Ratings from the 80's

[JAS0N47]

Fans will have to do that research on their own like you did. I eventually will figure out and post the ranking of Days each week on my site, but I don't have a way of checking each soap's weekly ranking, other than the weekly chart check like you just did. 

[JAS0N47]

I was shocked as well to see Days tied YR for 1st on 8/1/88. I only knew Days hit first place on 7/25/88. So, it was actually 1st place (alone, then tied) for two weeks in a row!  Fun to finally have all of the weekly 1980's data finally available! I'm typing up September 1989 charts today, so this is the day the charts are fully complete through when Soap Opera Weekly started posting them. And, since I post a month of ratings each day here, then fans worldwide will have access through September 1989 within the next 2 weeks! And the remaining data from October 1989-Present is already available.

Edited October 27, 2023 by JAS0N47

[Soapsuds]

There are a few weeks missing from October and November of 1989. 

[kalbir]

Same here.

Kids are back in school, so there's going to be a drop in the fall.

GL was very fortunate that Capitol didn't show growth and B&B wasn't a hit right away, that's how it escaped cancel territory in the second half of the 1980s.

[JAS0N47]

Yes, I know 3 weeks are not in SOW from October 1989, November 1989 and January 1990. I was just speaking in general terms, "pretty much" every week will be available once I post September 1989 here in a few weeks. Then a few days after that, once I post through January 1990, every week will be available from January 1979-Present except for 8/24/81!

[kalbir]

September 5, 1988 Live with Regis and Kathie Lee goes national. At this point we're at two years of Oprah and one year of Geraldo.

Among the lowest tier soaps, Santa Barbara clearance now 97% (down from 99% at one year of Oprah and Geraldo debut), Loving clearance now 88% (down from 89% at one year of Oprah and Geraldo debut), and Ryan's Hope clearance now 79% (down from 81% at one year of Oprah and Geraldo debut).

The writer's strike ended August 5, 1988 so strike material is probably on until October I'd guess.

Edited October 28, 2023 by kalbir

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 9/12/88-9/16/88 & 9/19/88-9/23/88:

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 9/26/88-9/30/88 & 10/3/88-10/7/88:

[kalbir]

Fall 1988, Y&R and General Hospital battling for #1 and by the end of the year Y&R takes over #1.

One Life to Live, All My Children, Days, As the World Turns are jockeying for position. Days somehow is not maintaining their summer momentum.

As the World Turns EP change in October from Robert Calhoun to Laurence Caso.

Guiding Light still struggling. Three pivotal events are coming up: Maureen Garrett return in December, Michael Zaslow return in January 1989, EP change from Joe Willmore to Robert Calhoun in June 1989. Those cannot happen fast enough.

B&B not yet a hit, but once Darlene Conley arrives in December, B&B will hit its stride.

[JoeCool]

Ryan's Hope's cancellation will be announced at the end of October 1988..it should have been canceled about 2 to 3 years before. You can see the clearance issues really affecting Loving and RH.

Agnes Nixon returns to AMC in the fall of 1988 and overhauls the soap and its ratings slowly improve to where AMC finishes No. 4 for the 88-89 season then No. 3 the following season.

 

DAYS will be affected by AMC's improvement.

 

OLTL will finish out 1988 strong but in 1989 will be begin to decline as ATWT gets stronger.  GH will begin its descent to Number 2 then to Number 3..the adventure stories on GH fizzle and the ratings take a hit.

Edited October 28, 2023 by JoeCool

[kalbir]

Ryan's Hope was effectively over in 1983 when Y&R blew up.

[JoeCool]

Exactly. ABC should have canceled RH in 1983. Moved AMC to 12:30 and put Loving at 1:30PM as Agnes Nixon wanted. The Labines told ABC no when ABC wanted to expand RH to an hour and then wanted to buy it back after ABC bought it. ABC made a mess of their late morning schedule.

[Soapsuds]

ATWT:

Social issue storylines with Lien and Hank.

Tom finds Margo and learns the whole truth about why she left and her pregnancy.

Margo returns to Oakdale.

Margo and Tom pass off Adam as his son.

The Oakdale community is suspicious of Margo excuse for her absence.

A new variation of the theme song on and on premieres.

The show was awful. Dipping to #8 in the ratings again. 

The theme song is awful too. Thank goodness it changed soon.

[JAS0N47]

Oh, Darlene wasn't an original cast member from March 1987? I just always figured she was.

[Paul Raven]

Days drop points to a weakness in the storytelling. The supercouple formula saw Days hit #1 with Patch/Kayla wedding hype then drop off because there was little of interest outside of that. 

Whereas Y&R went to #1 with a variety of stories and ongoing plotlines.

[kalbir]

Darlene Conley first episode was actually January 17, 1989. I think Sally was first mentioned in 1988, that's probably why I thought she arrived in December that year.