think so Toups. They are all still nominally better than this time last year when we were predicting GH and possibly Days might be slated to get the ax. Y&R and B&B losses could be part of normal fluctuations and could easily bounce back next week, but GH has been slipping for a few weeks now.

[Ann_SS]

Even with GH's dip, it looks like the normal fluctuation in the key 18 to 49 women demo for all the soaps. We are seeing the weather coming into play. Winter, the soaps' strongest ratings period is over. It is starting to get warm with longer days in the major northeastern cities which is when the soap demos traditionally start trending down.

[chicklitsandfantasies]

I know there were for Y&R on the West Coast on Friday. And they ended up showing those epis in the early morning

[edgeofnik]

Considering all soaps are still up in total viewers year-to-year - not as terrible as headline. Yes, some demo drops, but these are are small numbers.

[WorldTurningDays]

Loving that Days seems to be gaining steam. Loving the show from Kristin to Will.

YR is a bore and no better than the MAB era. The show looks yummy but TPTB just do not get what makes rhe soap special. Maria was a hack, but she did get this.

The PP soaps look great but the AMC writing feels slightly soft. OLTL is sleek save David Vickers and Dorian--re-write time! I dig the My Two Todds relationship with Danny and Jack.

[WorldTurningDays]

Wish a network would air Amc or Oltl as an old school movie of the week. It would cost nothing. Come on CW!

[Ann_SS]

Actually Toups' headlines usually underplay the real bad ratings news which is the key demos continue to be shaky with a slightly downwards trend. The demos are all that matter to the network when making programming decisions, not the overall viewership.

[JONNYSBRO]

How do we know how well the online Amc and oltl are doing?

[jo.frank88]

Wow. Sad to see that JC's last episode on Friday May 3 got a 3.0... that may be an all time low for Y&R. I don't think I've ever seen them in the 2's? even for an individual episode. Will there be a way we will be able to get ratings info for the PP soaps? I mean with them airing on so many mediums (hulu, hulu plus, PP's website).. sounds like they are doing well though , but it would be awesome to get some ratings info on them.

[Soapsuds]

GH is boring...hate LuLu recast....

[TeamEric]

Toups would have to check last year, but I have 2013 and that was GH's lowest 18-49 viewership by far. That's also the first time this year they have fallen below last year's numbers there.

3. GH 536,000 (-64,000/-89,000)

When does a slide become a trend? Typically after 4 weeks. Over the last 3 GH has bled 18-49 viewers 3 weeks in a row for a total of 185,000 viewers. They shed immediately their gains from 50th anniversary and Nurses Ball. It's been downhill ever since.

Next week ratings will be interesting if they stopped the slide and recouped some.