NBC Daytime

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, wasn't it 1979 that was the 90 minute fiasco? Yes, it was. 

March 5th & 6th, 1979

2 pm timeslot Eastern

GL Roger raped Holly

OLTL Karen Wolek on the witness stand admitted to being a prostitute (This won the Emmy.)

AW first 90 min. show & the death of John Randolph

Edited July 27, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges

[TVFAN1144]

Yes but what led to lower ratings before this that gave them the bright idea to fix it with the 90 minute nightmare 

[Contessa Donatella]

According to Schemering 1977-1978 AW was 2nd with an 8.6/28 share where ATWT was 1st with an 8.6/31 share. The Lemay years were known for good ratings. What makes you think they were fixing it? It wasn't broken. 

72-73 3rd 9.7/33

73-74 2nd 9.7/32

74-75 2nd 9.7/31

75-76 2nd 8.9/30

76-77 2nd 9.0/29

77-78 2nd 8.6/28

78-79 BOOM 8th 7.5/25 Mar. 5th '79 1st 90 min. show. 

It wasn't broken. They broke it with Silverman's cockamamie idea! 

[GLATWT88]

It didn't help that AW was scheduled in direct competition to OLTL and GH right as the ABC lineup was blowing up in popularity. This was only worsened by GL changing its timeslot to also directly compete with AW. GL was performing well around this time. 

AW had the benefit of only facing direct competition from ABC (OLTL/GH) from 1973-1977 as no CBS soap was programmed against it during these years. Around this time OLTL and GH were mid-ranking soaps and not too much of a threat to AW. As GH became a cultural phenomenon and the ABC lineup rose to dominance, it may have attracted even some of the more loyal and curious AW fans over. Around the same time GL expands to an hour and is now also in direct competition with AW. GL was bringing in pretty solid numbers around this time and for a few years after. So in 1978, not only is AW going through some creative changes, it is also facing massive competition from OLTL and GH and to boot has a CBS soap programmed against it as well. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, @GLATWT88 as AW was trending downward, fast, other shows were trending upward just as fast!! Good points all. 

[Paul Raven]

The 90 min format meant that for the first time AW changed its starting time.

So in addition to committing to 90 min you had to possibly rearrange your soap viewing. AW was outrating The Doctors so many viewers were tuning in  or switching over at 3pm. Just too many risks involved.

They really should have stuck with the line up as it was and focused more on improving the writing and production of the shows themselves.

That's exactly what ABC did with GH. And GL was strong because of the Dobsons.

A pity the Corringtons didn't go to AW rather than SFT.

[robbwolff]

There's no doubt the expansion affected the ratings. However, the 1970s ratings that Jason47 clearly show that AW's ratings drop happened well before the expansion -- around June 1978. AW went from an 11.1 in mid-January 1978 to a 6.7 in late August 1978. That's a massive drop. AW spent the second half of 1978 with ratings in the 7s and then had a boost to the 8s in early 1979 but then dropped back to the 7s before the expansion in March 1979.

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, that is totally significant. I bet they were already fighting about 90 minutes then. I suspect that Lemay's writing may have suffered from the first moment it was brought up. He was already disenchanted with the move to an hour before they introduced 90 minutes as a concept. He had had such high hopes for creative reasons about the expansion to an hour & he had been proved so totally wrong. This morning early I was not in a position to run down the numbers in the 70s ratings folder so I just went with the yearly. Thank you for those numbers.

Did you see elsewhere that I got that book & found the info? The TV Annual 78-79. Thanks again for the tip on that. 

Yes, the schedule change. I well recall reading how very concerned Lin Bolen was with even the tiniest change to the schedule & calculating how best to do it. 

And, at ABC, they worked on writing & production to get maximum ratings out of GH, as we all know, but to a lesser degree also with AMC & OLTL because what they really were shooting for was the #1, #2 & #3 soaps! The whole ball of wax! 

You would have had the Corringtons supplant Lemay or you mean when Lemay left?

 

[robbwolff]

I'm glad you were able to find the book. I must have lost my copy in one of my moves. 

[GLATWT88]

I think too much emphasis is put on AW transitioning to a 90 minute format as the reason for its demise, but this change was the straw that ultimately broke AW's back. Days, ATWT, GL and AW all saw a bit of decline when they transitioned to hour long programs in the mid 70s. This could be for many factors - housewives not wanting to dedicate a whole hour when they were used to half that time, viewers switching to other soaps they had previously watched that their now extended soap was cutting into, viewer fatigue, transition hiccups as this was a new way of storytelling for writers who now needed to fill a whole hour, or any other number of reasons. 

As I mentioned previously, GL's expansion placed it in direct competition with AW. While it's expansion in 1977 may have caused a dip in ratings, by mid 78 and onward GL was picking up and had several weeks where it finished number 1 for the week. This competition against AW would only hurt it more as GH around the same time was experiencing a massive ratings boost. GH finished the 78/79 season with a nearly 2 point increase over 77/78 season. OLTL also saw a healthy increase in the same timeframe. All of these soaps competing directly against AW.  AW drops over 1 point. 

