those numbers for GL are miserable

It seem to be a recurring theme with DAYS. During sweeps the show goes into traditional character driven storyline mode, which brings steady ratings. And then for the two months after sweeps they get back to the good stuff. The last week of this month is Marlena/Alex and Shawn/Mimi's weddings. So just as sweeps are winding down DAYS will probably get back up to a 2.8-3.0 hopefully

OMG Rick where did you hear its the last week of this month? I have been hearing mid-March but yeah I agree. JER shows always do that during sweeps and then strike when everyone else normal. I like it that though because a soap shouldn't only save the good stuff for sweeps. I know Days can get back to 2.8-2.9 but I want to see 3.0 which could happen when Marlena gets her memory back and she reunites with John.

YAY for AMC! It’s been incredible lately! It should be even higher!

Good for GH and AMC. I think most soaps will get a bump this week because of the snow. Many people were off on Monday.

I feel sorry for Days. I really do. I believe they are trying really hard to put together good shows to bring in viewers, but it's not working because their writing team is worthless.

Maybe people were busy on Thursday. Maybe people didn't like what they saw on Wednesday's show or Wednesday's previews.

Well, maybe the problem is in your thinking. When you think the show is bad other viewers disagree, and when you think the show is great, those people with the Neilsen boxes disagree again.

Yeah the snow may help. I do somewhat agree on your points about Days,especially since the nielson box people can be fickle. I agree on the people being busy part but I think with Soapnet around people feel as though they can just watch Days on that. I would love to see the ratings Days gets on Soapnet because I really think they, along with the other soapnet shows, would be at least a little higher.

As for my thinking, most people agreed that Thursday's Days was incredible and very emotional. The previews on Wednesday may not have done it justice and that may be why but I doubt it. I think many watched on Soapnet or some other way. This was not my thinking-this episode got raves from people that aren;t even happy with Days at the moment so it doesn;t make sense for it to be the lowest rated episode of the week. The good news is Days drew pretty solid numbers the rest of the week so hopefully that is a good sign for next week's numbers and for this week's demos and such. I know ratings on Friday are always higher but I can't understand how Days got a better rating Friday for a good show but a 2.4 for a great show. Maybe people just didn't think it would be that good. All I know is I am through with the ratings-Days and ATWT deserve better. The good newsfor Days is once sweeps is over and all the big events and guest stars leave the ABC soaps will drop back to normal and most of the soaps will be neck and neck again.

I am so done with the ratings. They don't indicate quality at all. How can Days get a 2.4 for Thursday's episode which was probably one of the most emotional and best episodes of Days ever and get a 2.7 for Friday which was good but not great.

I agree ratings don't always reflect quality but I don't think it is fair to disect day to day ratings saying more people should watch on that day or that day. How the hell would most people know to tune in on Thursday rather than Friday? It's like when people would say look GL lowest day was from Jeffrey was on. I hate Jeffrey but I really doubt people know ahead of time Jeffrey would be on Tuesday or whatever & not watch. IMO this is how I see it, all soaps have their core audience that watches daily or tapes/tivos daily. Of course every now and then someone may not be able to watch or the vcr can malfuntion.

Ok so now you have this core audience (that has obviously dwindles every year) but then you have to factor in those who only watch occasionally. You know those you have their soap or two they catch when they are sick or off from work. They won't tape it daily but when they catch it they catch it. Those are who fluctuate the ratings, I think. That is why Monday is always so high for soaps is because people are more likely to call in sick from work/school on a Monday. It has nothing to do with what the soaps are airing on a Monday. Does that make sense? That's my feeling on it anyway lol

Yeah the snow may help. I do somewhat agree on your points about Days,especially since the nielson box people can be fickle. I agree on the people being busy part but I think with Soapnet around people feel as though they can just watch Days on that. I would love to see the ratings Days gets on Soapnet because I really think they, along with the other soapnet shows, would be at least a little higher.

As for my thinking, most people agreed that Thursday's Days was incredible and very emotional. The previews on Wednesday may not have done it justice and that may be why but I doubt it. I think many watched on Soapnet or some other way. This was not my thinking-this episode got raves from people that aren;t even happy with Days at the moment so it doesn;t make sense for it to be the lowest rated episode of the week. The good news is Days drew pretty solid numbers the rest of the week so hopefully that is a good sign for next week's numbers and for this week's demos and such. I know ratings on Friday are always higher but I can't understand how Days got a better rating Friday for a good show but a 2.4 for a great show. Maybe people just didn't think it would be that good. All I know is I am through with the ratings-Days and ATWT deserve better. The good newsfor Days is once sweeps is over and all the big events and guest stars leave the ABC soaps will drop back to normal and most of the soaps will be neck and neck again.

