Ratings from the 80's

[VanessaReardon]

Week ending 8/7/1987

no pre-emptions

Y&R and AMC 7.1

OLTL 6.9

GH 6.6

DOOL 6.3

ATWT 6.2

GL 5.5

B&B 5.2

AW 4.9

SB 4.6

LOV 4

RH 2.6

 

8/14/1987

AMC and Y&R 7.5

DOOL 7

OLTL 6.9

GH 6.6

ATWT 6.4

B&B 5.3

AW and GL 5

SB 4.7

LOV 4.1

RH 2.8

 

8/21/1987

Y&R 7.8

AMC 7.3

OLTL 7.2

GH 7.1

DOOL 6.7

ATWT 6.6

B&B 5.6

GL 5.4

AW and SB 4.6

LOV 4.5

RH 2.7

 

8/28/1987

Y&R OLTL and AMC 7.6 

Y&R had a 27 share, OLTL 26 share and AMC 25

GH 6.9

DOOL 6.4

ATWT 6.2

GL 5.6

B&B 5.5

AW 4.5

SB and LOV 4.3

RH 2.9

 

9/4/1987

Y&R 7.5

AMC 7

OLTL 6.9

GH 6.7

ATWT 6.6

DOOL 6.4

GL 5.4

B&B 5.3

AW 4.6

SB 4.3

LOV 4

RH 2.8

 

9/11/1987

AMC 7

Y&R OLTL and GH 6.9 Y&R had a 28 share and OLTL and GH had a 24 share

ATWT 6.6

DOOL 6.1

B&B 5.5

GL 5.3

AW 4.5

SB 4.3

LOV 4.1

RH 2.9

 

9/18/1987

Nielsen introduced People Meters, which helped ABC

GH 7.9

OLTL 7.7

AMC 7.4

Y&R 6.3

DOOL 6.1

ATWT 5.6

GL 5.4

SB 4.6

AW 4.5

B&B 4.2

LOV 4.1

RH 3.2

 

9/25/1987

GH 8

OLTL 7.7

AMC 7.5

Y&R 6.8

DOOL 6.2

ATWT 5.3

GL 5

AW and SB 4.6

LOV 4.4

B&B 4.1

RH 3.2

 

Edited November 25, 2019 by VanessaReardon

[VanessaReardon]

10/2/1987

CBS starts to bounce back with People Meters

GH 7.8

Y&R AMC OLTL 7.7 Y&R had a higher share

DOOL 6.7

ATWT 6.2

GL 6

B&B 4.7

SB 4.6

AW 4.4

LOV 4.3

RH 2.9

 

10/9/1987

Y&R 7.8

OLTL 7.7

AMC and GH 7.6

ATWT and DOOL 6

GL 5.6

B&B 4.9

AW and SB 4.4

LOV 4.1

RH 2.9

 

10/23/1987

I don’t have 10/16/1987

GH 7.8

AMC 7.6

Y&R and OLTL 7.4 Y&R had a higher share

DOOL 6.4

ATWT 6.1

GL 5.5

B&B 4.9

AW 4.6

SB 4.5

LOV 4.2

RH 3

 

10/30/1987

GH 7.9

OLTL 7.6

AMC 7.5

Y&R 7.4

DOOL 6.5

ATWT 6.1

GL 5.8

B&B 4.9

SB 4.8

AW 4.7

LOV 4

RH 2.8

 

11/6/1987

GH 7.9

OLTL 7.8

AMC 7.4

Y&R 7.3

DOOL 6.6

ATWT 6.1

GL 5.7

SB 5

B&B 4.8

AW 4.6

LOV 4.3

RH 3.1

 

11/13/1987

Y&R 8.6

AMC and GH 8.1

OLTL 8

DOOL 7.2

ATWT 6.5

GL 6.1

B&B 5.5

SB 5.1

AW 5

LOV 4.4

RH 3.3

11/20/1987

GH 7.8

Y&R and OLTL 7.7 Y&R had a 29 share, OLTL 27

AMC 7.6

DOOL 6.8

ATWT 6.2

GL 6.1

SB 5.1

B&B 4.9

AW 4.8

LOV 4.2

RH 2.8

 

 

 

[AbcNbc247]

Thanks for posting!

 

I never knew SB beat B&B, and poor AW, all those changes in 86-87 and they did nothing for the show.

[Gray Bunny]

Summer of '87 and onward sure had some funky numbers and changes at the top rankings. 

[beebs]

It's so jarring seeing B&B down at #11. It's almost as though CBS viewers forgot to turn their boxes on or something? Bizarre!

[Khan]

Sheila's arrival (from Y&R) really helped B&B in a BIG way.

[Melroser]

I don't remember SB ever beating AW. Damn....that disappoints me. 

[rlj]

I think that was due to the Max/Tina/Cord/Kate sl and the remotes

Jason Kincaid came before Holmes as Tom

[kalbir]

What lead to H. Wesley Kenney leaving Y&R? I don't recall reading about him and Bill Bell having any type of falling out like Bill Bell had w/ John Conboy 5 years earlier. Like I've said before, H. Wesley Kenney is really the one who laid all the groundwork for Y&R as we know it today, but Ed Scott gets all the credit.

 

 

Consider a couple of things. 1987-1990 B&B was head-to-head w/ supercouple era Days, plus B&B wasn't carried by all CBS affiliates until well into the 1990s. Sheila plus full affiliate clearance kept B&B going when it was head-to-head w/ Reilly Sci-Fi era Days.

 

Edited November 26, 2019 by kalbir

[BetterForgotten]

To me, B&B didn’t really kickoff until the arrival of the Spectra’s (Sally in particular).

[Paul Raven]

Wes Kenney was offered a bucket load of money to move to GH  and admitted it was an offer to good to refuse.

 

Hopefully Bill Bell was OK with it. He faced a similar situation when he parted ways with Irna Phillips to move to Days.

Edited November 26, 2019 by Paul Raven

[pdm1974]

Wow...it's great to see that SB really had some upward momentum at one point. With a timeslot NOGT against GH, I think it would have done either better. When SB was good, it was on fire!

[Gray Bunny]

In general, it seems like a lull for soaps in '87 with the No. 1 shows (Y&R, GH) mostly staying in the 7's. 

[will81]

Yeah I noticed Y&R's ascent to #1 had a lot more to do with it maintaining its audience as opposed to gaining a whole lot, while other shows dropped. I think there was an increase in the early 90's (about 90-93) that got stifled by the OJ Simpson trial.

Yeah agreed. Just watching the episodes from 87-89 that are around, it starts to feel like B&B once Sally arrives on the scene.

[Gray Bunny]

 

Yep! A lot of soaps were actually on an upswing in '93 and early '94 that got halted by OJ interruptions.  Y&R had a few weeks in the 9's in early '94.