Ratings from the 80's

[JoeCool]

In 1982 and 1983, All My Children began to strongly challenge GH for the top spot.

For the 1982-83 season:

1. General Hospital  9.8

2. All My Children    9.4

3. One Life to Live   9.1

Considering AMC competed against Y&R and DAYS and GH had weaker competition against GL, AMC was the stronger show.

Thanks for posting these ratings!

[Paul Raven]

Feb 1-5 1988

ABC 6.4/21

CBS 6.1/21

NBC 5.3/18

1. GH 9.2/28

2. Y&R 8.4/28

3. OLTL 8.3/26

4. AMC 8.0/25

Home new ABC show at 11.30 last in daytime ratings 2.6/10

[robbwolff]

Ratings from two issues of Daytime TV that I found in Provincetown, MA:

November 1980 issue

1. GH - 9.0/32
2. AMC - 8.8/33
3. OLTL - 7.7/29
4. Y&R - 7.5/29
5. GL - 7.5/26
6. ATWT - 6.9/26
7. RH - 6.5/26
8. SFT - 5.8/23
9. AW - 5.6/20
10. DOOL - 5.2/20

January 1983 issue 

1. AMC - 9.4/34
2. GH - 8.6/32
3. Y&R - 7.8/33
4. OLTL - 7.7/30
5. GL - 7.6/28
6. ATWT - 7.4/27
7. CAP - 6.3/25
8. RH - 6.2/26
9. DOOL - 5.6/20
10. AW - 4.3/17
11. EON - 3.9/14
12. SFT - 2.7/11
13. TX - 2.6/11
14. TD - 1.9/8

 

[Liberty City]

Holy sh*t. From November 1980 to January 1983 four soaps were adding into rotation. 14 soaps?! I could only imagine!! Now I gotta go to P-Town to find more gems like this!

[soapfan770]

ABC definitely had a decade’s worth problem with that 11AM ET slot The Home was such a weird failed show and whenever I look through early 90’s schedules so many ABC stations didn’t bother to carry it at all (along with Loving). The Home Show’s successors didn’t fare well either, and it even took a couple years for The View to take off as well (Debbie Matenopoulos lol?)

[kalbir]

@soapfan770 11 am, 11:30 am, and 12:30 pm ET were dead zones for both ABC and NBC. The Price is Right and Y&R destroyed everything in their paths.

The Price is Right moved to 11 am ET on April 23, 1979. ABC shows that fell victim before The View became the occupant of that slot (not counting reruns of primetime shows): Family Feud, Loving, The Newlywed Game, The Love Report, Trivia Trap, All Star Blitz, Love American Style, Hot Streak, Fame Fortune and Romance, Double Talk, Bargain Hunters, The Home Show, Mike and Maty, Caryl & Marilyn. NBC shows that fell victim before they gave up that slot (not counting reruns of primetime shows): High Rollers, Wheel of Fortune, David Letterman Show, Password Plus, Battlestars, Texas, Hit Man, Dream House, Scrabble, Win Lose or Draw, Marsha Warfield Show, To Tell the Truth, A Closer Look, Trialwatch, Cover to Cover, One on One with John Tesh, Classic Concentration, Dr. Dean, Faith Daniels Show, Family Secrets, John and Leeza from Hollywood, Jane Whitney Show, The Other Side, Leeza.

Y&R moved to 12:30 pm ET on June 8, 1981. ABC shows that fell victim before they gave up that slot: Ryan's Hope, Loving, The City, Port Charles. NBC shows that fell victim before they gave up that slot: The Doctors, Search for Tomorrow, Wordplay, Scrabble, Generations, Trialwatch, A Closer Look, Faith Daniels Show, Scattergories, Caesar's Challenge.

[Soapsuds]

Thanks for posting it!  I was just thinking the other day that this thread had gone cold. 

Ratings from late February 1988 to August 1989 have never been posted. 

I'm always glad to see the earlier ratings from 1983 and 1984 too.

