Ratings from the 80's

[vetsoapfan]

Spot on!

[Pine Charles]

Didn’t AMC overtake GH for #1 for some weeks in the Summer of ‘82??

[titan1978]

1982 is such a strange year for GH.  Really shows that flying by the seat of your pants was not enough to keep the audience engaged and the show as good.  And I know people hate The Ice Princess for brining science fiction and adventure to GH (and other shows), but at least it was fun.  Robert and Tiffany are fun.  The island was fun.  Luke and Laura were fun.  The Cassadines were fun.  David Grey and that sword were no fun at all.  And IMO, Tony Geary is at his worst there, and it took Emma Samms to finally ground him again.  His style desperately needs a costar that is grounded.

[Chrissy81730]

Genie Francis : People Magazine 

Please register in order to view this content

[Mitch]

I agree...the Ice Princess was fun...while the storyline was absurd...the dialogue, acting, direction and production was great....Tiffany and Robert were like a bickering couple in an old movie,..there were stakes for the entire town, and it was bright and fun. Too bad the other soaps didn't see that it wasnt the sci-fi that worked, it was the individual parts that made it attractive.

[Chrissy81730]

1980’s ratings - 1990’s 

Please register in order to view this content

Edited February 7, 2022 by Chrissy81730

[Paul Raven]

Top 10 daytime among blacks (Jan.-Feb. 1988)

1. Young & Restless (CSS) 18.3

2. All My Children (ABC) 17.8

3. One Life to Live (ABC) 16.2

4. As the World Turns 14.2 (C8S)

4. General Hospital 14.2 (ABC)(Tle)

6. Guiding Light (CBS) 13.1

7. Bold & the Beautiful 13.0 (CBS)

8. Price Is Right (CBS) 12.8

9. Loving (ABC) 10.6

10. Santa Barbara (NBC) 8.6

No sign of Days...

[Khan]

Or AW, and the one NBC soap that made the rankings is at the very bottom of the list.

I'll bet that, aside from GENERATIONS and maybe the game shows, NBC has always had a heckuva time appealing to POC.

Edited March 27, 2022 by Khan

[soapfan770]

I’m glad that AW tried at least in the early to mid 80’s to have a diverse cast but it only lasted a few years, with killing off Quinn being quite a mistake. 
 

I remember when AW reruns first aired on SoapNet I was pleasantly surprised to see James Pickens Jr. on the show (at the time he was just coming off from X-Files before GA started) but Zack was given nothing to do and I was confused to realize Julie was sister not his girlfriend lol. And of course when this rating was taken Ronnie & Reuben were if you blink you miss it characters. 
 

Days never tried lol. There was some momentum in 1989 with Marcus and Gail getting a front burner story while Abe & Lexie #1 were also featured but by 1990 it was gone. Abe & Lexie #2 came back in 1991 to announce they had married off-screen in Chicago

Please register in order to view this content

[Soapsuds]

                                                             Week of August 28, 1989

1. The Young & the Restless...8.6/31

2. General Hospital...7.6/26

3. All My Children...6.7/22

*. One Life to Live...6.7/23

5. As the World Turns...6.3/22

6. The Bold & the Beautiful...6.0/20

7. Guiding Light...5.6/19

8. Days of Our Lives...5.5/19

9. Another World...4.1/14

10. Loving...3.5/13

*. Santa Barbara...3.5/12

12. Generations...2.2/08

[Chris 2]

The Helmut of Malkuth (David Gray) storyline on GH was stupefyingly dull, and went on forever. They knew Genie was leaving, so you’d think they could have come up with more compelling storylines that would have helped mitigate her departure.

[Soapsuds]

                                                            Week of November 20th 1989

1. The Young & the Restless...8.1/30

2. General Hospital...7.0/22

3. All My Children...6.4/20

4. As the World Turns...6.3/23

        5. One Life To Live....6.0/20

6. Guiding Light...5.8/20

7. Bold and The Beautiful...5.7/20

8. Days of our Lives...5.6/19

9. Another World......4.0/14

10. Loving.................3.8/13

11. Santa Barbara...........3.6/12

12. Generations.......2.9/10

[kalbir]

Y&R was killing it in the daytime ratings at the end of the 1980s while CBS was a mess in primetime in that same era.

 

[soapfave06]

I was just watching that week of OLTL with the 1989 episodes being posted. It was great fun with Tina back and the Megan/Max/Gabrielle triangle but they still had nothing else good going with Clint focused on Julia, Megan bonding with Raymond and Viki dealing with icky Roger and none of these had any chemistry going for them. Add to that I never realized how odd Roger was until I saw the daily episodes. 

[JoeCool]

Yes!! Y&R dethroned General Hospital. With Y&R leading the way starting in 1987, CBS Daytime took over the lead permanently over ABC Daytime.

Y&R still airs 12:30 to 1:30 EST on the East Coast Market. The competition was very keen with All My Children airing from 1:00 to 2:00 EST and the Days of Our Lives also at 1 to 2 EST.

The timeslot of 1 to 1:30 EST was the most competitive in all of daytime.

General Hospital in the 3pm to 4pm EST slot had little competition from NBC in Texas and Santa Barbara. Guiding Light was the only soap that could provide reasonable competition to GH. But GH had no real competition unlike Y&R, AMC and DAYS.