Ratings from the 80's

[kalbir]

Remember CBS had given up 4 pm ET in September 1986 so the only way CBS could've kept Capitol and premiered B&B is by ending $25,000 Pyramid. CBS would not drop Card Sharks a little over a year into its run or move it away from being the lead in to The Price is Right and risk incurring the wrath of Mark Goodson (it was alleged that Mark Goodson demanded CBS give Card Sharks the lead in to The Price is Right in January 1986 or he would take both shows to another network).

A hypothetical CBS schedule March 1987 could have been

10 am Capitol

10:30 am Card Sharks

11 am The Price is Right

Noon Local programming

12:30 pm Y&R

1:30 pm B&B

2 pm As the World Turns

3 pm Guiding Light

Who knows how long Capitol would have lasted in an early morning slot because clearances would still be an issue.

I think you meant to put series premiere for B&B and new time for As the World Turns.

That 3rd-6th tier is showing lots of movement w/ supercouple Days, All My Children, One Life to Live, As the World Turns.

B&B is in pretty much the same place where Capitol ended.

[JAS0N47]

I fixed that error within seconds. Surprised you had time to see it, since I replaced the chart almost immediately!  

[Gray Bunny]

Dang, B&B beat GL right out of the gate. GL slipped way down that week. 

[TEdgeofNight]

Incompetent Joe Willmore killing GL. I remember Chris Bernau commenting on the Paul Valere murder. Chris said 'who the F is Paul Valere'?? Sheri Anderson and her then husband Joe Manetta doing a disservice to Guiding Light by tanking the ratings.

[MichaelGL]

OLTL is definitely a force to be reckoned with in ratings department. 

Edited October 9, 2023 by MichaelGL

[watson71]

Don’t forget AW was in the middle of the Sin Stalker serial killer storyline, and the Sin Stalker tired to kill Crystal Gayle during this week before she sang sang the new theme song with Gary Morris on Friday’s episode.

[AbcNbc247]

And still, that did nothing for AW. 

It's just crazy to me that, especially with all the exits and other changes, literally nothing worked for them. 

[kalbir]

Looking at GL ratings, Pamela Long cannot return fast enough. 

GL was in a really bad way ratings-wise from 1986 until the end of the decade yet its amazing that it didn't enter cancel territory in that time.

I personally liked the Robert Calhoun era but the ratings didn't reflect the improvement in the show.

[GLATWT88]

Wow Guiding Light is such a mess. I'm surprised it has weakened so quickly. 

I've noticed that the spring ratings after Feb sweeps tend to be quite low all around. 

[soapfave06]

I see OLTL did better in the rankings than the actual ratings. All the soaps trended down where OLTL simply remained about the same despite Tina going over the falls and Viki going to Heaven. 
 

B&B premiered quite steady in the ratings-I wonder how that compares to other new soap ratings?

[Franko]

One other option, although clearances would likely be a tremendous issue, is having Capitol in the 12 p.m. slot. The problem is that unlike ABC and NBC, CBS traditionally always left a half-hour available to the affiliates. So, really, Capitol's conclusion was a fait accompli. 

[Khan]

I think that's because Ed Trach still believed in GL, even though others at PGP and at CBS probably wanted it gone.

[Gray Bunny]

I noticed that, too. The same could be said for DAYS in the mid 90's when they suddenly became the No. 2 soap because others around them (GH, AMC, B&B, etc.) fell harder in the OJ era. 

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS (FAST NATIONALS): WEEK OF 4/20/87-4/24/87:

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 4/27/87-5/1/87 & 5/4/87-5/8/87:

[kalbir]

The big departure week on Days as per earlier post in this thread. Deidre Hall, Peter Reckell, Kristian Alfonso all moved on to primetime.

There was a drop in the next week ratings. Lets see how long its takes for the second part of supercouple Days (Steve/Kayla years) to take off.