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

[Ann_SS]

Actually, I was referring to all the soaps, not GH alone. Notice that I never mentioned GH my post that you quoted. I was also referring to the trend starting from last year and the year before. I should have been more specific there.

[Eric83]

They have been in the 2's for individual episodes before.

[LindaTNo1]

Probably right about loss of viewership on network soaps since that was all that could be offered to viewers, thus with AMC and OLTL coming back, network soaps had to be ready to take some hits, negatively.

[LindaTNo1]

Maybe this "GH and Y&R competition in the game of casting wars and ever growing and bloated cast with Y&R having too many scattered storylines going in too many directions and GH controversy with bringing back 3 OLTL characters in new roles and all that drama, well just turns off viewers who are tired of all of it. Both GH and Y&R need to just stop it and do a little downsizing of cast and wrap up some long winded storylines. Generally straighten up. Loss of the great dame Jeanne Cooper, will be interesting to see how ratings will go in the near future and the affect it might create.

[DramatistDreamer]

I pretty much watch online these days--in the late afternoon to the evenings.

Sometimes I don't even do that for Y&R since the CBS.com website absolutely blows.

[Nate4]

LOL AMC/OLTL is gonna ruin the TV soaps

[marceline]

I don't think so. It's not like viewers have to choose between them. I'm happy they're back and all but let's not paint these two shows as some kind of juggernaut. They're part of the much needed evolution but there's still plenty more work to do. The ratings drop is probably more about the weather and some post anniversary drop off in GH's case.

[DRW50]

I don't see them as a competition either. To be honest that kind of baffles me.

I think it's just the usual drops, probably compounded with GH because the ratings only really began going up with vet returns. Outside of a few stunt returns, the show is horse [!@#$%^&*]. As always, "Cartini" falter when the hype goes away.

[jfung79]

Not sure why it is baffling that a few hundred thousand people might have less time or desire to watch a TV soap if they are watching AMC and OLTL, especially if they were first and foremost AMC or OLTL fans before those shows were cancelled. There is only limited time in the day or week for people to watch entertainment.

500,000 viewers is reportedly what PP needed to be successful. We're not talking "juggernaut" level. PP viewers are still by and large soap fans, people who might have been watching the TV soaps; they are mostly not viewers recruited fresh from primetime, from playing videogames or reading, or from other Hulu shows.

I agree though that the PP shows need work and are not up to the standard of the network soaps at this time. I would definitely drop AMC right now before I dropped DAYS or GH (although I have no current plans to drop any, and I am still enjoying AMC, and want to support it regardless).

I hope the ratings are just weather-related though, because that'd be good news for my TV soaps!

[marceline]

I still don't understand the assumption that the people watching this extra hour of programming are doing so at the expense of the current soaps. Of course I also question the assumption made by many that AMC/OLTL viewers tuned into GH in droves. There seems to be this zero sum mentality about soap fans that loss in one area means gain in another.

The PP shows may be new but soaps on Hulu aren't. AMC and OLTL were on Hulu before cancellation. GH, Days and Coronation Street are on there now. I could see the argument that the PP soaps are simply pulling more soap fans to watch their soaps on Hulu instead of the networks but I don't believe people are leaving current soaps for these new ones they're just adding the new ones in to their list.

And whatever effect PP has on existing soaps is going to take a lot longer than two weeks to manifest. (It probably took all of the first week just for the Facebook braintrust to figure out how Hulu works. )

[Eric83]

I'm sure the drop is a simple coincidence. It is springtime soaps always drop during this time. People thinking PP is causing this are reaching a little bit.

[jfung79]

If the PP viewership is significant, it would have to show up in the television ratings at some point. It may not be as much as 100,000 more soap and this could be weather, but I'm not sure how you expect 500,000 people to make a success of AMC and OLTL and have that not take away in any way from the TV soaps' ratings. Where are these 500,000 people coming from with 2-4 more hours per week to watch the online soaps?

[marceline]

You keep assuming this is a closed system and it's not. You're coming from the TV model where these shows share time slots so in order to watch one you can't watch the other. You're also assuming that soap viewers only watch soaps. That's certainly not true. These viewers could simply be watching one less judge show or rerun of Roseanne on TV Land or do a little less time at the gym. In fact, now you can watch these shows while you're on the treadmill or on the train to work or sitting in the car waiting for the kids to finish soccer practice. The eyeballs for these shows could be coming from anywhere. The Good Wife just went on hiatus so now I've got an extra hour per week plus I gave up OUAT out of frustration so there you go -- bang -- two hours of viewing time freed up and none of it came from the network soaps since they didn't have my eyes to begin with.

[JackPeyton]

Yes, the drop is absolutely because of the giant, entertainment juggernaut known as Prospect Park and their resurrection of cancelled soaps now appearing online. The network soaps just cant compete and every week from now until they are axed one by one shall continue to drop. Just like ratings are absolutely a reflection of what couple is on what day - i wish we had ratings by the minute because then we would see that when X couple is on more people watch and when the scene changed they tune to another show until their couple is back on.

GH, Days, YR and B&B better watch out.

[LindaTNo1]

Could be right about the Post Anniversary's with GH and Y&R too.