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

[soapfan770]

I can definitely see that airing the same week as The Love Boat colliding with an iceberg and sinking while crossing the North Atlantic on the Titanic anniversary with a “Who lives and dies?!” Promo next to Mr Belvedere being blackmailed over his wanted fugitive status back in the UK

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Agree with you both. I am also going assume that while Hotel may had some big numbers the first 2 seasons BUT the demographics weren’t great. Reason I say this is I distinctly remember my parents watching St Elsewhere and/or The Equalizer after Dynasty. 
 

I still don’t get Hotel’s designation as a primetime soap opera either lol.

ABC should have aired Paper Dolls in the 10/9 slot on Wednesdays in the fall of 1984 to give that show some more legs. 
 

Obviously ABC was eyeing a double bill night in the same vein as Dallas & Falcon Crest and that might have worked better than leaving Paper Dolls to the wolves in an untested timeslot.

Edited yesterday at 02:32 AM by soapfan770

[kalbir]

Aaron Spelling still had clout with ABC in Fall 1984, as I think they knew he was going to pull out all the stops for Dynasty to get to #1, which he did. That's probably why ABC kept Hotel as Dynasty lead out.

Fall 1985 with the sale to Capital Cities and Brandon Stoddard arrival, Aaron Spelling would lose his clout with ABC.

[Paul Raven]

And maybe Hotel could have been placed at 9pm Tues instead of Paper Dolls. Not that I thing it was a surefire thing but at least viewers were familiar with the show and it might have done better than PD. ABC's line up was pretty threadbare at that point.

And with a big guest star to launch the season - Elizabeth Taylor- the numbers would have been there initially.

[Khan]

I guess it's because the stories on "Hotel" tended to be very...melodramatic, lol?  I mean, it seems like every episode had long-lost lovers reuniting or people finding out someone they knew and/or loved was dying.  And then there was the time Anne Baxter was strung out on dope, lol.

Brandon Stoddard must've envied what the other Brandon (Tartikoff) was doing at NBC.

Edited 15 hours ago by Khan

[Franko]

As the folklore goes, Love Boat episodes generally had one "heart" story, one "laughs" story, and one "tears" story. I guess Hotel just stuck with "heart" and "tears."

[kalbir]

Brandon Tartikoff saved NBC primetime.

Brandon Stoddard got ABC Tuesday to rebound and put an end to the Aaron Spelling hit factory.

[Paul Raven]

I think Hotel would have the similar demos as Dynasty W 19-49 would have been strong.

St Elsewhere survived b/c it attracted wealthier/urban viewers and The Equalizer was probably stronger with men and younger viewers. So each had their own niche-good counter-programming.

As for Aaron Spelling's influence over ABC in terms of scheduling, I don't know if he would have been happy with Charlie's Angels moving to Sunday, The Colbys scheduled on Thursdays or Matt Houston moved to Fridays. I think he just had to roll with the punches.

[kalbir]

The Equalizer original series was not a big hit yet it became a movie franchise and got a reboot series. The Equalizer reboot lasted 5 seasons, so one season longer than the original series.

[JoeCool]

@kalbir MSW was a powerhouse for CBS. Angela Lansbury was a superb actress. In 1985, TV viewers were tiring of the primetime soaps and the like. People wanted storytelling and MSW was great at that and had great guest stars. Storytelling -- an amazing and novel concept. CBS Daytime by 1985 was beating ABC so CBS was on the upswing.

[Wendy]

I think maybe viewers needed a break from Aaron Spelling by 1985 or 1986. He had a series, Macgruder and Loud, which I recall, even as a young teen, getting TONS of promotion with even a post-Super Bowl slot, and it failed.

Viewers probably were - as said here - tired of soapy fare and went elsewhere. But they must have missed him since, as we know, Spelling rose from the TV ashes in the '90s with Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place!

Edited 6 hours ago by Wendy

[Paul Raven]

Dallas, Dynasty, Knots and Falcon Crest all had good runs but by 85 they had seen better days.

I think they were a victim of the format. After several seasons seeing the same characters front and center viewers were bored. What was once fascinating grew predictable.

JR, Alexis etc had to be front and center and after a while their schemes and shtick grew repetitive. JR remarrying Sue Ellen, Alexis constantly trying to get he better of Blake etc

Unlike daytime, there wasn't the flexibility to bring in other stories and characters and maybe let the likes JR go backburner. That same mentality also invaded daytime with characters like  Sonny and Victor still peddling the same stuff after decades.

I guess the same could be said for MSW eg every week Jessica encounters a crime and solves it,but I think viewers come to that format with a different mindset.