I agree about Soapnet. I agree about ABC and they will probably drop. Spin it anyway you want but sweeps do matter. I doubt NBC cares that JER can be "good" during non-sweep periods. That's not how they make money.

I disagree about the *raves* for Days. I haven't seen many people *raving* about the show for weeks. For the record, I found last week boring and borderline tacky with Thursday's show the worse of the lot.

I'm of course loving the AMC numbers...With the explosion this week - I'm only hoping it reaches 3.0! I'm a little surprised OLTL jumped as much, but nice to see GH with the 3.0! Hell yeah ABCD! What's happened to ATWT? It was doing really well for awhile...

I think OLTL ratings will be pretty good..judging from the dailie's!!

I agree ratings don't always reflect quality but I don't think it is fair to disect day to day ratings saying more people should watch on that day or that day. How the hell would most people know to tune in on Thursday rather than Friday? It's like when people would say look GL lowest day was from Jeffrey was on. I hate Jeffrey but I really doubt people know ahead of time Jeffrey would be on Tuesday or whatever & not watch. IMO this is how I see it, all soaps have their core audience that watches daily or tapes/tivos daily. Of course every now and then someone may not be able to watch or the vcr can malfuntion.

Ok so now you have this core audience (that has obviously dwindles every year) but then you have to factor in those who only watch occasionally. You know those you have their soap or two they catch when they are sick or off from work. They won't tape it daily but when they catch it they catch it. Those are who fluctuate the ratings, I think. That is why Monday is always so high for soaps is because people are more likely to call in sick from work/school on a Monday. It has nothing to do with what the soaps are airing on a Monday. Does that make sense? That's my feeling on it anyway lol

Oh and NBC doesn't care as long as demos are good. I liek JER's strategy. I hate how all the other soaps just pull out everything for sweeps and the rest of the year slow down alot. Its smart because when all the other shows are falling from their gains from sweeps his shows can take advantage. As long as both NBC shows, especially Days, remains relatively steady and hold fan's interest like they have they will be in good position for after sweeps. Its also better too because there is less competition to deal with since in sweeps months all the shows are having big events so JER saving things for non-sweeps creates more impact since there is less competition from other shows up against it.

I do agree but I am just surprised some of the audience that watched Zach's death didn't tune in to see the funeral. Maybe they got confused and thought the funeral was Friday. I don't know its just strange that an epsiode like that wouldn't get a decent number. I know people don't know when to tune in but usually they will know what days of the week are good or not. I mean a 2.4 on Thursday means that alot of people that are normal Days fans didn't even tune in unless they did on Soapnet and that is why I found it odd. A 2.4 was just lower then I ever thought. Its a shame because people always wanted this kind of storytelling from Days and they give it out in spades and the ratings drop.

I agree about Soapnet. I agree about ABC and they will probably drop. Spin it anyway you want but sweeps do matter. I doubt NBC cares that JER can be "good" during non-sweep periods. That's not how they make money.

I disagree about the *raves* for Days. I haven't seen many people *raving* about the show for weeks. For the record, I found last week boring and borderline tacky with Thursday's show the worse of the lot.

I would love to know Days and the ABC soaps ratings on Soapnet. I do know that Days has not gotten better then a 3.2 rating since they debuted on Soapnet so I am curious to see how much they draw, especially for last Thursday's episode. That 2.4 is really bugging me.

As for people raving, you must not have been around this board last week because every day last week had a Days thread praising it, especially for Thursday's episode. In fact, Days has been getting alot of praise for awhile now especially so far this year and on this very board. As for some of last week being boring, I could see why you would think that but Days is doing the aftermath of Zach's death superbly. I will admit though that Tuesday and Wedbesday of last week were rather dull but the rest was awesome. As for Thursday, I can't see how an emotional family funeral could be tacky so I will disagree big time there. Thursday's show was one of the best and most emotional Days I have ever seen.

As for people raving, you must not have been around this board last week because every day last week had a Days thread praising it, especially for Thursday's episode. In fact, Days has been getting alot of praise for awhile now especially so far this year and on this very board. As for some of last week being boring, I could see why you would think that but Days is doing the aftermath of Zach's death superbly. I will admit though that Tuesday and Wedbesday of last week were rather dull but the rest was awesome. As for Thursday, I can't see how an emotional family funeral could be tacky so I will disagree big time there. Thursday's show was one of the best and most emotional Days I have ever seen.

