May 19 1959

 

CBS broadcast a special 'Woman - Teen Marriages' hosted by Claudette Colbert from 3-4pm, pre-empting The Big Pay Off and The Verdict Is Yours

 

CBS - Woman - 8.9/50 

NBC - Young Dr Malone @3 - 4.9/29  

            From These Roots @3.30 - 4.7/27

ABC - Beat The Clock @3 3.0/17

           Who Do You Trust @ 3.30 3.1/16

June 1954

Search For Tomorrow 11.8

Love of Life 10.5

Guiding Light 10.1

Valiant Lady 9.5

Secret Storm 5.2

Three Steps to Heaven 4.9

Hawkins Falls 4.2

Bumping this up now that JASON47 has new info.

I'll start this off with an "eerie" find!   When I was doing research tonight, I happened to find this page in a 1954 magazine called Broadcasting Telecasting. I couldn't believe the headline, mentioning CBS, Y&R and B&B.   I thought I had stepped into The Twilight Zone for a moment, but then was happy to see that was not the case!

For those following along with my 1970's and 1980's ratings posts, here's a treat for 1954 ratings fans:

 

1954 SAMPLE INFO....

 

There are a few 1954 issues, from microfilm, very hard to see, but from what I can make out, this is a sample of what would be available in 1954 issues. I think back then they only gave the 2-week average of ratings, but they actually gave program coverage to an extra decimal point! I think I am typing up the correct rating data, it's in quite a different format than the ones I am used to. Also, the NBC data is pretty much useless as it can't be read on the charts in the microfilm. ABC & Dumont do not seem to have programmed anything against the CBS soaps, so that's why they have such a big share.  Search for Tomorrow, if I'm reading it right, had a 79 share! And, the sponsors are listed as well, so actually you get more data points in the 1950's issues than in the 1970's (although only 2-week averages of ratings, not the weeklies). The 1955 stuff should be all readable, so at least we know now every data point (and more) are around in 1954 (in 2-week average format).

 

Weeks of 4/12/54-4/16/54 & 4/19/54-4/23/54:

 

Valiant Lady...Coverage: 90.2...Rating: 10.2...Share: 53.9...Sponsors: General Mills (M/W/F) & Toni Gillette Razor Co. (Tu/Th); (Aired M-F)

Love of Life...Coverage...93.0...Rating: 14.5...Share: 70.0...Sponsor: American Home Products; (Aired M-F)

Search for Tomorrow...Coverage...96.0...Rating: 17.2...Share: 79.0...Sponsor: Procter & Gamble; (Aired M-F)

Guiding Light...Coverage...95.8...Rating: 15.7...Share: 73.9...Sponsor: Procter & Gamble; (Aired M-F)

Brighter Day...Coverage: 79.9...Rating: 6.5...Share: 41.3...Sponsor: Procter & Gamble; (Aired M-F)

Portia Faces Life...Coverage: 31.6...Rating: 5.4...Share: 32.9...Sponsor: General Foods Corp.; (Aired M-F) 

Secret Storm...Coverage: 56.5...Rating: 5.4...Share: 31.7...Sponsor: American Home Products; (Aired M/W/F) (Sustaining Tu/Th)

Hawkins Falls...Coverage: 80.1...Rating: N/A...Share: 17.8...Sponsors: Wesson Oil & Snowdrift (all but Mon-Week 1) & S.O.S Co. (Mon Week 1); (Aired M/W/F Week 1; Aired W Week 2)

Three Steps to Heaven...Coverage: 87.8...Rating: N/A...Share: 21.4...Sponsor: Procter & Gamble; (Aired M-F Week 1; Aired M-W Week 2)

 

Based on the Soap Opera Encyclopedia, Woman with a Past (CBS) also aired at this time, but is not listed at all in the ratings book. The CBS 4PM time slot, when it aired, is blank on the chart. In another book I found, it says that Woman With a Past was "sustaining", meaning it did not get any rating. So that would be the reason it is not listed on the charts. Upon further research, I've found that Secret Storm was sustaining on Tue & Thu, that's why it's not listed as airing those days.

