February 20-24, 2006

[Steveo4]

ITA. If there werent constant spoilers being thrown around and leaks coming out even when things are tried to be hidden, soap ratings would be ALOT different. Yeah, they wouldn't be up in their glory days, but easily i think between 3.0-6.0 range from bottom to top rated. I still, like many of you, can't wait to see what adding college dorms does for soap ratings.

[RogerNewcomb]

I'm a spoiler addict, and I know that takes away from my enjoyment of the show somewhat. But at the same time, I used to enjoy seeing the spoilers play out on the screen more than I do now. Now when I see spoilers I'm usually annoyed that it's the same old people featured again and again. But the really big surprises in soaps for me happen on Thursdays when I see spoilers versus on the screen.

Soaps have tried every gimmick in the book the past few years from crossovers, to returning faves, to musical guests, to college campus tours, to giveaways, to you name it. So much effort into that and not enough effort into really TIGHT stories. I don't expect the intricacy of a Lost episode, but why shouldn't I and why can't they go in that direction a lot more and stop insulting the audience. Soaps can do character drama better than anyone if they focus on that but too many stunts and plot holes and not enough quality long-term planning.

I also blame the casting departments. If I see one more damn model hired and put on the frontburner, I'm going to scream. Daytime drama should be daytime drama and not acting class 101.

I hope the core loyal audiences will hang on until the revolution happens. I'm still holding out hope someone will come along and show everyone how it's done before ANY of the soaps get canceled.

Time slot! I truly believe if ATWT and B&B changed time slots they would reverse ratings.

[R!ck]

Thank you Steve! I am so sick of the DAYS bashing as well

When one of the other soaps get a 2.6 we hear that trusty old excuse "Oh Ratings don't matter, insert soap here was awesome last week" but when DAYS gets a 2.6 "it's time to cancel it, it's the worst soap on the air, "people are tired of watching the same old crap" " The writing sucks" , The directing sucks, Mimi's dress is ugly" blah blah blah blah blah

So if DAYS gains .2 next week and AMC OLTL GH drop are you guys gonna say that DAYS is the best soap? Of course not! your gonna blame Nielsen, a storm, a power outage or a breaking news story of a one legged cat as the reason your soap fell.

It just isn't fair that DAYS gets all of the heat when AMC/OLTL/ATWT/GH/DAYS are all between 2.6 and 2.9

rant over

[Ms. Walsh]

Well, I'm glad that ATWT went up, even if it was by only .1. The show's really good now.

Again, how is 2.6 bad when the difference between Days and ATWT and the number 3 soap (GH) is only .3??

[alwaysAMC]

Haha Rick! I think it's probably bc those 5 soaps all switch spots every week and so it makes it more competitive. I think everyone is used to the fact Y&R/B&B will always be #1/#2...and GL/PASS will always be #8/#9 - but the middle 5 soaps are always changing and fluctuating and the fans of each soap will love it when they are number 3/4 and their "rival soap" is 6/7 - but when it flip flops the next week, the fans make excuses. It's just human nature when you're a loyal fan when it comes to something 'competitive' - like the ratings are known for.

[Ponz]

Talk about paranoia.

I don't watch any of the soaps you listed so to imply that I'm bragging about their ratings is absurd. I was commenting purely on Days rating, which I believe is deserved given their refusal to acknowledge that viewers are fed up with endless triangles and mediocre interlopers. I am just as much of a faithful Days fan as you are and to suggest otherwise- purely because I am dissatisfied with the current state of the show- is grossly unfair.

[edgeofnik]

Can't wait to see viewer numbers -- ATWT last week was 7 in HH and 5 in Viewers. Looks like the ABC/CBS soaps did not suffer because of Olympics and DAYS/PSSN didn't benefit from leadin (too bad). The good news is that people were still loyal to their soaps. I see a big upswing for soaps as DVRs become more commonplace. DVD players really hurt soaps as people were using VCRs less (or not even replacing them). But now that DVRs can hold alot of shows, I think it will only help.

[SteveFrame]

Excuse me for jumping to a conclusion but your original post was very very very vague and sounded just like another attack on Days which are very very common.

I for one commend Days for not buying into all the sweeps hype and creating special stories and events for the month. I commend them for sticking with the status quo of the show, showing what Days does. I am not one who is displeased with the current state of the show. Days is better right now than it has been in a long time. They have finally broken out of some patterns and are creating some very interesting stories. At least this time the Bo/Hope/Billie story has a different twist. The Zach story had some of the best acting and best drama in daytime. There were no special stunts for sweeps month. The Zach murder took place in January and many things are starting to heat back up again.

