Ratings from the 80's

[MichaelGL]

This was awhile back, but someone had posted a old SOD blurb from 1980 how the soaps were going on location, Dominican Republic and St. Croix. Seemingly it paid off, if only temporary (for AW). 

[JoeCool]

Very true. All My Children was the first in 1978 for Erica and Tom's honeymoon. Then other soaps followed. These on-location shoots drew in viewers.

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 4/7/80-4/11/80 & 4/14/80-4/18/80:

 

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS (FAST NATIONALS): WEEK OF 4/21/80-4/25/80:

 

[JAS0N47]

1979-1980 TV SEASON RATINGS (10/1/79-4/18/80):

 

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Checking Wiki, these ratings do match exactly what is posted as the season ratings. The time slot changes for the CBS soaps are only listed by time slot in the Nielsen books. The Wiki page has the average rating for both time slots.

 

So for the 1977-1978, 1978-1979 and 1979-1980 seasons, we will now have both an October-April season rating (matching what is on Wiki), as well as the full October-September season ratings (not available anywhere online before!).

 

[JoeCool]

Seems in April 1980, AW really begins to sink. AMC and GH battling for Number 1.

Thanks so much, @JAS0N47

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 4/28/80-5/2/80 & 5/5/80-5/9/80:

 

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[JoeCool]

Fierce battle between All My Children and General Hospital for Number 1. One Life to Live very strong at Number 3.

[AbcNbc247]

Wow

All those changes at Days hurt it even more than I thought

Edited June 16, 2023 by AbcNbc247

[Paul Raven]

Re Days the beginning of Nina Laemmle's run as headwriter. Characters were disappearing and newbies taking center stage. That 4.8/19 would have been the lowest in years.

TUNE IN TOMORROW WEEKLY RECAP:
4/28/80-5/2/80: A slew of Salem newcomers included Jessica Blake, a scholarship student sent by the nuns to work with Marie; Kellam Chandler, who was running for governor and courting Don's favor; Kellam's stepdaughter, jetting setting Liz; Kellam's roustabout son Todd; mysterious Josh Fallon, caretaker of the mansion Doug bought to convert into a casino if gambling were legalized; Flora Chisholm, ailing ex-owner of the mansion; and Leslie James, Chris' new executive assistant. Chris and Alex argued about the ad campaigns for the solar energy device. Alex secretly arranged for government man Harold Rankin to force Leslie on Chris. Mickey approved of Doug's investment, but Don was working against legalizing gambling.

[te.]

The DAYS plunge is so drastic, yikes! Normally when soaps fall that hard it's due to a change of time slot, station coverage dropping etc. Changes on screen do usually take some time to be noticeable in the ratings, so Nina just bombed from the get-go.

[JAS0N47]

When I eventually got all the Days script covers, it was confusing as to Nina's dates as writer, since I had always heard it was called the Valentine's Day massacre. And there's no record I can find of why Ruth Flippen, who never did soaps, was brought on for just a month until Nina took over on April 21. The soap history books always seem to credit Nina as with having written off all the characters, but they were all basically gone by the time she showed up. She was the one responsible for writing the new characters, but not for writing off all of the Hortons and others.

Ruth Brooks Flippen..............................3/17/80-4/18/80.............3634-3658       (25)

Nina Laemmle.......................................4/21/80-10/9/80.............3659-3782     (124)

[Paul Raven]

That whole headwriter situation at the time was odd.

Maybe there were some contract or other BTS happenings that meant Laemmle's official start was delayed.

Ruth Brooks Flippen was an experienced writer who had been in the biz for years and had written for GH so knew her way around a soap script. I can only guess she was brought in to implement Laemmle's template and write off a lot of those characters.

[JAS0N47]

I hadn't known she had written for GH. I only list this in my bio of her on my site (which was written quite a long time ago):  "Bewitched", "My World and Welcome To It", "The Odd Couple" and "Gidget" as well as several "Gidget" movies.

I see she died in summer of 1981, so perhaps she got sick just after joining Days and that's why she left so quickly?

[Paul Raven]

She wrote for GH in 1972.

Another thing is that any announcement I have read states that Laemmle is replacing Elizabeth Harrower. Never any mention of Flippen.

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 5/12/80-5/16/80 & 5/19/80-5/23/80:

 

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: MAY SWEEPS LOOK AT ALL DAYTIME SERIES: WEEK OF 5/19/80-5/23/80: