Someone mentioned in one of the Y&R threads that the week Victor came back from the dead the second time was one of Y&R's highest rated weeks. That got me thinking, what was the highest rated week or episode of each show? 

 

I mean, we all know the highest rated episode of a soap opera was Luke and Laura's wedding in '81, but how about Loving? Or All My Children? Or Sunset Beach? I'm curious as to which storylines had people tuning in an unusually high number.

18 hours ago, GLATWT88 said:

 

But to answer your question an 8.1 HH rating in 1988 for Days would almost certainly equal more viewers than a 9 it scored in say 1978. 

 

Thanks for those HH vs. total viewer comparisons.  Comparing Nielsen ratings by decade is like comparing the cost of living over the years without factoring in inflation.

Of the lesser successful soaps, does anyone know what was the highest rating Loving ever achieved?

There is NO evidence out there to back up the claim that Steve & Betsy’s wedding on ATWT got 20 million viewers. The show wasn’t even #1 that week! 
Take heart. By now, that wedding has had more than 20 million viewers via youtube, etc. They just didn’t have 20 million viewers the week that it aired. 

22 hours ago, VanessaReardon said:

There is NO evidence out there to back up the claim that Steve & Betsy’s wedding on ATWT got 20 million viewers. The show wasn’t even #1 that week! 
Take heart. By now, that wedding has had more than 20 million viewers via youtube, etc. They just didn’t have 20 million viewers the week that it aired. 

I’ve shared before how I was always skeptical regarding that claim.

This is my ratings archive page, if you have yet to see it, for anyone interested!

 

The household ratings for pretty much every week from 1989 covering through when SON started listing them on a complete basis.

 

I scanned in every Soap Weekly chart a few years back and posted them.

 

http://www.jason47.com/days/nielsensweekly.html

Edited June 1, 20205 yr by JAS0N47

2 hours ago, JAS0N47 said:

This is my ratings archive page, if you have yet to see it, for anyone interested!

 

The household ratings for pretty much every week from 1989 covering through when SON started listing them on a complete basis.

 

I scanned in every Soap Weekly chart a few years back and posted them.

 

http://www.jason47.com/days/nielsensweekly.html

That's amazing! Thank you