Ratings from the 80's

[Soapsuds]

CBS

 

I can't believe they let it go for Capitol of all soaps.

 

Once SFT moved to NBC I stopped watching it.

[Chris 2]

My mom watched SFT for 20 years. Once it went to NBC and it was up against Young and Restless, it was over for her. It didn’t help that our local affiliate didn’t carry it and she could only get it from a fuzzy out-of-market station.

 

Soaps viewing is built on habit, even more so than other shows. And once you break that habit via a network switch and timeslot changes, it’s a death sentence.

[Spoon]

I recall it was P&G who didn't like SFT at 2:30, CBS was content with SFT's performance at 2:30. P&G would rather have SFT die at 12:30 on NBC than be a solid player on CBS at 2:30.

 

Anyway if SFT did stay on CBS it would've eventually been cancelled for B&B anyway.

 

[kalbir]

Which show is worse in your opinion, Capitol or B&B?

 

Capitol served two purposes. CBS needed something young and glamorous to compete with ABC, and it was a time filler until Bill Bell had a second show ready. 

 

CBS approached Bill Bell in 1977 for a second show but for whatever reason he didn't have one ready until a decade later. If Bill Bell had a second show ready in 1977, we probably wouldn't have gotten GL expanding to one hour that year. I really think CBS wanted a second Bill Bell show to replace Search for Tomorrow in 1982 but early 1980s Y&R was in transition mode so Bill Bell was probably focused on getting Y&R settled at that time. Even if CBS kept Search for Tomorrow, it would have ended once Bill Bell had a second show ready to go.

Edited June 29, 2021 by kalbir

[Paul Raven]

July 86

At ABC, the daytime vice president, Jozie Emmerich, is taking steps to beef up 11 a.m.- noon, which has been plagued with low ratings and poor clearances. She confirmed last week that the network, pleased with the results of a two week trial run of the new Fame, Fortune & Romance, (11 -11:30 a.m.), has committed to 65 episodes (13 weeks) of the program. It will debut on Sept. 8, with repeats of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous continuing in the slot until then.

 

Fame, Fortune & Romance is being produced by the TeleRep unit, Television Program Enterprises (concept by Al Masini, who also created Lifestyles), will look similar to Lifestyles and will feature the same host, Robin Leach. The difference, Emmerich, is that Lifestyles sticks pretty much to "possession and travel" themes, while Fame will also explore personal relationships. In its two week run last month, Fame was averaging a little more than a 3 rating, said Emmerich.

 

In the second quarter, Lifestyles averaged a 2.4, which was an improvement over the 1.7 that Hot Streak had been averaging in that slot in the first quarter. ABC earlier announced that a new game show would debut at 11:30 a.m. on Aug. 18. Double Talk will replace New Love American Style, which was third from the bottom in the second quarter with a 2.3/10. Double Talk is a word game from Bob Stewart Productions, creator of $25,000 Pyramid on CBS.

 

Emmerich reported that other game show pilots being considered along with Double Talk will be kept in reserve as possible replacement shows. They include Comedy Club, from Lin Bolen, Bamboozle from Chuck Barris and Catch Phrase from Marty Pasetta. Other game shows in "early development" said Emmerich, are A Question of Scruples from Columbia, based on the board game, and Funny Business from Group W Productions.

 

Despite the changes in the morning lineup, Emmerich said most of the effort in daytime has been devoted to "keeping our serials strong." That seems to be paying off for the network's three hour long soaps, General Hospital, All My Children and One Life to Live, all of which were in the top five for the second quarter. But the network has one half hour soap, Ryan's Hope, that placed in the bottom five. Part of Ryan's problem is poor clearances (usually in the low 80% range), since many stations air a noon to I2:30 p.m.newscast that is more profitable. Emmerich told affiliates at their annual gathering in May that "we really believe in the future of [Ryan's]. Disappointing ratings are no deterrent to our commitment."

 

Last week she stressed that for the time being, the entire five program daytime serial block (the fifth show is the half -hour Loving, which airs after Ryan's at 12:30) was "inviolate." In the coming months, she said, an effort will be made on all the soaps to get "back to basics," and away from some of the "wild and woolly" storylines that have unfolded lately. "We really want to get back to the heart and core," she said, which means focusing on "love, romance and hope." In addition, she said, all the serials will bring back some characters that were popular but left.