This board was raving. I don't see much raving across the net. Sorry. We will have to agree to disagree about the quality of Days writing. The current storylines have proven to me once and for all that JER and his minions are worthless tacky hacks incapable of any subtlety or structure whatsoever.

So, you admit that, IYO, Tuesday and Wednesday were dull. Maybe most viewers thought Wednesday and Thursday were the dullest days of the week since they produced the lowest ratings. Just because you think this or that show was good doesn't mean the ones with the ratings boxes do as well.

As for people raving, you must not have been around this board last week because every day last week had a Days thread praising it, especially for Thursday's episode. In fact, Days has been getting alot of praise for awhile now especially so far this year and on this very board.

There may have been threads praising Days on this board, but if you look around the net, there is widespread dissastisfaction with the current storylines.

Marlena/John/Alex: The vast majority find this storyline incredibly boring

Sami/Lucas/Austin/Carrie: rehash generating little interest

Jennifer/Frankie: Honestly, does anyone care???

Days has been getting some praise for the Zack storyline but the prospect of it degenerating into a Bo/Billie/Hope/Patrick quadrangle is not going to bring in viewers.

I know YOU think the quality of Days' has improved significantly and I am not (in this thread) going to argue with that. However, to claim that the accompanying poor rating implies a flaw in the system is a non-sequitur. The mediocre rating does not in any way contradict the viewpoint of a significant majority of viewers.

ATWT

Monday 2.7

Tuesday 2.6

Wednesday 2.6

Thursday 2.7

Friday 2.4

OUCH!

What's happened to ATWT? It was doing really well for awhile...

In a nutshell: Will and Gwen overdose.

I do agree but I am just surprised some of the audience that watched Zach's death didn't tune in to see the funeral. Maybe they got confused and thought the funeral was Friday. I don't know its just strange that an epsiode like that wouldn't get a decent number. I know people don't know when to tune in but usually they will know what days of the week are good or not. I mean a 2.4 on Thursday means that alot of people that are normal Days fans didn't even tune in unless they did on Soapnet and that is why I found it odd. A 2.4 was just lower then I ever thought. Its a shame because people always wanted this kind of storytelling from Days and they give it out in spades and the ratings drop.

I would love to know Days and the ABC soaps ratings on Soapnet. I do know that Days has not gotten better then a 3.2 rating since they debuted on Soapnet so I am curious to see how much they draw, especially for last Thursday's episode. That 2.4 is really bugging me.

As for people raving, you must not have been around this board last week because every day last week had a Days thread praising it, especially for Thursday's episode. In fact, Days has been getting alot of praise for awhile now especially so far this year and on this very board. As for some of last week being boring, I could see why you would think that but Days is doing the aftermath of Zach's death superbly. I will admit though that Tuesday and Wedbesday of last week were rather dull but the rest was awesome. As for Thursday, I can't see how an emotional family funeral could be tacky so I will disagree big time there. Thursday's show was one of the best and most emotional Days I have ever seen.

I am sure DAYS is SOAPnets highest rated soap. It's on at 7:00pm and that's the ideal timeslot, before the networks start their primetime lineup at 8:00pm

whatever.

A couple of observations...

ABC had a very good week due to big events on virtually the entire line-up. However, as has been pointed out, ABC will likely come crashing back to more normal viewing levels over the next two to three weeks. That is the challenge of any soap writer: create sensational stories for sweeps, but also entice these viewers to stay around after sweeps are over. Only time will tell if Megan McTavish (AMC), Dena Higley (OLTL) and Charles Pratt, Jr. & Bob Guza, Jr. (GH) can achieve that target.

Sweeps do matter. No matter of spin can lessen the importance of February, May, and November. The networks use the ratings for these months to calculate advertiser rates. Advertising pays the bills so the more you charge, the more you make. If James E. Reilly cannot deliver improvement during the sweeps - or at least maintain the status quo - than the powers that be at NBC Daytime should consider a replacement.

Concerning the ratings for ATWT, while a small slump is evident, the ratings are made to look far more serious because the other soaps ahead of it (i.e. the ABC soaps) had an exceptional week. On most weeks, the majority of the soaps - except Y&R, B&B, GL, and "Passions" - are usually seperated by .1 or .2 of a ratings point. A key factor into ATWT's recent slump may be a lack of any "big event" happening. Since this is a sweeps month, the biggest stories seem to be the arrival of new character Jade and central character Luke wrestling with his sexual identity. Couple that with the six-week hiatus of popular actor Marc Collier (who plays Mike), and the recipe for ratings declines is in place.