Ratings from the 80's

[JoeCool]

It seems that DAYS went up 0.5 in the ratings and AMC was up a small amount 0.2. I do not understand the significant drop for Restless. I know Bill Bell fought the expansion with CBS for over a year until CBS told him we are doing the expansion with or with you, Bill. Bill Bell relented.

[Broderick]

There really wasn't much "eventually" to it.  Its rapid rise really began after the first year.  

I believe it finished the 1972/1973 season in dead last place (#17), as it had only aired for 6 months that season.  By the end of the 1973/1974 season, it was in 13th place, then 9th for the 1974/1975 season, and then a solid #3 for the 1975/1976 season, behind only As the World Turns and Another World, and it was in striking distance of both those shows.

As others have noted, it was written by a fairly young man who had 15-20 years of experience in the industry and who knew what people liked.  It was a polished, slick, stylized production, with attractive actresses and actors, it had "hip, modern" music, and it introduced topics that hadn't been explored before on daytime (mostly of a sexual nature).  But underneath all of that, it was as old-fashioned as you could get -- basically just a dusted-off version of a 1950s Irna Phillips show, with more contemporary storylines and dialogue,  moody lighting, and a leisurely, languid, laid-back California-style pacing that drew you in and made you listen to what they were saying.  Watching the show in its half-hour days was a fairly "hypnotic" experience that completely differentiated it from anything else on television at the time; yet it never strayed far from a formula that had worked for 20 years.  It was simply the right product for the right time.  

There's no question that it faltered for a couple of years after expanding to an hour, but once it regrouped, you'll see it rapidly rise right back to the top where it had been prior to expansion.   

    

[JAS0N47]

 

1979-1980 TV Season Demos (as of January 13, 1980)

 

Second chart is ranked by Male Viewers. "Days" is # 1 while YR is actually all the way at the bottom (just above Love of Life)

 

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[JAS0N47]

 

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 2/11/80-2/15/80 & 2/18/80-2/22/80:

 

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[GLATWT88]

Wow, Guiding Light really wasn't messing around, considering the popularity of GH. 

[Soapsuds]

GL doing very well. I enjoyed it better than ATWT at the time.

[JoeCool]

All My Children very strong Number 1...Daisy and Palmer! Cliff and Nina. Nina's masquerade costume birthday party!! Y&R struggling after the time change and expansion but still strong. AW beginning its descent and ATWT no longer Number 1 but still strong.

[kalbir]

This was around the time that Douglas Marland became HW, correct?

[JoeCool]

Yes. Marland became the HW of GL in 1979. Marland was also HW of GH in 1978. He set the stories with Gloria Monty for GH's resurrection in 1978.

Edited June 12, 2023 by JoeCool

[BetterForgotten]

Thanks! Interesting, I think the article I read that tidbit from was from the 90’s, so maybe demographics shifted over time?

[Planet Soap]

I used the term "eventually" and hesitated to say "rapid" because I remember Bill Bell wanting to cancel the show as it didn't do well at first.

What factors do you all think lead ATWT to loose It's number one spot and not make it back into the top three for the 80s? From what I see with the yearly soap opera ratings on Wikipedia, AMC overtook them first in '78, 5hen GH solidified the number one spot by '79 (the obvious answer being Gloria Monty's changes). ATWT wasn't listed as reaching into the top three for the remainder of the decade.

Edited June 13, 2023 by Planet Soap

[Paul Raven]

Why did ATWT lose its status?

A number of factors I think. Looking at the story synopses and 1979 episodes posted the show was looking pretty dull and tired story and production wise. There were a lot of older characters and the younger cast acted the same as their elders and were conservatively dressed and made up. The scenes were slow and long.

Meanwhile ABC were offering up faster pacing and better production values. AMC had successfully introduced Cliff and Nina as their new front burner couple-two brand new young characters that younger viewers could hook onto in a larger than life story.

Gloria Monty had introduced tape editing so there were no more traditional longer scenes at GH. How long was it before the other ABC soaps followed suit?

ABC began heavy promotion and hype. Even though the big 3 ABC soaps had all been around for years they had modernized and seemed 'new'.

CBS made a change with the Dobsons moving to ATWT which seemed a good idea but the stories never really gelled.

Then there was a timeslot change and for the first time ATWT was not slotted at 1.30 pm .that would have upset some viewer patterns.

[kalbir]

ABC was the new hotness in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

We'll see from the mid-1980s until the end of the decade the ABC big three get toppled one-by-one by Y&R.

[JoeCool]

Very True. I bet ABC regretted passing on Y&R. ABC wanted to focus on AMC and OLTL. Imagine if Y&R was on ABC..GH probably would have been canceled.

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 2/25/80-2/29/80 & 3/3/80-3/7/80:

 

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