LATEST RATINGS: January 29 - February 2, 2018

[Faulkner]

Bill Bell was a smart man. It is telling that the three of his soaps (even if he didn’t create DAYS, his DNA is all over it) are among the last ones standing.

[Soapsuds]

As much as I flove Will Horton(Chandler Massey)(waves at Chandler if he reads this board...LOL) ....but come on.....Days numbers have been much worse than ATWT or GL's were and its still on the air. Why? Because NBC hasn't been successful in the filling that time slot.  It has nothing to do with Bill Bell.

[Faulkner]

I’m not saying Bell is the main reason why DAYS is still on the air, but on balance, his approach to soaps persisted.

[RavenWhitney]

I've noticed Mal Young is not holding on to the spike in ratings from new year.  Hmmmm.

 

All four soaps are fairly terrible. No matter how limited the budget, the writing is bad and casting is worse.  I watched a few episodes of The Doctors on youtube as well as a few other soaps from 60s and the sets were serviceable but the writing was strong, the performers could ACT (mostly)!  None of the shows reflect 21st century.  The gay characters are still marginalized; stories about other minorities come and go and most shows are still hiring light skinned black actors to play the parts. Oh except when they need a day player nurse to dispense advice.  Fat people are still relegated to humorous or tragic roles (Amy on GH).  The young characters (most of whom are cast by models who couldn't act their way  out of a paper bag) play out the familiar theme (bad girl/boy; pregnancy; rehabilitation).  If one of the shows gets the balls to pull a Gloria Monty or Paul Rauch and come into the 21st century, it may survive cancellation.  GH and Young are the two that seem to be showing signs of life going into March.  

[Faulkner]

I think the ship has sailed on the opportunity for a renaissance. The rest of TV isn’t doing much better.

[Melroser]

I know everyone will argue about the fact that Days is up over last year in total viewers doesn't mean anything, but I'm hoping it helps at NBC to get it renewed. How many primetime shows....even the successful ones...can say they have increased viewers this season? The 18-49 demo for Days is not off that much either. Admittedly, I thought Ron's Days would be a lot more fun to watch than it is but I still want to see it stick around.