To this day, The Day After is still the highest rated made for TV movie on the broadcast networks ever.

Edited September 26, 20223 yr by kalbir

Top Television Shows for the 1980-1981 Season

1	Dallas
3	The Dukes of Hazzard
4	The Love Boat
5	Private Benjamin
6	M*A*S*H
7	House Calls
8	The Jeffersons
9	(Tie) The Two of Us
9	(Tie) Little House on the Prairie
10	Alice
11	Real People
12	(Tie) One Day at a Time
12	(Tie) The Greatest American Hero
13	Three's Company
14	Magnum, P.I.
15	(Tie) Too Close for Comfort
15	(Tie) ABC Sunday Movie
16	Diff'rent Strokes
17	Archie Bunker's Place

Edited September 26, 20223 yr by Paul Raven

Week ending March 23, 1980

The Dallas cliffhanger... A House Divided

 

 

Edited September 28, 20223 yr by Soapsuds

The highest rated episodes of the big four primetime soaps

Dallas: November 21, 1980, "Who Done It". Rating 53.3. Who shot JR revealed.

Knots Landing: March 29, 1984, "Negotiations". Rating 23.3. 5th season finale.

Dynasty: September 25, 1985, "The Aftermath". Rating 28.1. 6th season premiere.

Falcon Crest: February 19, 1982, "Family Reunion". Rating 25.2. Lana Turner first appearance.

 

Edited September 28, 20223 yr by kalbir

2 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

Week ending March 23, 1980

The Dallas cliffhanger... A House Divided

 

 

Looking back to the start of the season, Eight is Enough and Charlies Angels were Top 10 shows but slowly NBC gained dominance with Real People and Diff'rent Strokes. Unfortunately Hello Larry and Best of Saturday Night Live were always weaker in the latter part of the Wed lineup.

Chips was moved to Sunday at mid season and that paid off for NBC.

Interesting that Benson made the Top 20 but it's lead in Mork and Mindy didn't. Mork had been weakened by being moved to Sunday and never regained it's numbers when it was moved back to Thursday.

Palmerstown was trialed in The Waltons Thur timeslot and started out strong but ratings softened over it's short run. I'm sure at first CBS thought they had found areplacement for the long running but fading Waltons.

Dukes/Dallas really solidified their hit status over the season.

Also this late in the season there is the probability that some shows were repeats so viewers gravitated towards new eps.

eg Chips was probably a new ep but Archie Bunker may have been a repeat.

CBS Monday Mash/House Calls/Lou Grant always benefitted if the competing ABC/NBC movies didn't score.

On 9/28/2022 at 12:36 AM, kalbir said:

The highest rated episodes of the big four primetime soaps

Dallas: November 21, 1980, "Who Done It". Rating 53.3. Who shot JR revealed.

Knots Landing: March 29, 1984, "Negotiations". Rating 23.3. 5th season finale.

Dynasty: September 25, 1985, "The Aftermath". Rating 28.1. 6th season premiere.

Falcon Crest: February 19, 1982, "Family Reunion". Rating 25.2. Lana Turner first appearance.

 

Actually Knots Landing highest rated episode was on October 29, 1982. It was a Friday episode that aired right after Dallas. It ranked #4 and tied with Dynasty with a 25.6 rating. It features Abby, Val and Gary in Dallas during the reading of Jock's will.

For the week of December 23, 1983

 

Edited September 30, 20223 yr by Soapsuds

@Soapsuds Thank you for the correction.

1983-1984 season

 

Edited October 4, 20223 yr by Soapsuds

Fall 1982 to Spring 1985 was the peak of action shows Magnum, P.I.; Simon & Simon, The A-Team. Their finishes in that era: Magnum, P.I. 3rd (tied w/ M*A*S*H) in 1982/83 (it's highest finish ever), 6th in 1983/84, 15th in 1984/85. Simon & Simon 7th in 1982/83, 5th in 1983/84 (it's highest finish ever), 7th in 1984/85. The A-Team 10th (tied w/ Monday Night Football) in 1982/83 (its first season), 4th in 1983/84 (it's highest finish ever), 6th in 1984/85.

Fall 1985, all three got clobbered by counter-programmed sitcoms. Magnum, P.I. got weakened in 1984/85 by The Cosby Show (that season's breakout hit) and The Cosby Show becoming #1 in 1985/86 effectively finished Magnum, P.I. but CBS kept it until 1987/88. Simon & Simon got clobbered by Cheers in 1985/86 and the ill-fated move to Thursday 8 pm in Fall 1986 head-to-head w/ #1 The Cosby Show effectively finished Simon & Simon but CBS kept it until 1988/89. The A-Team got clobbered by Who's the Boss in 1985/86 and the move to Friday 8 pm in Fall 1986 didn't work thus NBC ending it Spring 1987.

Edited October 13, 20223 yr by kalbir

Promo ABC ran when Roseanne dethroned Cosby in the weekly ratings in 1989. 

How often were these types of promos done congratulating shows that hit #1? I remember Roseanne saying at the time all ABC gave her was this promo and a stupid cake that said #1 (which she and George Clooney took a baseball bat to) while the male network stars were getting fancy cars and bigger network deals. 

Must have been an amazing time for Carsey-Werner though, having the top 3 shows in all of television at this point. That’s a feat I don’t believe another production company has ever accomplished.
 

 

Edited October 5, 20223 yr by BetterForgotten

Roseanne hit #1 the week it took over the Tues 9pm timeslot.

It had a rating of 27.7/40.

Cosby was #2 25.3/40

The 9.30 follow up Anything but Love was # 7 22.6/34

The competition was In The heat of the Night NBC #21 17.1/25 and the CBS Tuesday Movie #75 6.4/10

Roseanne's success to this point was noteworthy.

I think it was the first  show that was moved to a lead in (8/9pm) timeslot in its first season.

And one of the few shows to hit #1 in the weekly ratings in its first season. Cosby did it as did Beverly Hillbillies. Can't think of any others. Maybe Laugh In or Marcus Welby?

The first episode of Roseanne to hit #1 was Dec 20, 1988 "Here's to Good Friends" with a 21.7 rating and 34% share

Rosanne had only debuted on Oct 18th of that year - so, two months in, it was already hitting #1 in the weeklies and the first serious challenger to Cosby's then dominance.

Fall 1985 to Spring 1988 was the peak of family sitcoms The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Who's the Boss, Growing Pains, and they all embodied mid-1980s Reagan era ideals. Fall 1988 Roseanne comes along and it's the anti-Reagan era ideal family sitcom. Roseanne is the breakout hit of 1988/89 and the first show to threaten The Cosby Show's overall dominance. One-by-one we saw the previous big family sitcoms decline and end: Spring 1989, Growing Pains falls out of the Top 10 and Family Ties ends. Spring 1990, Roseanne ties The Cosby Show for #1 and Who's the Boss falls out of the Top 10. Spring 1991, The Cosby Show loses #1 to Cheers. Spring 1992, The Cosby Show, Who's the Boss, Growing Pains all end.

Thank goodness for sitcoms like Cheers, Kate & Allie, Nightcourt, The Golden Girls, and Designing Women for counterbalancing those corny family sitcoms.