Edited June 30, 2021 by Paul Raven

[Franko]

Off the top of my head, I know RH brought back Delia (once again played by Ilene Kristen) and Joe (now played by Walt Wiley), AMC brought back Nina (once again played by Taylor Miller) and GH brought back Robert and Tiffany (still played by Tristan Rogers and Sharon Wyatt, even if he wouldn't fully return until the following year). Who did LOVING and OLTL bring back?

[Chris 2]

Lee Patterson as Joe Riley’s twin, Tom Dennison?

[Max]

 

All of the discussion in this thread leads me to believe that Capitol was put together very hastily. CBS had wanted Bill Bell to produce a second soap for many years, but he of course wasn't ready to do so until the late-80s. At the same time, it seems quite clear that CBS was willing to keep SFT on its daytime schedule (until Bell's second soap was ready) on the condition that it air at the time CBS wanted it to air. But because P&G was giving CBS a lot of grief over the 2:30 P.M. timeslot, and also because SFT had older-skewing demos, CBS decided to cancel SFT altogether. Once that decision was made, CBS very quickly needed a replacement, and it made some sense to turn to John Conboy given his success at Y&R. Though Capitol's initial purpose was to be a time filler, I suspect CBS would have kept it once B&B was ready had Capitol performed considerably better in the Nielsen's. And even though Capitol was never really a soap that CBS wanted, it still embodied so much wasted potential, IMO. Though I haven't watched much of the soap, the episodes I did watch never captivated me. This is especially puzzling since--at least on paper--a soap about politics would seem to be a lot more interesting than a soap about the fashion industry.

 

Now, in Capitol's defense, CBS should have aired that soap at 1:30 P.M. during its entire run; sandwiching it between ATWT and GL just seemed odd. It's interesting to examine the history of the timeslots of the CBS soaps (for the Eastern Time Zone), which one can do by visiting this awesome website: http://daytimetvarchive.com/

 

For easy reference, I'll type out an abbreviated history of the CBS Daytime schedule throughout the 1980s, covering just the soaps:

 

SCHEDULE FROM 04/23/1979 TO 02/01/1980

12:00 P.M. to 12:30 P.M. - The Young and the Restless

12:30 P.M. to 01:00 P.M. - Search for Tomorrow

01:00 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. - Timeslot Given to Local Stations*

01:30 P.M. to 02:30 P.M. - As the World Turns

02:30 P.M. to 03:30 P.M. - Guiding Light

03:30 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - M*A*S*H (Reruns) / One Day at a Time (Reruns)*

04:00 P.M. to 04:30 P.M. - Love of Life [This soap's final timeslot.]

 

*NOTE: As I didn't wan't to "leave any gaps" in between the time when CBS's first and last soaps of the day aired, there obviously are some timeslots in the above schedule that were not reserved for soaps. As of 2/4/80, the half-hour given to local stations switched from its longtime 1:00 P.M. to 1:30 P.M. time period to the 12:00 P.M. to 12:30 P.M. slot, where it remains today. Regarding the M*A*S*H reruns, they last appeared on the CBS Daytime schedule on 9/7/79. Reruns for One Day at a Time aired from 3:30 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. from 9/10/79 to 2/1/80. These reruns assumed a new timeslot of 4:00 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. on 2/4/80.

 

SCHEDULE FROM 02/04/1980 TO 06/05/1981

12:30 P.M. to 01:00 P.M. - Search for Tomorrow

01:00 P.M. to 02:00 P.M. - The Young and the Restless

02:00 P.M. to 03:00 P.M. - As the World Turns

03:00 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - Guiding Light

 

SCHEDULE FROM 06/08/1981 TO 03/26/1982

12:30 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. - The Young and the Restless

01:30 P.M. to 02:30 P.M. - As the World Turns

02:30 P.M. to 03:00 P.M. - Search for Tomorrow

03:00 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - Guiding Light

 

SCHEDULE FROM 03/29/1982 TO 03/20/1987

12:30 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. - The Young and the Restless

01:30 P.M. to 02:30 P.M. - As the World Turns

02:30 P.M. to 03:00 P.M. - Capitol

03:00 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - Guiding Light

 

SCHEDULE FROM 03/23/1987 TO 09/18/2009

12:30 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. - The Young and the Restless

01:30 P.M. to 02:00 P.M. - The Bold and the Beautiful

02:00 P.M. to 03:00 P.M. - As the World Turns

03:00 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - Guiding Light

 

If you look at the history of the daytime soap ratings and rankings, one has to conclude that Y&R struggled somewhat with its expansion to 60 minutes. This fact is evident when one ascertains that the 1980-81 Season was the only season since (and including) 1975-76 in which Y&R did not rank among the five highest rated daytime soaps. I'm guessing the 6/8/81 timeslot change from 1:00 P.M. - 2:00 P.M. to 12:30 P.M. - 1:30 P.M. was made by CBS in hopes that Y&R would regain its footing.