[robbwolff]

The November 1980 issue only listed the top 10 soaps. I found these issues at Marine Specialities in P-Town a few years ago. I came across them when I was reorganizing the other day. The last few times, they didn't have any magazines in the store. I'll have to see about scanning some of the articles. Besides those two, I have a Radio Television Mirror issue from September 1951 with an article about Hawkins Falls and snyopses of all the radio soaps. There's also a February 1971 issue of TV Radio Show with a section on soaps and interviews with David O'Brien, Carolee Campbell, and Ellen Holly. And an April 1974 issue of Daytime TV Stars. Bill Hayes, Susan Seaforth, Lee Patterson, and Erika Slezak are on the cover. There's a whole section on single daytime stars. There are interviews with Anthony George, Emily McLaughlin (looking absolutely stunning), Georgann Johnson, Charles Frank and Susan Blanchard, and Charita Bauer, plus a review of Search for Tomorrow. I'm going to work on scanning and posting some of the articles later today.

[kalbir]

The peak of 14 soaps lasted from July 30-December 28, 1984.

The peak lineups in the 1980s in terms of number of soaps by network:

CBS: 5 from January 1-February 1, 1980 - Love of Life, Y&R, Search for Tomorrow, As the World Turns, Guiding Light.

ABC: 6 from June 27, 1983-December 28, 1984 - Loving, Ryan's Hope, All My Children, One Life to Live, General Hospital, The Edge of Night.

NBC: 5 from March 29-December 31, 1982 - The Doctors, Search for Tomorrow, Days, Another World, Texas.

The 1980s began with 13 soaps and ended with 12 soaps. Here's now the network lineups changed over the course of the decade.

CBS: Love of Life finale February 1, 1980. Y&R expanded to 1 hour February 4, 1980. Search for Tomorrow CBS finale March 26, 1982. Capitol run March 29, 1982-March 20, 1987. B&B premiere March 23, 1987. Started the 1980s with 5 soaps and ended the 1980s with 4 soaps.

ABC: Loving premiere June 27, 1983. The Edge of Night finale December 28, 1984. Ryan's Hope finale January 13, 1989. Started the 1980s with 5 soaps and ended the 1980s with 4 soaps.

NBC: Texas run August 4, 1980-December 31, 1982. Search for Tomorrow NBC run March 29, 1982-December 26, 1986. The Doctors finale December 31, 1982. Santa Barbara premiere July 30, 1984. Generations premiere March 27, 1989. Started the 1980s with 3 soaps and ended the 1980s with 4 soaps.

ETA: Just realized that twice in the 1980s there were 14 soaps across the three networks: March 29-December 31, 1982 and July 30-December 28, 1984.

Edited March 6, 2023 by kalbir

[Liberty City]

Thanks for the information. I appreciate it. 

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Oh, I see! Awesome!

[will81]

I found some more details around Y&R going #1 in 1984. Seems it was around week of May 14 - 18 according to the first article

The second one from June 22, talks about GH being in fourth place. Y&R was still the #1 rated soap.

Then ranks for week Jul 02 - 06 that I found

#1 General Hospital

#2 The Young and the Restless

#3 All My Children

#4 Wheel of Fortune

#5 The Price is Right

#6 One Life to Live

#7 As The World Turns

#8 Guiding Light

#9 Days of Our Lives

#10 Scrabble

 

 

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[Paul Raven]

Wk ending June 22 1984

CBS 22^nd weekly win in a row CBS 7.2 ABC 5.8 NBC 5.1

Largest advantage over 2nd place  since June 27 76

Top 3

1.TPIR,

2.Y&R.

3.GL -(this must be the week that GL was #1 in it's timeslot, leading to the misinformed  claim that GL was the #1 show.)

First time CBS had the top 3 positions  since May 27 1979

GL up 0.8 compared to 2^nd quarter of 83 GH down 1.6

Capitol 8^th 7.5/26 highest rating ever.

[tybuki]

Paul Raven do you have any listings from the mid-80's that contain the ratings for ALL of daytime? I'm curious how all the shows rated back then.

[Paul Raven]

Most reports from that era tend to focus on the Top 10 soaps, but I will keep digging in the hopes of finding something more complete.

[Paul Raven]

Week of Feb 28 1984

1. Gh 10.0/30

2. Y&R 9.7/33

3. AMC 9.2/28

4. GL 9.0/27

5. ATWT 8.6/27

6. OLTL 8.0/26

7. DOOL 7.5/23

8.CAP 6.8/23

9. AW 5.5/18

10. RH 5.1/17

11. SFT 3.4/12

12. EON 3.3/10