Ratings from the 80's

[kalbir]

We're getting close to the CBS schedule change June 8, 1981. 

[Soapsuds]

Is this when YR goes a full hour and SFT is moved after ATWT and before GL?

[kalbir]

Y&R expanded to one hour on February 4, 1980.

The February 4, 1980 to June 5, 1981 schedule was Search for Tomorrow 12:30 pm ET, Y&R 1 pm ET, As the World Turns 2 pm ET, Guiding Light 3 pm ET.

The June 8, 1981 schedule change was Y&R 12:30 pm ET, As the World Turns 1:30 pm ET, Search for Tomorrow 2:30 pm ET, Guiding Light 3 pm ET.

Y&R would be head-to-head w/ Ryan's Hope, The Doctors, first half of All My Children, first half of Days.

As the World Turns would be head-to-head w/ second half of All My Children, second half of Days, first half of One Life to Live, first half of Another World.

Search for Tomorrow would be head-to-head w/ second half of One Life to Live and second half of Another World.

Guiding Light remained head-to-head w/ General Hospital and Texas.

Edited August 4, 2023 by kalbir

[soapfan770]

That schedule change really did wonders for CBS and came at a time when Y&R and ATWT were starting to improve in quality after a dismal 1980-81. 
 

The line-up made sense to put a stronger Y&R first close enough to its original timeslot, return ATWT to its traditional 1:30 timeslot, and have SFT air as part of a nice P&G soap block with their new modern openings (well except for GL’s messy one). 
 

I’m not sure how it went down but if there wasn’t a hoopla about SFT’s time slot moving it probably could have still aired on CBS until B&B premiered. From what I’ve seen it looked like ratings rose during that 2:30 period but I guess SFT was just on borrowed time by that point. 

In the meantime Ryan’s Hope just appears to collapse 1981-82 in both ratings and in quality in the 12:30 spot. 

Edited August 4, 2023 by soapfan770

[beebs]

Should probably note that April 11 marks the beginning of the WGA strike, so the numbers might start trending downwards thanks to that through July.

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 5/11/81-5/15/81 & 5/18/81-5/22/81:

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 5/25/81-5/29/81 & 6/1/81-6/5/81:

 

[JoeCool]

Wow! Week of 6/1/81 to 6/5/81: Young and the Restless in 7th place. Ryan's Hope beating Restless!!

What was going on with Restless in May and early June 1981? The week before 5/25 Restless was 6th! 5/18 Restless 4th place...5/11 6th place.

[kalbir]

May 13, 1981 special report must have been attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II.

The next ratings will have the new CBS schedule.

[tybuki]

Hey @JAS0N47, can you pull up the ratings for the week of July 6, 1987? Curious on the ratings of Bargain Hunters and other games being affected by the Iran-Contra hearings. Thanks.

[Soapsuds]

The May 14 1981 episode was released on the DVD collection. It's titled John takes a fall. That week of episodes had a 7.7 rating as posted above.

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[BoldRestless]

One thing I wonder about is when the Nielsen report says X number of minutes aired, how does that work with time zones. @JAS0N47 has told us that sometimes the shows reserved a few minutes for political ads, and intentionally produced a shorter show, so that makes sense. But for a news interruption like this, I wonder if sometimes it's possible the shows did air in full in some time zones? 

 

According to this article the shooting happened at 5:19 PM in St. Peter's Square https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2021-05/may-13th-1981-remembering-that-fateful-day.html which is 11:19 AM US Eastern time and 8:19 AM Pacific time. So that happened early enough that I guess it broke into Y&R and then the rest of the shows on CBS got preempted cause they stayed on the story all day. Same for ABC breaking into AMC and preempting the rest. So then the 20 minutes that aired of Y&R were East coast and the West Coast, I presume, had no show?

 

But then how come NBC aired partial episodes of all their shows? Did they dip in and out of coverage all day?

 

That information probably isn't available in Jason's report, so I'm just musing really. I guess it comes from the desire that since Sony isn't going to ever open up their vaults, that somewhere, the show aired in full and some fan recorded it.

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Hm! The first week of June actually looks LIT with several storylines climaxing. The dungeon storyline is #1 on my list of things I want to see someday! 

 

THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS: Week of May 18 - May 22, 1981

(1:00pm - 60 minutes - CBS)

Jonas suspected that Cash was Casey’s admirer.  Carl investigated the mystery man who tormented Casey with phone calls.  Cash made Nikki believe that Casey had come on to him.  Michael imprisoned Victor in the basement shelter and talked of leaving town with Julia.  Jill decided to seek employment with Victor after an unsuccessful return to hairdressing.  Lucas doubted that Simone had left Lance on Leslie’s account.  Lorie nixed Leslie’s suggestion that they raise Brooks together.  April defended her date with Paul to Greg.

 

THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS: Week of May 25 - May 29, 1981

(1:00pm - 60 minutes - CBS)

Jeff, Patty’s new boyfriend, failed to score points with Paul.  April fumed at Paul for borrowing money from Greg to smooth over Wayne’s theft.  Casey halted Cash’s advances by knocking him cold.  Casey’s tormentor called while Cash was with Casey, disproving Jonas’ theory that Cash was the mystery man.  A psychologist recommended that Brooks remain with Lorie.  Vanessa sided with Leslie in the custody battle.  Eve and Jill learned that Michael was at Victor’s ranch.  Victor remained Michael’s captive.

 

THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS: Week of June 1 - June 5, 1981

(1:00pm - 60 minutes - CBS)

Lorie won custody of Brooks, but agreed to raise him jointly with Leslie.  Leslie promised not to tell Brooks she’s his mother.  Paul discovered Michael at Victor’s ranch, felled him with karate, then freed Victor from his basement digs.  Victor promised to divorce Julia, who collapsed.  Casey, thinking a male patient was her tormentor, gave him a near-fatal stress test.

Edited August 6, 2023 by BoldRestless

[JoeCool]

Very strange that all these storylines are climaxing and the ratings tank!

Edited August 6, 2023 by JoeCool

[JAS0N47]

I don't include all that extra info, but EVERYTHING is all in the reports! One option is that the later time zones possibly aired local/syndicated programming in place of the soaps. It looks like, for instance, that CBS aired special reports only during the commercial breaks of Search for Tomorrow from 12:30-1PM Eastern.

May 13, 1981 (all times Eastern):

 

ABC Special Report # 1...11:37-11:38AM

ABC Special Report # 2...11:41-11:42AM

ABC Special Report # 3...11:47-11:50AM

ABC Special Report # 4...11:54-11:56AM

ABC Special Report # 5...12:04-12:11PM

ABC Special Report; 12:30PM...12:30-12:42PM

ABC Special Report # 8...12:51-12:53PM

ABC Special Report: 1:00PM...1-1:25PM

ABC Special Report: 1:35...1:35-4:30PM

ABC Special Report # 6...4:46-4:48PM

ABC Special Report # 7...5:55-5:59PM

 

CBS Special Report # 1...11:35-11:36AM

CBS Special Report # 2...11:44-11:45AM

CBS Special Report # 3...11:50-11:52AM

CBS Special Report # 4...12:11-12:15PM

CBS Special Report # 5...12:25-12:27PM

CBS Special Report # 6...12:32-12:35PM

CBS Special Report # 7...12:38-12:40PM

CBS Special Report # 8...12:54-12:56PM

CBS Special Report # 9...1-1:04PM

CBS Special Report # 10...1:07-1:09PM

CBS News Special Report # 1...1:20-5PM

CBS News Special Report # 2...5:55-6PM

 

NBC News Special Report # 1...1:07-1:13PM

NBC News Special Report # 2...1:24-1:31PM

NBC News Special Report # 3...1:43-1:51PM

NBC News Special Report-2PM...2-2:28PM

NBC News Special Report # 4...2:47-2:53PM

NBC News Special Report-3:07PM...3:07-3:43PM

NBC News Special Report # 5...4:12-4:20PM

NBC News Special Report # 6...5:11-5:14PM

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 6/8/81-6/12/81 & 6/15/81-6/19/81:

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS (FAST NATIONALS): WEEK OF 6/22/81-6/26/81:

[Soapsuds]

ATWT was struggling in May and June.

Edited August 6, 2023 by Soapsuds