Highest Rated Episodes Ever

[Jerry675]

Obviously GH Luke and Laura's wedding was the #1 most watched episode of an American soap ever at around 30 million viewers.  What were the others? I know ATWT Steve and Betsy's wedding was watched by around 20 million viewers.

[Bright Eyes]

 

Steve and Kayla's first wedding is the highest rated episode for Days of Our Lives. I don't know the figure though.

[YRfan23]

I'm sure Victor and Nikki's first wedding in 84 was a high ratings event.

[Gray Bunny]

I wish we could see the Nielsen ratings for weeks in the 80's when certain soaps hit #1. Like the three weeks Guiding Light was No. 1 in August 1984.  And I wonder if the DAYS Patch/Kayla wedding garnered them a first place spot or at least close to. And did AMC ever top the charts again after being number one in the late 70's? Did OLTL ever place first during their 43 years? 

[Scrapple]

It would be interesting to see what the highest-rated episode for every soap was.

[Paul Raven]

Anyone interested in ratings should check the Cancelled soap thread for ratings from the 50's thru 80s.

 

Days hit #1 for Steve and Kayla's wedding with an 8.1/26 rating. What that meant in terms of viewers I'm not sure as Nielson measurements changed over the years,

 

Days had higher ratings in the 70s but not sure if that translated into higher viewership. It would be intersting to see the numbers for Doug and Julie's wedding for example.

[Soapsuds]

When did SOD start posting ratings in their magazines? Even back then it was bi monthy ratings and not weekly.....or was it monthly?

[LoyaltoAMC]

I believe AMC hit #1 twice in 1987. First time was the week of Memorial Day. And then the first week of December 1987, it hit #1 with the culmination of the Silver/Damon Lazarre storyline. Had something like an 8.0 rating. I'm pretty sure it hit #1 for a few weeks during the Luke/Laura heyday, possibly with Cliff and Nina's wedding. I also believe it beat Y&R in some of the dailies in 92 or 93 when the Tad/Dixie stuff was hopping, but never beat Y&R for an entire week.

[Gray Bunny]

 

Thanks for the reminder

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 And 8.1 put them at No. 1 in 1988. Hmm... must've been a slow week for GH and Y&R. 

 

SOD started posting the actual numbers around April 1992, I think. I have nearly every issue since 1989. Before, they just listed them from highest to lowest without actual Nielsen points listed. A couple times, they'd go into detail, such as in '90 or '91 when they made mention of GL hitting No. 3 for a number of weeks and posted the actual numbers. 

 

At the time it was bi-weekly. They became weekly in March of 1997. I don't know when it switched from monthly to bi-weekly. I wanna say like 1981 but could be wrong. 

 

[Soapsuds]

That's what I thought....SOD only posted the order they ranked without actually numbers. I had several SOD and SOW from 92  where it had ATWT at #2 behind Y&R will actually nielsen numbers.