 

I've previously mentioned being puzzled in regards to Capitol not airing at 1:30 P.M. But independent of Capitol's launch (which was a mistake, IMO), I'll now add my opinion that CBS erred in moving SFT all the way to 2:30 P.M. on 6/8/81; a less drastic move to 1:30 P.M. would have made more sense. I assume the end of ATWT's two decade dominance (which only ended some three years prior) had both CBS and P&G in a real panic, and TPTB thought that ATWT could make up some lost ground if it assumed its longstanding start time of 1:30 P.M.

 

Anyway, it was extremely unfortunate how SFT was screwed over by so many executives. CBS's attention in the early-80s was clearly focused on getting a new Bell soap on air ASAP and on improving the ratings of Y&R and ATWT. P&G was worried about not just ATWT but also the dire situation at AW. And NBC and P&G were absolutely foolish to think SFT wouldn't lose a massive portion of its audience upon switching networks (with the added burden of competing against Y&R). After some efforts to promote SFT during its first year on the network, NBC sadly subjected it to gimmick after gimmick.

 

Edited July 3, 2021 by Max

[robbwolff]

 

I never had the impression that Capitol was put together hastily. As I recollect, the Karpfs wrote the bible for Capitol in 1980 (I remember reading it online). There were a lot of characters that never made it to air. The bible was then rewritten at some point. CBS wasn’t just considering Capitol to replace Search for Tomorrow. There was a second soap in contention: Beverly Hills. I recall a Soap Opera Digest article from the summer of 1981 where they discussed rumors that Search was on the chopping block. And a few years prior to Capitol's debut, CBS had been toying with adding another soap to its lineup: Aaron's World.

[Max]

 

Thanks for your informative response. Since CBS was considering a number of soaps to either replace SFT or something else in its lineup, I find it interesting that the network kept Love of Life around for so long, as that soap was in the bottom tier of the ratings since the 1972-73 Season (save for a modest improvement in rank during the 1975-76 Season). While LOL was likely a decent money maker for CBS until its final season (when ratings plunged to a 3.5 all the way from the 5.8 it had the previous year), I highly suspect that soap also suffered from older skewing demos, which one would logically believe to also be the primary reason for SFT's cancellation. (As for SFT's then-new 2:30 P.M. timeslot, it's hard to imagine the disagreement between CBS and P&G being so contentious as to cause that soap's cancellation. Of course, I could certainly be mistaken on that matter.)

 

Edited July 5, 2021 by Max

[~bl~]

In some central time zone cities, Y&R airs 30 minutes earlier than the east coast and news airs between that &B&B.

[Soapsuds]

Yup..that's how it has been here in Texas for decades.

[Paul Raven]

July 86

For the first time in years, daytime programming on the three commercial television networks is a three -way contest.

At the end of the second quarter (ended June 29), ABC and CBS were in a dead heat for first in household delivery, according to A.C. Nielsen, each with an average 6. I rating and a 22 share. NBC was a competitive second with a 5.2/19.

Compared to a year ago, NBC showed the greatest growth, 8 %, while ABC was up about 3% and CBS was flat. In key women demographics, ABC has maintained a lead over both CBS and NBC, but third place NBC made some inroads against second place CBS. In the women 18 -49 demo for all but two weeks of the second quarter, ABC averaged a 5.9 rating. up 5% from a year earlier. CBS was off 5% in the same category, averaging a 3.6, enabling NBC to tie it in that demo, for a gain of 3%.

In women 25 -54, ABC was up 16% during the same period, averaging a 5.8. CBS held onto second place, climbing 8% to an average 4.0, while NBC was up 3% to an average 3.5.

 For women, 18 -34, ABC was off 2% to a 6.4, while NBC was flat with a 3.9 and CBS was off 16% to a 3.2. All three networks will make programming moves in the months ahead in efforts to strengthen their daytime lineups.

