What timeslots do you think severed or hurt a soap? Other questions to consider: were there any soaps that should/should not have been on at the same time? Ex. Should the new Port Charles have been put opposite the #1 Y&R at 12:30pm?

I'll start: Growing up Guiding Light always aired at 10am on my local CBS O&O. I always found myself thinking that was very early in the day for a soap opera. According to Wikipedia, I probably wasn't alone in this thought: 

Quote

 

In 1995, beginning with CBS flagship station WCBS-TV in New York, Guiding Light began airing at 10 a.m. Eastern time in several markets. Its once-solid performance began to crumble by the mid-1990s, when its ratings sunk as low as ninth place out of ten. 

Up until its CBS finale in 2009, stations in a number of markets aired Guiding Light in the morning either at 9 or 10 a.m. local time: Miami, Chicago,...New York City, Los Angeles... Guiding Light aired at 12 noon local time in Honolulu, Hawaii. In Savannah, GA, it aired at 4:00 pm local time.

Before 2004, stations that aired Guiding Light in the morning were always one episode behind those that aired the program at its official timeslot of 3:00 pm (ET). This changed in March 2004, during the first day of the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, in which stations airing the show at 10:00 am were able catch up with stations that televised it at 3:00 pm. Starting in 2006, stations that televised Guiding Light at 9:00 am were also offered a same-day feed to catch up with the rest of the network. As a result of this, daily episodes for the remaining years of GL were the same on all stations regardless of timeslot (Wikipedia).

 

To me I've never had the thought that it was too early in the day for a talk show. Personally I like  a light hearted talker like Regis & Kelly in the early mornings and more topical/serious shows like Oprah in the early or later afternoon, especially as a lead in to the 5pm news.  Just a random preference not something that should be a rule. Soaps however, for what ever reason to me feel like something more midday oriented: 11am-3pm, maybe 4pm for the extreme latest. 

Thoughts?

Edited February 7, 20223 yr by ironlion

55 minutes ago, ironlion said:

I'll start: Growing up Guiding Light always aired at 10am on my local CBS O&O. I always found myself thinking that was very early in the day for a soap opera. According to Wikipedia, I probably wasn't alone in this thought: 

In St. Louis, Santa Barbara aired at 10 am late in its run, which was godawful. Y&R aired at 4 pm, which was great for latchkey kids like me coming home from school (but also aired opposite Oprah at times). 

That 12pm time slot is as doomed at ABC. I strongly believe Ryan’s Hope would’ve lasted throughout the 90s (as a success) had ABC not moved it for Loving. It’s so hard to launch a new soap and it still bothers me they moved RH. It was such a good show and deserved a longer run. 

Despite attempts over the years, soaps in the morning have never worked.

Having said that, many parts of the country saw the soaps earlier because of time zones and daylight savings, so I guess those folks were used to watching Y&R at 11am or whatever.

12:30 et is a death slot unless Y&R.  Always thought it was a brilliant programming move for y&r to straddle the 12 and 1pm hours. Plus at 1:30 the other networks are mid-show.  Another network should've followed, strengthen the 12:30 slot.

Best timeslot would be 3pm.  GH had great success in that slot and GL had the slot for years. 

 

Also Santa Barbara had a steady growth rate during its first few years.  Kids coming home to their moms watching and at some point they are likely to get invested.  Thats how I fell in love with GL, it was background noise as a child but became a part of life.

I thought it was odd to launch Sunset Beach at noon since you'd imagine with the demographic successes that 90210 and Melrose had it would be ideal for a late afternoon slot.

1 minute ago, te. said:

I thought it was odd to launch Sunset Beach at noon since you'd imagine with the demographic successes that 90210 and Melrose had it would be ideal for a late afternoon slot.

I grew up in Chicago and Sunset Beach was at 2PM here.

Guiding light moved to 9AM in the late 90s, then after outcry moved back to 2PM.  However, in Chicago, ratings were higher at 9 AM then at 2PM so it moved back.

ABC in Chicago was always #1...and RH aired at 11 AM central, Loving at 11:30 AM.  In fact, Loving always won against Y & R in Chicago...and Days and AMC at noon would beat Y & R and B & B in the non hour.

2 hours ago, Spoon said:

Best timeslot would be 3pm.  GH had great success in that slot and GL had the slot for years. 

From 1964-1978, Another World had much success in the 3 PM timeslot, even with CBS counterprogramming by moving Price is Right to the afternoon and pairing it with the popular Match Game.  CBS also programmed All in the Family (#1 primetime show) and MASH rereuns against AW in the 3 PM timeslot.

