‘B&B’ Ranks Number One In Viewers, All Demos For the First Time Ever

[Cat]

Well, damn. I am not watching either show (Y&R is so stodgy; B&B is a repetitive wisp of a show) but I never thought I would see the day that B&B surpasses Y&R in the ratings. Certainly not under Bradley Bell's tenure! The guy has not written an original SL in over two decades. But some of these numbers represent pandemic-related volatility. Which may only get worse. I worry whether our longtime soaps will return after their eventual hiatus. I hope they do because, despite it all, I always hope for a new resurgence in the current crop. On the other hand... maybe with people remote-working, the remaining episodes will win over some new fans tuning in during a lunch break.

 

Also: I wonder what Bradley Bell would be like as HW of Y&R? It would be a much tougher gig than B&B and he would really have to up his game. 

Edited March 27, 2020 by Cat

[KMan101]

We are living in such a weird timeline. Disney owns The Simpsons. B&B is beating Y&R. LOL

 

Primetime ratings seem to be benefitting from folks staying home. Wonder if that will start to be the case with the soaps? If not ... but at the same time, DAYS is like in the top 5 on NBC's app. If not top 3-2-1. So there IS an audience. AMC and OLTL were often #1 and #2 on Hulu after dropping. Why are they not realizing this? DAYS at least is trying to break into the online world with their webseries spin-offs and the DOOL App. Kudos to them.

 

I've actually never thought of Bradley at Y&R, ironically. LOL. I think we'd have better staff writers and it could end up feeling at least a little more familiar. But hooo boy. Could you imagine? lol

[rlj]

Basically, people tuned out cuz of Trump airing in place of YR lol!  But congrats to BB!

[edgeofnik]

OC, the partial pre-emptions for Y&R (and they were significant), opened the door for B&B. However, B&B came really close to Y&R when Beth was returned to Hope/Liam. 

 

B&B has always been an oddity for me for three reasons:

1) When the stories are bad, you can completely tune out. When they wrap they are forgotten (Brad's really good at this);

2) B&B's incredible ability to shift quickly and drop in new stories at a record pace. The four-episode 'balloon' in late-January: Quinn's smackdown of Brooke was quickly jumped on with the out-of-the-blue Brill kiss, which was a sidebar to the Thomas/Zoe accelerated wedding activities. It worked because it's a plausible twist based on the characters involved. Less than 3 weeks later, it's blown-up at the party. 

3) When B&B is hot and focused - like the Thomas/Zoe wedding and Brill kiss, it's so addictive. BUT it's like a sugar high. I fully expect to be tuning out at some point soon. 

[ranger1rg]

I repeat, the week’s ratings are worthless and I’m guessing CBS is ignoring them.

 

There is NO WAY Y&R loses over 200k viewers in one week whole BOLD picks up over 400k. The only explanation is that Y&R was pre-empted or cut a

most every day.

[Cat]

 

The mind literally boggles! Lol. Actually, I just started a topic in DTS asking this very question of others. 

 

IA getting soaps onto these streaming services and taking streaming into consideration as ratings (I've never understood why not -- it is just as viable an indicator of viewing interests) would help boost their viability a lot. And I believe Days online also has an audience that stretches from young to old and cuts across a lot of racial, gender and income categories too. If that is not fertile ground for advertisers, I don't know what is.

[edgeofnik]

Also, it's not going to matter in two or three weeks. Y&R B&B should run out of fresh episodes, GH probably a week after. DAYS will be #1 by end of April.  

[KMan101]

 

lmao. No lies here. Wonder what the networks start doing? Reruns? News coverage? Start up production with social distancing and 10 people only in the studio? I wish I were joking but this is where we're at I suppose.

 

Meanwhile, Pandemic on ABC is doing better in the demos than all their daytime shows. We aren't getting AMC and OLTL back on daytime. Sigh.

 

I'll go check that thread out Cat! And yep, the mind boggles. What a weird timeline (for a lot of other reasons, too! that we don't need to get into on here, LMAO)

 

I would love to know just how much streaming numbers ultimately matter. I get the whole "advertisers" thing but can't that be put to use on streaming? Sponsors? I feel like my brain isn't working that well right now lol. I know they run ads and stuff but ... how does it all ultimately work? 

 

Agreed completely on your take on DAYS and who watches online. Why on earth is this not being taken into consideration? And if it is ... why don't they release this kind of thing? I feel like as much as we embrace streaming now, we're still not where we should be.

[edgeofnik]

@KMan101 I watch DAYS exclusively through the NBC app. Two important things: 1) it's ad supported with 'live' ads meaning if I watch an episode from January, I'm still getting the current ads - so it's no different than live TV. 

2) NBC knows exactly how many people are not only watching through the app, but also, when ppl FF through scenes. Unlike the antiquated Nielsen system, they are getting real data. 

 

I just hope DAYS doesn't get moved to Peacock - meaning a paid subscription. This is my frustration with B&B/Y&R, the CBS free app only gets you 5 episodes. You have to subscribe to CAA to get back episodes. NBC was smart to have the most recent 4 months of DAYS continually available - that's how I've gotten caught up twice during past 3 years. If not for that back log of episodes, I wouldn't have bothered.  

 

The networks would be smart to promote the streaming option hard to the daytime ad demo is W25-54 - and a lot of them are very comfortable with streaming. But also, there's a huge potential audience with younger women (definitely streamers). Unless the shows start to resemble TEON or DS, which had huge male audiences, it's unlikely to get significant numbers there.