Ratings from the 80's

[Gray Bunny]

Side note: While Another World was never gangbusters in the Nielsens after the late 70's, you have to hand it to them for pulling themselves back into the 5's and staying there for a long time, even as the heavy hitters in the top half are losing steam. 

[JAS0N47]

PREEMPTION DATA CONFIRMED FOR THE TWO "MISSING WEEKS" IN 1991...ALL PREEMPTION DATA TO BE AVAILABLE FOR JANUARY 1979-MAY 1992 (except one week in 1981)

Santa Barbara had one preemption during the two consecutive "missing weeks" of 5/20/91 and 5/27/91. A quick check of newspapers confirms that SB was preempted on 5/27/91 for NBA Playoffs. So, with that, we have the full preemption data for all soaps from January 1979-May 1992 (missing just the week of 8/24/81).

Exact data on PARTIAL preemptions will not be available for the fast weekly weeks (4 per year) from 1979-1987, but all FULL preemptions will now be known for soap history fans!

Telecasts (should all be 15 more telecasts if no preemptions during the weeks of 5/20/91, 5/27/91, 6/3/91)
As of 5/17/91-6/7/91
AMC 159-174
AW 159-174
ATWT 165-180
BB 164-179
DAYS 158-173
GH 161-176
GL 160-175
LOV 161-176
OLTL 160-175
SB 157-171  (1 preemption during the two missing weeks of 5/20/91 and 5/27/91)
YR 168-183

Edited October 10, 2023 by JAS0N47

[YRfan23]

Truly amazing!!

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 this is so exciting and we can’t thank you enough for all you are doing. 

[Soapsuds]

The numbers for GL were horrendous and had them sitting at #8.

Edited October 10, 2023 by Soapsuds

[te.]

Ryan's Hope is really suffering from lack of clearances now - it's dropped down into the lower 2s permanently and their clearances are now in the lower 80s percentile. 

[Gray Bunny]

@JAS0N47 I'm curious to see how Nielsen's new usage of People Meters will affect the numbers, as I believe this went into effect in September of 1987.  Do you know the issue/controversy around the change? I seem to recall in another thread that it benefitted ABC more so than the other networks. 

[JAS0N47]

You're in luck, since there was some overlap at the beginning of September 1987. There's a few weeks where they issued books with the old numbers, but also issued books with the new numbers, and the results are quite different between the two. I was only going to post the "official" numbers when it came time for that, but since you asked, I will post both sets of numbers: the old system vs. the new system, so your questions will be answered then once we get to September 1987.

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 5/11/87-5/15/87 & 5/18/87-5/22/87:

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 5/25/87-5/29/87 & 6/1/87-6/5/87:

[JoeCool]

All My Children ties GH for Number 1! Competition in the top 5 is fierce.

[JAS0N47]

The primetime charts for the 1960's and 1970's are arriving much quicker than the daytime charts, so if you have any interest or want a specific soap or other primetime show posted from those decades, check out the appropriate thread (I posted once in the '60s daytime thread, but I also posted in the primetime soaps thread, so I guess that would be the more appropriate place for this discussion). 

[Soapsuds]

ATWT numbers will start to trend upwards again with Lily's true parentage being revealed and Craig and Betsy's airplane crashing. It reaches #2 while the other soaps numbers fall.

GL continues to struggle.

[GLATWT88]

Bold is doing okay. It's pretty much getting Capitol's numbers, but in a different timeslot. GL being outperformed by Bold some weeks is crazy. 

 

[Soapsuds]

Bold getting Capitol numbers was bad. ATWT numbers in that timeslot were much higher. CBS gave BB tons of time to gain viewership and iMO hurt ATWT and GL /entire CBS lineup.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Soapsuds

[beebs]

Yeah, you notice almost instantly ATWT suffers from having B&B as its lead-in as opposed to Y&R. While I recognize there's a major drop-off in everyone's ratings, its impact on ATWT would likely have been lesser had they remained at 1:30, considering their ranking pre-vs. post B&B.

[Soapsuds]

I think someone mentioned that WJB threatened to take YR to another network if BB didn't get ATWT timeslot.

I would've said go head. YR would've lost viewers had it changed networks.

[GLATWT88]

Wow, that's quite the statement. I mean NBC would have happily taken YR, but I don't necessarily see it fitting with the rest of the lineup.