I think Days and probably even CBS are wise to just let ABC have the sweeps months. I have noticed that for the most part that NBC and CBS are no longer pulling out big stories for sweeps months. They keep their big reveals and things for later - such as ATWT is pulling the big Dusty story in March (laying the ground work in Feb) and the Luke story is going to heat up in March with some ground work laid in Feb.

ABC has made it clear that they are committed to the big stories for the sweeps, so let them have it. I feel sure that the pattern will continue that seems to have been set in the last year or two where you will see the ratings start to change some as the ABC shows go back to the status quo. This has been the trend. I think AMC (even though I am no longer watching) is the only one with any type of big story still going on after sweeps. OLTL sort of does with the Todd thing but from looking at spoilers and interviews with Higley the big stories are not even set for OLTL until May sweeps again.

So I say more power to Days and ATWT and other shows like them.

[Adam]

AMC held.... wow for a change Hope they count Monday... why wouldn't they?

[ksale]

Has hell frozen over? Somehow I doubt CBS and NBC are going to look the other way as their shows fail to bring in more ad money, and in some cases less ad money, because of poor sweep ratings. That's just absurd.

[SteveFrame]

I didn't say they had completely given over to them, just that they do not plan their big stories for those months anymore. ABC pretty much has all their reveals those months. They have for awhile. GH esp plans big event stories or returns just about every sweeps period lately.

Y&R had a pretty big story for Feb with John's trial and all.

CBS and NBC just do not make the sweeps the be all and end all of their shows.

I for one have watched GH every day the month of February and they ran one story pretty much the whole month and it pretty much concluded on Feb 28th. It was electrifying and every entertaining television. Their ongoing stories were backdrops with slight movement in the Sonny/Emily romance and finally some definite evidence that Sam is Alexis' daughter. Neither of those stories make me want to continue to tune in but I will because I am a fan of the show.

OLTL have the big plane crash which was no good. Their other stories crept along this month with very few details exposed or anything. They spent a little over a week on that plane crash. I love the show and will continue to watch and wait for the stories to drag on, but if I was a new viewer there was nothing special that would make me want to come back.

I want comment on AMC because right after the ball and it was finally confirmed that Josh was Erica's son I turned it off and didn't turn back on after 30 years of watching the show.

I only watched Days and ATWT on NBC and CBS for the whole month and while both were slow at times, they both were consistent and continued the stories taht they had going on and toward the end of the month both heated up with some exciting stories that will keep wanting to come back each day.

I think that is what Days and ATWT do taht is smarter than just sweeps programming.

So no I don't think they are sitting back and letting ABC have all the advertising dollars. They are just trying to combat it with a different approach - a different type of programming.

[ksale]

That makes no sense to me. The networks don't air soaps out of charity. They do it to make money. Having the shows "sitting back" during a sweeps month and allowing another network "have all the advertising dollars" is [!@#$%^&*] insane.

The ratings for DOOL (anyway) say that after Zack's death veiwers tuned out again and they are now back to that 2.6 range. Hardly spectacular, and I can't see NBC being happy because that most likely means less ad money!

[KBT]

Shouldnt OLTL be a 2.6?

About DAYS ratings, I just hope the demos get better because they have been lacking all of February. March is going good so far, and should stay that way with most of the stories heating up, I just hope DAYS can keep around a 2.7 and always be in the hunt for that 3rd spot in overall viewers.

[SteveFrame]

If you will look back at my posts you will see that I said that CBS and NBC are taking a different approach to sweeps than ABC does. They are not sitting back and giving up. CBS' approach evidently works for Y&R and B&B. Even with all ABC's grandstanding in February they didn't even get very close to B&B which was pretty lackluster during the month.

Days might have just had a 2.6 and somewhere maybe around a 2.7 for the month, but even with taht they were not very far behind any of the ABC shows.

I have to think too that even if they do get a little more advertising dollars than NBC or two of CBS's shows, Days, ATWT and GL come out the winners. All of ABC's grandstanding had to have cost them a pretty penny with OLTL renting the plane that they highly publicized, GH luring back to former popular stars for short stays, and AMC with the big techical explosion - the other 2 shows stayed at the status quo and in the end they will probably come out pretty even.

As I said in the last of my post, CBS and NBC are just coming up with a smarter approach - keep you ratings pretty even, stick with the status quo, and work to lure the viewers back. ABC as I said have consistently done these big stories and get some ratings surges because of them but they do nothing at all to keep them. They always fall back down. AMC and GH had big Monday's during the month but the rest of the days they were always close to the rest of the middle.

[Jess]

I don't think including college campuses is going to give soaps much of a bump. I'm a graduate student and really there aren't that many people who watch soaps in the undergraduate or graduate age group. If including DVRs doesn't give soaps much of a bump, well then, the handwriting is on the wall.