Once NBC moved Another World to 2:30 in March 1979, then 2:00 in August 1980, the show would never regain its footing as a high rated daytime program.  It would spend almost 20 years with ratings fluctuating between the middle to low end of the ratings.

2 hours ago, Spoon said:

12:30 et is a death slot unless Y&R.  Always thought it was a brilliant programming move for y&r to straddle the 12 and 1pm hours. Plus at 1:30 the other networks are mid-show.  Another network should've followed, strengthen the 12:30 slot.

I've always had Y&R at 11am (central time zone for life over herrrrre), immediately following TPIR and preceding a 30-minute newscast before B&B. Is that the norm in the central time zone?

For many years, we have Y&R via the Baton Rouge affiliate at 4pm, and I think that was just a no-brainer as almost all of the family I knew who watched would tune in to that airing due to being at work earlier in the day. They moved it up to 11am a few years ago.

i posted the following on the critical year discussion:

“when b&b premiered in 1987, atwt moved from 1:30 to 2pm, which split the cbs lineup into the bell shows and the p&g shows— stylistically, very different shows.

prior to the move, atwt’s rating was 7; three years later, it was 5.8 and continued to drop in subsequent years.”

and while killing off maureen is often mentioned as the beginning of the end, when the network-owned flagship affiliate in new york city moved guiding light to 9am, cbs was certainly sending a message

18 hours ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

i posted the following on the critical year discussion:

“

when b&b premiered in 1987, atwt moved from 1:30 to 2pm, which split the cbs lineup into the bell shows and the p&g shows— stylistically, very different shows.

prior to the move, atwt’s rating was 7; three years later, it was 5.8 and continued to drop in subsequent years.”

and while killing off maureen is often mentioned as the beginning of the end, when the network-owned flagship affiliate in new york city moved guiding light to 9am, cbs was certainly sending a message

I was thinking about the time slot idea for a thread and your post had really made me think this might be a good topic.

The ABC line up of amc at 1, oltl at 2, gh at 3 followed by oprah at 4 which would lead i to the 5 pm news on many abc o&o's was solid! GH felt like the quintessential late afternoon soap so it felt odd when they moved it to 2pm to accomodate Katie Couric's talk show in several markets. Glad they moved it back to 3pm in my market.

Someone had mentioned in another thread that B&B at 1:30pm was helped greatly by Y&R as it's lead in. 

Edited February 8, 20223 yr by ironlion

1 hour ago, ironlion said:

Someone had mentioned in another thread that B&B at 1:30pm was helped greatly by Y&R as it's lead in. 

which is exactly why bill bell insisted, and head of cbs daytime, laurie caso, agreed. then caso became ep of ‘world turns in 1988, and had to deal with the consequences. 

The 3.30 pm timeslot seemed to be the death zone for NBC soaps in the 60's and 70's.

They had a solid competitive block of soaps (Dool, TD ,AW) from 2pm till 3.30 pm but could never build on that with a 4th soap.

They tried Bright Promise, Return to Peyton Place and How to Survive a Marriage but no dice. It wasn't until AW expanded to an hour that they had success in that slot.

18 hours ago, te. said:

I thought it was odd to launch Sunset Beach at noon since you'd imagine with the demographic successes that 90210 and Melrose had it would be ideal for a late afternoon slot.

If there was a soap that needed a late afternoon timeslot it was Sunset Beach. Airing it at 3:00 would have given it it's best chance IMO.

18 hours ago, All My Shadows said:

I've always had Y&R at 11am (central time zone for life over herrrrre), immediately following TPIR and preceding a 30-minute newscast before B&B. Is that the norm in the central time zone?

For many years, we have Y&R via the Baton Rouge affiliate at 4pm, and I think that was just a no-brainer as almost all of the family I knew who watched would tune in to that airing due to being at work earlier in the day. They moved it up to 11am a few years ago.

this line up feels so odd. Soaps then news then soaps again, rather than have the two sister soaps just run back to back.

Definitely Guiding Light at I haven't had my coffee yet o'clock.  I was in kindergarten when EON was cancelled, but I would have loved to watch a soap at 4:00 in my teens. But a soap would not have stood a chance against Queen Oprah in that timeslot for many years to come.

The cartoon offerings were too good for me to commit to Tribes, and Swan's Crossing bounced around, eventually airing early in the mornings at some time that was lost on me.

 

I'm a night owl and I really enjoyed watching The Doctors late at night on Retro and always got a kick out of the soaps being preempted in the day and airing at night. I would have loved late night viewing of Rituals and the proposed 13 Bourbon Street.