Ratings from the 80's

[JoeCool]

I am not sure when Y&R made the shift in all the markets. I know the expansion from 30 minutes to 1 hour slowed its strong performance and path to Number 1.

Maybe the Y&R expert @kalbir can provide some insight.

[kalbir]

@JoeCool I'm hardly an expert, but thank you for the compliment

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I don't know about time shifting in 1979, but with Y&R expansion on February 4, 1980, there were two different schedules I've seen CBS affiliates use.

10 am Eastern/9 am Central, Mountain, Pacific The Jeffersons reruns

10:30 am/9:30 am Whew!

11 am/10 am The Price is Right

Noon/11 am Local programming

12:30 pm/11:30 am Search for Tomorrow

1 pm/Noon Y&R

2 pm/1 pm As the World Turns

3 pm/2 pm Guiding Light

4 pm/3 pm One Day at a Time reruns

or

9 am Central, Mountain, Pacific The Jeffersons reruns

9:30 am Whew!

10 am The Price is Right

11 am Y&R

Noon Local programming

12:30 pm Search for Tomorrow

1 pm As the World Turns

2 pm Guiding Light

3 pm One Day at a Time reruns

Edited July 1, 2023 by kalbir

[JoeCool]

@kalbir you are very insighful. So Y & R at 1PM Eastern was directly against AMC and DAYS.

 

I bet when Y&R at 11AM must have dominated in that time slot.

[Matt]

I know that here in Kentucky, Y&R got time shifted a lot.  Throughout the 70s well into the 90s, Y&R aired on one affiliate at 9am a day behind because they aired news at noon.  Then for quite a few years, another affiliated aired it at 4pm to much success.  I want to say that it's only been within the last 20 years or so that it's been aired at the right time.

[will81]

These are the top 10 tv markets prior to the expansion but post April 1979 for CBS The ones in blue are affiliates and the green/turquoise are O&O's

 

Here is 6 months after Y&R went to 1 Hour

 

Edited July 1, 2023 by will81

[Paul Raven]

Looking at those 1980 ratings had me reflecting on the shows and the fact that 1980 was a poor year storywise for most of the soaps.

NBC -Days restructure was a disaster, AW was trying to regroup from the loss of Lemay, the 90 min format and the Texas spin off, Texas itself was off to a shaky start and TD was struggling to come up with viable couples and stories.

CBS- Y&R lost focus in the move to an hour,ATWT under the Dobsons wasn't firing and SFT lost the momentum of the Corringtons initial impact. Only GL under Marland seemed to be in a good place storywise.

ABC -AMC ,OLTL and GH were strong,RH not so much as the original concept and characters were wearing thin. EON continued to deliver under Slesar.

And for the most part, the ratings reflected that.

[JAS0N47]

I have some extra time this week, so look for some ratings posts this week!

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 9/15/80-9/19/80 & 9/22/80-9/26/80:

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The Nielsen book has the CBS time slots listed as this for the week of 2/4/80:

8-9 Captain Kangaroo

9-10 (Local)

10-1030 Jeffersons

1030-11 Celebrity Whew

11-1130 Price Is Right 1

1130-12 Price Is Right 2

12-1230 (Local)

1230-1 Search for Tomorrow

1-2 Young and the Restless

2-3 As the World Turns
3-4 Guiding Light

4-430 One Day at a Time

[Soapsuds]

Weird to see YR at #6.

AW already finished at #10.

[kalbir]

So far in September CBS with the exception of GL is tanking.

It's so funny how the fortunes of CBS daytime and primetime changed in opposite directions over the course of the 1980s. CBS daytime was shaken up at the beginning of the 1980s by the huge rise of ABC but was #1 by the end of the decade with all four soaps hitting their stride plus the game show block. CBS primetime was #1 at the beginning of the 1980s and riding high thanks to Who Shot JR mania but was an absolute mess by the end of the decade. 

[Soapsuds]

@kalbir

I usually agree with you but how is ATWT tanking?

AW is the one that completely imploded from 9's and 8's ratings to 4's.

[kalbir]

@Soapsuds Maybe tanking wasn't the right description but the CBS numbers are very up-and-down. We'll see what happens during the rest of the fall.

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 9/29/80-10/3/80 & 10/6/80-10/10/80:

 

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[Chris 2]

Yes, that’s the schedule the Boston and NY affiliates followed. The cool table posted earlier is off by an hour for some of the affiliates.

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 10/13/80-10/17/80 & 10/20/80-10/24/80:

 

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Note: The multiple shorter episodes on the weekly lists the last few posts are due to paid political ads airing at the ends of episodes (which have separate ratings).

Edited July 5, 2023 by JAS0N47

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 10/27/80-10/31/80 & 11/3/80-11/7/80:

 

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