Ratings from the 80's

[JAS0N47]

UPDATED CHART FOR WEEKS OF 11/11/85 & 11/18/85:

 

With this missing page arriving as part of the update, AMC, AW, ATWT and CAP stations & clearances are now available for the weeks of 11/11/85 & 11/18/85. Here is the updated chart, also now posted in place of the old one:

 

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I can only speak for "Days", but "Days" has only been preempted 3 times for Christmas (and that is counting if it falls on a weekend too, no preemptions on 12/22-12/23-12/24-12/26-12/27): The 3 Christmas Day preemptions were in 1997, 2000 and 2006. So, "Days" has pretty much always aired a new episode on Christmas Day.

 

https://jason47.com/days/preemptions.html

Edited October 8, 2023 by JAS0N47

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 2/23/87-2/27/87 & 3/2/87-3/6/87:

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 3/9/87-3/13/87 & 3/16/87-3/20/87:

[kalbir]

Y&R really fighting General Hospital for #1. Another big storyline of early 1987 was Jill launching Jabot Men's Line. Brenda Dickson run is winding down. Jess Walton takes over in June.

Capitol ends with 5.6 rating and 93% clearance. Let's see how B&B does in its first week.

As the World Turns moves back to 2 pm with the premiere of B&B at 1:30 pm. They'll be away from supercouple Days and All My Children, but will be fully head-to-head with One Life to Live.

6 months of Oprah and among the lowest tier soaps, Search for Tomorrow has ended, Santa Barbara clearance still 97%, Loving clearance still 91%, and Ryan's Hope clearance dropped from 86% to 81%. 

Edited October 8, 2023 by kalbir

[GLATWT88]

Wow, I didn't realize. I've not watched Days regularly so I wasn't aware. 

[Soapsuds]

ATWT #3 for a month either alone or tied with another soap. The show was solid.

[kalbir]

The combination of Robert Calhoun and Douglas Marland was at its creative peak in 1986 and 1987. No wonder Julianne Moore has always spoken highly of her time on As the World Turns.

[Khan]

It's insane to me that CAPITOL was cancelled despite being in the middle of the ratings pack.

[kalbir]

Capitol was a placeholder/time filler until Bill Bell had a second show ready. CBS even gave B&B the lead out from Y&R, that's how much faith they had in Bill Bell. Remember too that Y&R was on its way to toppling General Hospital for #1.

[Contessa Donatella]

And so, it is easy to see, even understand, how furious John Conboy was. 

[te.]

To be fair, Capitol had a very cushy time slot plus is a clear "hammock" despite being in the middle of the ratings pack (ie it slumps between As the World Turns and Guiding Light. The only real option for it to survive was to retain ATWT/GL's ratings - and even then CBS would've had to move it to make room for B&B.

[GLATWT88]

While timeslot was a critical part of soap success, the same can be said for BB. BB will replace Capitol, but it will never outpace Capitol at its peak even with a much stronger lead in from YR versus Capitol's ATWT. 

Personally, I feel CBS wasn't invested in Capitol as it did pretty well, but once it was certain it would be replaced they had no interest in supporting it. I think they had too much faith in Bell to create another massive YR

[kalbir]

B&B was head-to-head w/ second half of supercouple Days and second half of All My Children, plus it did not have full clearance, so there's some struggling in the early years.

From the annual ratings, B&B first moves past Days in 1990, then Days overtakes B&B in 1996, then B&B moves past Days in 1999. B&B would move past All My Children in 1996.

Edited October 9, 2023 by kalbir

[GLATWT88]

I know YR was nicely situated in its 12:30 timeslot in the east coast, but I wonder what it may have looked like if BB was placed at 12:30 and YR was head to head for the hour with Days and AMC. It clearly had no issues holding an audience, because its numbers were good. Although, the 12:30 slot didn't seem to be very successful for most half hour shows in the 80s and 90s. Not sure if being isolated from the rest of the lineup made it more difficult to grow. 

Also, would have been interesting to see what may have happened if CBS kept Capitol and had a 4 hour lineup. I wonder how they would have arranged that. 

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 3/23/87-3/27/87 & 3/30/87-4/3/87:

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 4/6/87-4/10/87 & 4/13/87-4/17/87:

Edited October 9, 2023 by JAS0N47

[AbcNbc247]

Damn. Not even Crystal Gayle and the new theme song helped out AW.

B&B doing well right from the very beginning