CBS will introduce a new half hour soap opera in the first quarter of 1987. lt's being created by William Bell and his wife, WBBM -TV Chicago newswoman Lee Phillip, and will be produced by their company, Bell -Phillip Television Productions. Bell created CBS's Young and the Restless which went on the air in 1973 as a half -hour show and was expanded to an hour seven years later. Restless is now the second -ranked daytime program; it averaged an 8.4/31 in the second quarter, second only to ABC's General Hospital, which scored a 9.3/30.

The CBS daytime programming vice president, Michael Brockman, said there has been no decision on whether the new soap will replace one in the network's afternoon serial block, or whether that block will be expanded by a half -hour. That decision will be made early in the fall, he said. The most vulnerable show in CBS's four -program serial block is Capitol (2:30 -3 p.m.), which is losing ground to both fifth ranked One Life to Live on ABC and Ilth ranked Another World on NBC. Capitol, which has been on the air for five years (a relatively short time for a serial), was ranked 13th in the second quarter with a 4.9 rating, down from a 5.2 a year earlier. "We are looking very carefully at Capitol," Brockman said. We are hoping it can show strength and the capacity to stay on the schedule."

Of particular concern, he said, was Capitol's failure to take advantage of its growing lead -in audience from As the World Turns. That program, airing from 1:30 to 2:30 was the seventh -ranked program in daytime in the second quarter, up 3% to a 6.7/23. Brockman declined to provide details about the new serial. All that creator Bell would say last week was that the storylines will initially feature two familiies. Most serials revolve around one or more families. Bell said he was still a couple weeks away from hiring a producer but that he would proceed shortly with contract negotations with Los Angeles based Bill Glenn, whom Bell hopes to hire as head director. After those two slots are filled, the remaining staff and cast will be hired.

According to Brockman, his main concern with the daytime schedule (he's also in charge of late -night and children's programing) is strengthening CBS's afternoon serial block, and the Bell project is part of that effort. Strengthening the game shows, he said, is the second priority. One move he made toward that end at the beginning of this year was canceling the game show, Body Language at 4 p.m., switching the faltering Press Your Luck to that time period and adding the New Card Sharks at 10:30 a.m. So far the results have been negligible, but Brockman says he will wait a while before making a judgment. As for Sharks, which averaged a 4.1/18 in the second quarter, Brockman said he'd like to see some improvement by the fourth quarter. And if the network can improve the station clearance rate above the current 83 % -84 %, he said the ratings will improve. The 4 -4:30 p.m. slot poses a special problem. The CBS affiliate body is split just about evenly on whether it wants the network to program that time period or not.

As a result, CBS's clearance level at 4 p.m. is in the 50%- range, making it difficult for programs to survive for very long. Press Your Luck, for example, was ranked 25th of 26 daytime programs in the second quarter with an average 2.3/10. Brockman argued that success is "not dependent" on a solution to that problem. But he also said the network is not willing to cede the half hour to the affiliates just yet. Brockman acknowledged that he was "looking to see if we can get [a show for the time period] that is more attractive" than Press Your Luck.

[Broderick]

 Interesting that Brockman was stringing along John Conboy with the idea that "Capitol" might be spared from the chopping block.   I was thinking it was always a fait accompli that the Bell soap would be replacing the Conboy soap.  

[Max]

When Brockman made that comment (which was published in July of 1986), Capitol's cancellation was pretty much a fait accompli. But he obviously wouldn't admit that publicly, since that would cause further erosion in Capitol's ratings.

However, I don't think that it was a 100% certainty that Capitol was doomed from the start. As I've indicated before, though a new Bell soap was what CBS really wanted, I believe the network would have also kept Capitol had that not been its lowest-rated soap. To accommodate both Capitol and B&B on CBS's schedule, ATWT or GL would have been trimmed down to 30 minutes. (And given how each of those two soaps were performing in the ratings during the 1986-87 Season, GL would have been the show that reverted back to 30 minutes.)

I feel the same way in regards to SFT (had CBS chosen not to cancel it back it 1982 to make way for Capitol); if SFT was not the lowest-rated soap on CBS, it would've coexisted with B&B on the CBS schedule (while GL was reduced by 30 minutes). As to how SFT's Nielsen ratings would have compared with those of ATWT or GL during the 1986-87 Season had it remained on CBS, it's impossible to know. Obviously, one can say with virtual certainty that it would have been in much stronger shape (both in terms of ratings and of quality) than it was while on NBC.

Edited July 8, 2021 by Max