Ratings From the 90's

[kalbir]

Y&R big events: Sheila visits Scott, gives him drugged martinis, and we know what that leads to. Nikki learns she is pregnant. Victor and Ashley get married. Nikki's horse riding accident, a fall that results in a miscarriage and a back injury. 

Bill Bell is setting two big storylines for 1991 in motion, the baby switch and Nikki's substance abuse.

Days has really dropped in September and October. The supercouple era is ending with a whimper. It must be close to if not already Stephen Nichols departure.

Edited November 24, 2023 by kalbir

[Franko]

According to the Daytime Royalty summaries ...

Friday, Oct. 12, 1990, included Patch being caught in the explosion meant for Bo (and knowing that it was arranged by Lawrence). The week of Oct. 15-19 was dominated by whether or not Patch would die. Stephen Nichols' last episode of his original run was Tuesday, Oct. 23.

[te.]

NBC Daytime is just falling apart at this point. Ouch.

[Paul Raven]

In May 89,after a 10 yr stint as VP of NBC daytime Brian Frons departed and Jackie Smith, who headed ABC daytime  from 77-86, was brought in to fix things.

I'm surprised Frons lasted that long, when NBC had limited success all those years. Who knows, if they had shown Frons the door earlier, maybe NBC daytime might have had more success?

What do you think NBC could have/should have done in the 80's to improve their fortunes?

[Khan]

For sure, AW never should have expanded to ninety minutes daily.  Even if a daily, 90-minute soap were feasible, AW was the wrong soap to do it.  AW's audience was eroding, and Harding Lemay was displaying signs of creative exhaustion, too.  All the expansion to 90 minutes did was seal AW's fate as the "dead soap walking" for the next two decades. 

Similarly, TEXAS and SaBa never should have premiered at sixty minutes each.  (Same goes for SuBe and PASSIONS).  I can't think of any soap that premiered at 60 minutes daily and then went onto have a long and successful run.  In all four cases, you had new shows with a lot of airtime to fill, but not a lot of great characters and storylines to fill it with.  If PASSIONS, SaBa, SuBe and TEXAS had been allowed to premiere at 30 minutes each instead, the respective PTB at each show might have been better able to zero in on what was working and jettison what wasn't.

Conversely, I suspect that if THE DOCTORS had expanded to sixty minutes daily, it might have been able to survive past 1982.  Provided, of course, they had the right HW and EP in place.

And while I think GENERATIONS was just the type of groundbreaking soap that daytime needed in the late '80's, I also think they chose the wrong person to steer it.

[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 10/15/90-10/19/90 & 10/22/90-10/26/90:

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 10/29/90-11/2/90 & 11/5/90-11/9/90:

[kalbir]

Y&R big event: Katherine exposes Jill seeing both Rex and John at the same time.

B&B October 19, 1990 Thorne and Macy get married.

Days October 23, 1990 Stephen Nichols departure and the end of the supercouple era.

Y&R big events: Nikki has a miscarriage and shortly afterwards starts taking painkillers. Sheila finds out she is pregnant. Olivia and Dru meet.

Guiding Light big event: Roger and Holly in Acapulco.

B&B November 7, 1990 Brooke gives birth to Rick.

Edited November 25, 2023 by kalbir

[BoldRestless]

10/29/90-11/2/90:
GL - You have 5.3, SOW has 5.1

[Franko]

Jumping ahead a little, NBC announced Generations' cancellation on Wednesday, Nov. 21, 1990.

[kalbir]

Generations clearance started dropping summer 1990, cancellation announced some three months later, and two months later the final episode. Pretty quick moves by NBC.

AFAIK there were no new big syndicated talk show debuts in Fall 1990. At that point we were at four years of Oprah, three years of Geraldo, two years of Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. Fall 1991 was the debuts of Jenny Jones, Maury Povich, Jerry Springer, and Montel Williams, and I think clearances for Loving and Santa Barbara dropped in that time frame but I could be wrong on that.

Edited November 25, 2023 by kalbir

[Franko]

Yup, they were clearly ready to move. I posted the cancellation announcement article on the NBC Daytime thread. It seems the network was intending to move further into the news and infotainment field.

Yup, to the best of my knowledge, there was no significant new syndicated talk show in 1990-91. As it turns out, there was actually a fifth debut in fall 1991: Chuck Woolery also had his own show.

[Khan]

To quote Sally Sussman from that article: “To be perfectly honest, as soon as the show went on the air, they were talking about canceling it.”  (Brandon Tartikoff might have wanted another soap on NBC's lineup, but the affiliates sure didn't.)

[Soapsuds]

ATWT: Barbara gives birth to Jennifer. It is revealed that Daryl is the father of Barbara's baby.

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[JAS0N47]

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 11/12/90-11/16/90 & 11/19/90-11/23/90:

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FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 11/26/90-11/30/90 & 12/3/90-12/7/90:

[kalbir]

Y&R November 16, 1990 we saw during the classics. Danny and Cricket get married.

Other big events on Y&R: Lauren finds out she is pregnant and when she prepares to tell Scott her news, Scott tells her that he got Sheila pregnant.

Guiding Light December 1990 Pamela Long departure. I'm not sure the date of the last episode she was credited as HW.

Edited November 27, 2023 by kalbir