Looking back...Primetime Ratings from the 80's

[te.]

The season premiere of the 84-85 season was on October 4th, so it wasn't on in week one of the season.

[Soaplovers]

Punky Brewster had a good start at #40... considering it was in a tough timeslot.

 

[Soapsuds]

Knots debut episode was the following week. It ranked #7 with a  21.1 rating and 34 share

[Khan]

Say what you want about Bill Cosby, but his impact on the television landscape w/ TCS was enormous and is still being felt today.

[Soapsuds]

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[kalbir]

@Khan Agree. The Cosby Show was the start of NBC's 20 year dominance of Thursday night, and it was a killer show that pretty much destroyed everything in its path, time slot wise and overall, until I'd say Spring 1988.

1984/85 Magnum, P.I. fell out of the Top 10. ABC made numerous changes to Thursday 8 pm because nothing was working. The Cosby Show finishes the season at #3.

1985/86 Magnum, P.I. fell out of the Top 30 and the following season CBS moved it to Wednesday 9 pm. ABC made numerous changes to Thursday 8 pm because nothing was working. The Cosby Show finishes the season at #1.

1986/87 CBS moves Simon & Simon to Thursday 8 pm and it falls out of the Top 30. CBS then redoes their Thursday lineup numerous times because nothing was working. ABC schedules one season and done news program Our World. The Cosby Show finishes the season at #1.

1987/88 CBS schedules new drama Tour of Duty which doesn't finish in the Top 30 and the following season it was moved to Tuesday 8 pm. ABC made numerous changes to Thursday 8 pm because nothing was working. The Cosby Show finishes the season at #1.

1988/89 was the writer's strike delayed season. Roseanne was the breakout hit of that season and it was the first show to threaten The Cosby Show's overall dominance. The Cosby Show still finishes the season at #1 though.

1989/90 Roseanne tied The Cosby Show for #1.

1990/91 Fox moves The Simpsons to Thursday 8 pm. The Cosby Show falls from 1st to 5th.

1991/92 The Cosby Show falls from 5th to 18th in its final season.

 

Edited July 4, 2022 by kalbir

[soapfan770]

Nothing seemed to work for ABC on Thursday nights at all in the 80’s and 90’s lol. I remember as a kid liking the Charmings sitcom but that quickly flopped. They burnt through so many shows and news programs I think only Primetime Live lasted. Eventually they just ran movies on Thursday nights. It wasn’t until Grey’s Anatomy moved to Thursday nights in 2006 they finally made headway. 

At least CBS and Fox had some moderate success on Thursday nights. 

 

[Khan]

CBS tried SO hard to make "Tour of Duty" work.  It seemed like each new season was a completely different show.

Didn't I read somewhere (maybe on this board) that "Roseanne" actually topped TCS but that the margins were so close that Nielsens had them tying?

[kalbir]

CBS tried so hard to make the new dramas they launched in the second half of the 1980s work, but the ones that managed to have multiple season runs never showed any signs of growth.

Every article I've found says The Cosby Show and Roseanne tied for #1 in 1989/90.

[soapfan770]

Very true. The Equalizer had some success but wasn’t always consistent quality wise. Beauty and the Beast had a cult following but it didn’t translate into the mainstream. Grandparents watched Jake and the Farman but we never did. And yeah I vaguely remember my dad watching Tour of Duty occasionally but that’s about all I remember of the show. My parents still watched Dallas to the bitter end but traded Knots for LA Law. 

Edited April 17, 2022 by soapfan770

[Paul Raven]

Knots didn't air that week.

CBS showed a 2 hr Simon & Simon 9-11 Thursday.

Knots premiered the following week Th 10-11 and ranked 8th 21.1/34 beating hill St Blues 22nd and Baseball on ABC 24th

[BetterForgotten]

The concept of ‘Must See TV’ wouldn’t exist without TCS, hence why NBC always held Cosby in such high esteem and reverence until his devious actions came to light in the mainstream over the last decade.

Remember - he was working on another project for NBC that was shelved once his deeds came to light…

Edited April 18, 2022 by BetterForgotten

[Khan]

That's right!  He was!  I totally forgot about that until you brought it up, @BetterForgotten!

For the life of me, though, I can't remember what the project was supposedly about.  Either it was a TCS revival, which I highly doubt, or it was a brand-new show about a multi-generational family under one roof or something to that effect.

I think a big problem with CBS's dramas during that period was that they weren't innovative, or innovative enough.  On NBC, you had "Hill Street Blues," "Miami Vice," "St. Elsewhere" and "L.A. Law," to name but four; and on ABC, you had "Moonlighting," "thirtysomething," "China Beach," etc*.  But what did CBS have?  Aside from "Beauty and the Beast" and "Wiseguy," they had the kinds of shows that appealed more to older, conservative viewers who didn't watch TV for experimentation or innovation.

 

(*To say nothing of the half-hour "dramedy," which ABC perfected with "Doogie Howser, M.D.," "Hooperman" and especially "The Wonder Years.")

Edited April 17, 2022 by Khan

[Vee]

It was a brand new show IIRC. I don't remember the plot details but there were some.

[Faulkner]

Not to veer too off topic: Northern Exposure and Picket Fences may have dominated the Emmys in the ‘90s, but lived in the shadow of Twin Peaks, then Chicago Hope in the shadow of ER. They never had that linchpin, pop culture show until maybe CSI. I rarely hear anyone discuss NE, PF, or CH these days, partially because they aren’t streaming aside from PF. I’m glad to see Wiseguy on Peacock, but I guess it’s a bit radioactive due to Spacey.

Maybe I’m underselling NE, because the Rob Morrow/Janine Turner romance was a big deal in hindsight.