A SURPRISE FROM 74 YEARS AGO!  THE SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER 1951 SOAP RATINGS, INCLUDING THE DEBUT WEEK RATINGS FOR "SEARCH FOR TOMORROW" AND "LOVE OF LIFE"

 

Notes: These are the two-week averages for each soap. Nielsen weeks ran from Sunday to Saturday in 1951. Also, there seem to be no dark weeks in 1951/1952. Based on the telecast dates, once every other month is a 3-week average. Random programs that did not have sponsors were unrated, as was the case with "The Egg and I." Any programs unrated are not listed at all in the book, so no preemption data is available for that soap either.

 

Edited August 17Aug 17 by JAS0N47

Thanks, Jason!! What fascinating information.

That's incredible!

@JAS0N47 More amazing work. Interesting to see that First Hundred Years was on over 50 stations. Pretty much the whole network. That newbie Search for Tomorrow soon gained more stations.

Egg and I could not get any sponsorship. I wonder why not? So that meant CBS was covering the cost of the show and getting nothing back. 

9 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

@JAS0N47 More amazing work. Interesting to see that First Hundred Years was on over 50 stations. Pretty much the whole network. That newbie Search for Tomorrow soon gained more stations.

Egg and I could not get any sponsorship. I wonder why not? So that meant CBS was covering the cost of the show and getting nothing back. 

Thanks!  If there were no sponsors though, were there some type of commercials at least? Or were all the commercials just CBS promos and things like that? Now you have me wondering. Or was it just 15 minutes straight of the show.

Edited August 13Aug 13 by JAS0N47

NOVEMBER 1951 & DECEMBER 1951:

 

Notes: Fair Meadows USA was a Sunday afternoon soap only, so I did not include it in the weekly rankings of the Monday-Friday soaps. 

 

 

Edited August 17Aug 17 by JAS0N47

13 hours ago, JAS0N47 said:

Thanks!  If there were no sponsors though, were there some type of commercials at least? Or were all the commercials just CBS promos and things like that? Now you have me wondering. Or was it just 15 minutes straight of the show.

I guess it would be CBS promos and public service announcements aimed at housewifes eg 'Join in the fight against polio'etc. I think in those days the networks were required to air a certain amount of PSAs.

13 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

I guess it would be CBS promos and public service announcements aimed at housewifes eg 'Join in the fight against polio'etc. I think in those days the networks were required to air a certain amount of PSAs.

I forgot in 1951 most stuff was live, so it's not like they would have promos to air of upcoming episodes of primetime shows. And, also, I forgot originally when posting that these shows were mostly just 15 minutes, so even with a sponsor, they probably each only had a 1-minute or 2-minute ad and then a total of 13 minutes of episode. So maybe they just wrote an additional 2 minutes of Egg & I to fill the full 15 minutes.   We have one more batch of January & February 1952 to come and that's it for now.

Edited August 14Aug 14 by JAS0N47

The Egg and I episode on youtube is 12.57 min in length. So 2 minutes left to fill in. Maybe there was no national sponsor but local stations aired ads or some sort of fill in programming.

41 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

The Egg and I episode on youtube is 12.57 min in length. So 2 minutes left to fill in. Maybe there was no national sponsor but local stations aired ads or some sort of fill in programming.

Thanks for the info! So that solves part of the mystery. It was just 13 minutes, but something had to air the other 2 minutes.

JANUARY 1952 & FEBRUARY 1952:

 

 

Notes: When "Miss Susan" ended, NBC looks to also have lost sponsors for "Hawkins Falls", which no longer is rated on Tuesdays or Thursdays. Looking over the telecast dates again, it looks like there are no dark weeks at this point, and one of the books every other month includes a 3-week average, so I am updating the earlier charts to reflect those changes.

 

Unlike the other soaps, which are all listed with a program type of DS (which I assume either means dramatic serial or daytime serial), Fair Meadows USA is listed with a program type of GD, along with these other programs: Armstrong Circle Theater, Cameo Theater, Celanese Theater, City Hospital, Crime Syndicated, Fireside Theater, Goodyear TV Playhouse, Greatest Story Ever Told, Gruen Playhouse, Hollywood Open Night, Hollywood Screen Test, Kraft Television Theater, Lux Video Theater, Not for Publication, Philco TV Playhouse, Pulitzer Prize Playhouse, Rebound, Robert Montgomery Presents, Sarah Churchill Show,  Schlitz Playhouse of Stars and Studio One.

 

That's all for now. Coming soon will be 1972!

Edited August 17Aug 17 by JAS0N47