Ratings from the 80's

[kalbir]

General Hospital and Y&R are clearly the top 2 in 1986.

3rd to 6th tier I think will show lots of movement between All My Children, One Life to Live, Days, As the World Turns. 

7th through 9th tier will be Guiding Light, Capitol, Another World.

The bottom tier will be Santa Barbara, Loving, Ryan's Hope, Search for Tomorrow. I think 1986 Santa Barbara overtakes Loving for 10th and that's the highest it will ever finish AFAIK. I don't believe Santa Barbara ever got past Another World in either the weekly ratings or the annual ratings.

Edited September 25, 2023 by kalbir

[Contessa Donatella]

@Errol @TEdgeofNight I have posted no blogs, personal or otherwise. 

[GLATWT88]

@JAS0N47 If possible, would you be able to post the demos for GL for the weeks of 12/16-20/1985 and 12/30/1985 - 1/3/1986. The week between Christmas and NYE give all the soaps a real boost each year and I'm curious to see who is making up these numbers. GL in particular tends to perform really well, even this year when its numbers have been mediocre in the weeks leading up to. 

 

[kalbir]

I'd say kids off school. There's also boosts for spring break and summer.

[j swift]

But, they are not reporting the ratings for people under 18....

[kalbir]

There's also college students on school breaks.

[GLATWT88]

I was figuring working women as well, but I wasn't sure so wanted to look at the numbers - but you're probably right about kids home from school. 

[JAS0N47]

 

They only ever show the average of the two-week books, so here are the GL demos (2-week averages) for the weeks of 12/9/85-12/13/85 & 12/16/85-12/20/85 and 12/30/85-1/3/86 & 1/6/86-1/10/86:

 

GL DEMOS:

 

12/9/85-12/13/85 & 12/16/85-12/20/85

6.9 rating; 22 share; 5,930,000 viewers

 

TOTAL PEOPLE: 1310

LADY OF HOUSE: 738

WORKING WOMAN: 118

 

TOTAL WOMEN: 857

18-34: 214

18-49: 428

25-54: 357

35-64: 432

55+: 375

 

TOTAL MEN: 286

18-34: 76

18-49: 160

25-54: 130

35-64: 139

55+: 111

 

TOTAL TEENS (12-17): 127

TEEN GIRLS: 79

TEEN BOYS: 48

 

TOTAL KIDS (2-11): 40

2-5: 27

6-11: 13

 

12/30/85-1/3/86 & 1/6/86-1/10/86:

7.7 rating; 23 share; 6,610,000 viewers

 

TOTAL PEOPLE: 1386

LADY OF HOUSE: 785

WORKING WOMAN: 140

 

TOTAL WOMEN: 906

18-34: 255

18-49: 468

25-54: 374

35-64: 432

55+: 376

 

TOTAL MEN: 201

18-34: 54

18-49: 93

25-54: 78

35-64: 104

55+: 90

 

TOTAL TEENS (12-17): 184

TEEN GIRLS: 127

TEEN BOYS: 57

 

TOTAL KIDS (2-11): 95

2-5: 47

6-11: 48

[BoldRestless]

What I think happened was some sites knew about the preemptions and some did not. I remember purchasing some DVDs for Y&R 1/31/86 and 2/4/86 which turned out to be the same episode, which I never understood until I realized 1/31 was preempted and, with the 1/28 preemption in addition, 2/4 was the actual airdate. 

 

I actually just looked at imdb again and the January and February dates have been corrected. This is probably because you posted about the two January preemptions several weeks ago in response to a question, in addition to posting the full ratings now I do see that imdb goes off track again for Y&R in September, because they don't have the US Open preemptions for 9/1 and 9/5. I don't think you confirmed those yet but I am reasonably sure on those from TV listings. 

[GLATWT88]

Thank you, @JAS0N47 Definitely much harder to guage as these were calculated over a two week period, but looking at these the biggest gainers were in the under 18 audience and women 18-34 and 18-49. I wonder if that working women number would have been higher if it was only for the one week during school holidays. 

Edited September 25, 2023 by GLATWT88

[Gray Bunny]

Nice healthy numbers sustained through February. 

It seems there would be many times at least through the end of the 90's that we'd see higher numbers for most of the soaps in January and February, due to massive snow storms, particularly on the east coast that meant lots of people staying home from work and school. 

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 3/24/86-3/28/86 & 3/31/86-4/4/86:

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 4/7/86-4/11/86 & 4/14/86-4/18/86:

[kalbir]

Y&R #1 again! From recaps, the big story culminating was Shawn/Lauren in San Francisco. John/Jill divorce was around this time. I believe John already learned about Jill/Jack affair and Jill shooting is coming soon.

Edited September 25, 2023 by kalbir

[soapfave06]

This is a fun few weeks on OLTL per recaps, the climax of the Dr. Polk murder, Tracy being captured and escaping, Tina and Viki fighting over Llanfair which Tina remodels, Tracy blowing up Llanfair during Tina’s party and Clint and Viki remarrying in mid-April, which assume gave them the additional boost to 7.9, although not much since the other soaps went down. 

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS (FAST NATIONALS): WEEK OF 4/21/86-4/25/86:

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 4/28/86-5/2/86 & 5/5/86-5/9/86: