Ratings from the 80's

[YRfan23]

The show was actually preempted on 1/31/86 for the challenger memorial so that scene aired on 2/4/86

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[kalbir]

Thank you for the correction @YRfan23 I don't know how I missed that Challenger pre-emption. I was going by the date I saw on another site.

[Contessa Donatella]

Joe Willmore was EP at both ATWT & at GL & before he died he was on FB & came to my forum & he was a nice guy & very interesting to talk to, etc. And, he's in KZ's book, a real zinger of an anecdote. She & Pam & he are having a working supper together in some restaurant & they're talking about what is or isn't going to happen & Kim & Pam's pattern is to violently disagree at first & then come to terms they can both live with. During the part where they violently disagree Joe had to get up & leave the table & go outside & throw up. 

Robert Calhoun was half of Calhoun & Farley Granger & by most accounts was a winning EP but at GL discussing Holly & Roger & what was coming up: 

Pam Long asked Maureen if she'd be willing to deal with Roger & the rape. She said, "I made a big point of saying I would with the condition that Holly  not be made a victim to him again."  Robert Calhoun was EP then & he said, "Maureen remembered things from Holly's point of view and Michael Zaslow remembered things from Roger's point of view, but they both remembered that Roger was not completely unprovoked at the time. Holly had her share of the blame; it was not a black and white issue--not that anything justifies this kind of violence." SOD 2-19-91

The article goes on for 3 or 4 more paragraphs & it's just chilling in a kind of "blame the victim" way. 

[BoldRestless]

Those February dates for Y&R had long been incorrect on various sites because of the two unplanned preemptions, and now thanks to @JAS0N47 we finally have them confirmed! All of the imdb recaps after 1/28 are off.

[Soapsuds]

ATWT focus in February was the Douglas Cummings story with Frannie and Kim.

[kalbir]

@Soapsuds John Wesley Shipp got the 1986 Supporting Actor Emmy for that storyline. I remember CBS broadcasting episodes of that storyline as Christmas/New Year's classics in the early 2000s.

[Soapsuds]

Most if not all the story is on YouTube. It's one of my favorite storylines on ATWT.

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[j swift]

I thought this bit of news brought some additional insight to the topic of 1980s ratings

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Starting in 1987 Nielson dropped the ratings diaries, which required households to manually log their TV habits, and began digitally counting what people watched.  The article notes that there were many changes in the data that fall because there was less bias in the passive data collection. 

I couldn't find any immediate follow up to see if ABC actually dropped the Nielson system, but given that data is available for 1987 and beyond, it seems like they reversed their decision.

CBS & NBC were similarly sassy

Edited September 24, 2023 by j swift

[JAS0N47]

Just out of curiosity, when do they go back to being the correct airdates? Does that mean there's some incorrect preemption listed on sites for YR later in 1986 that doesn't happen?

It's annoying what they did in the Nielsen books in September 1987. For some reason, they didn't feel the need to list all of the "sustaining" programs (the breaking news) on a few pages like they did up until August 1987. And, more than just them now being spread out on many, many pages, they no longer list the exact start times (or days even) of the special reports. So, it's not as nice as I liked from the earlier issues. They just lump all of the special reports into a half-hour time period (without listing the day even). So it will say at some point during the week, for example, there was an NBC News Special Report in the 130-2PM time frame, but not list when it started or ended or what day it was. At least from the timing data of "Days" in other pages, you can sort of figure it out that way, but it just adds more to the puzzle instead of listing them all nicely like they used to!

[soapfan770]

 Odd question Donna and not to derail the ratings thread do you also remember the anecdote mentioned many many years about Willmore becoming irate one day and throwing a chair across the set towards the end of his run in 1989? Someone else chimed that while the GL cast loved him, they were also very happy to see him go mentioning instability in passing.

I never saw anything else about it again for years until Zimmer’s book came out. From most accounts Willmore had always been a mild mannered P&G executive for most of the 70’s and 80’s until that last year at GL. 

[Franko]

Monday, Feb. 17, 1986, on GH -- Terry's wedding stroll-serenade.

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, not meaning to derail the thread but WOW, no, I never heard that one! OMG! I do know that he ran into health problems & maybe that was a stressor that really created a change in him. He had problems with his heart & he seemed very preoccupied with his health after he retired. And yes, to mild-mannered, easy-going, etc. for almost all of his time. 

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 2/24/86-2/28/86 & 3/3/86-3/7/86:

 

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 3/10/86-3/14/86 & 3/17/86-3/21/86:

 

[kalbir]

Y&R at #1 first time since November 1984. We'll be seeing more of this over the course of 1986.

[TEdgeofNight]

@Errol Can you please remind Donna again not to derail this thread with her personal blogs. There is a wonderful thread called Guiding Light which would fit perfectly with her blog.

Staying on topic, Ratings From the 80's, it really did take awhile for viewers to warm up to Doug Marland's ATWT. They had a spike here and there in early '86 but the ratings should have been better. The Doug Cummings story and its conclusion was brilliant. OLTL over taking AMC at this time; Days overtaking AMC. Santa Barbara's rise. Interesting time with the ratings.