From 1979-81, GL, OLTL and GH are all on fire and continued to increase their numbers. Meanwhile, AW which was already struggling with stiff competition decided it was best to attempt a 90 minute program before fixing things at 60 mins. AW was in hot water before its expansion but those 90 minutes truly just destroyed it. It was confusing for viewers, it wasn't practical, and it was up against tough competition. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Well I happen to be one of the AW fans who believe the long-held fan lore that the affiliates hated the 90 minute format & thought it was the show's idea & blamed them for it & turned on them. Previously they'd been very fond of the show. So I count that as a large factor & actually say that it was the first nail in the coffin. Other times are perplexing to me because I felt the ratings didn't reflect the actual quality & seeming popularity of the show at that given time. And, I continue to contend that 90 minutes is just an awkward time amount. 

[GLATWT88]

I feel like AW wasn't cancelled sooner because there was a lot of respect and care for it. AW had a terrific early run and was a ratings darling, garnering lots of fans and loyal viewers as well as those that cared for it for many years. However, by its first expansion it was starting to limp and by the second expansions' end it was in a catastrophic state. The numbers were truly awful. From the end of AW's 30 minute run (expansion to 60 minutes) to AW's retrun to 60 minutes (end of 90 minute episodes), it had lost 5 whole ratings points, going from a 9.7 to a 4.7 in a short period. Once it returned to 60 minutes, it saw a small boost which continued through the mid 80s, but by the end of the 80s it was back where it ended its 90 minute episodes. 

Needless to say that AW was more costly than the other soaps that were performing at the same level. With NBC never getting daytime quite right after the mid 70s, it probably felt more secure holding onto AW in its schedule than completely destroying what was left. I personally feel that AW was allowed to go on as long as it did because NBC just couldn't seem to get it right and because there was such love and care for it. 

TBH I feel like a lot of soaps beginning in the 90s probably went on longer than they would otherwise, because daytime execs didn't really know what to do with the changing daytime TV viewership. Loving, The City, Santa Barbara, Sunset Beach, PC were probably given more of a chance then they would have otherwise had because of this huge shift. 

[watson71]

AW stayed on the air 19 years with not so good ratings.  The quality of the show was not reflected in the ratings.  P&G and NBC  allowed Paul Rauch to stay as EP into the Spring of 1983.  They should have gotten rid of him long before that.  Allen Potter cleaned up the show in record time and there was a jump in the ratings, but not enough to move it out of the middle of the daytime ratings.  
 

From Harding Lemay’s brief return as headwriter to when Mac Cory died, AW was excellent, but again the ratings did not move.  The show was relatively stable at this time with Michael Laibson as EP for 6 years and Donna Swajeski and Peggy Sloane as headwriters.  Again, no movement upwards in the ratings.  NBC still supported the show at this point, giving AW not DAYS a primetime airing before the Daytime Emmys in 1992.  In 1993, NBC canceled Santa Barbara and let AW continue, despite SB winning 3 Emmys as best show.  I think that NBC started losing faith in AW in 1995, after JFPs stint with her focus on the hospital and police station failed to move the ratings.  Once NBC executive Charlotte Savitz was named EP in 1996, she dismantled AW piece by piece. She shouldn’t have been able to stay until November 1998.  By the time Chris Goutman arrived, the damage was done.  He could not fix in 6 months all the damage Savitz caused.  Goutman’s stint as EP was practice at AW to send him to ATWT.  His first years there were successful, but we know how that ended as well…

[Contessa Donatella]

Some specific things happened at AW that no doubt contributed to the show's demise.

May 1, 1989 Doug Watson dropped dead of a massive heart attack in the middle of an exercise class. Deaths like that are always hard on a show but in this case it was devastating. The writers had 18 months of story that focused on the anniversary of Cory Publishing & featured Doug plus Rachel's identity was all wrapped up in being Mrs. Mac Cory. Massive rewriting was required & out of it came a mysterious object tied to Mac's death onscreen, the Red Swan, which became one of those phrases fans hate to hear. 

The NBC affiliates were the first to "go renegade" & Seattle began that by dropping the show on a random Monday morning in Oct. 1993. AW fan activism was born in the person of Tom Freeman. Eventually KING-TV put the show back on the air. 

JFP's tenure was 1995-96 & she was largely hated by the online fans. (Of course after her they also hated Savitz.) Jill fired 11 people & spent a small fortune on a new opening & a new set. She didn't understand the previous locales she said. Of course her new block set meant all story had to be about either the hospital, the cop shop, Carlino's restuarant or the newspaper because that's what now existed as "Town." AW stories had not been focused that way before. Then she & HW Margaret DePriest did the Fax Neuman serial killer & Frankie's gruesome death came out of that. Many long-time fans quit the show over that. She also mounted this huge story where she broke up John & Sharlene, pairing John with Felicia. Fans hated it. But she got the ratings up but couldn't keep them up & she won a few Emmys. Just typical Jill. 

Behind the scenes NBC & P&G were frequently battling each other in disagreements about how to handle the show. NBC wanted AW to be more like DAYS. NBC wanted to get rid of Victoria entirely. Once the show had a popular romantic pairing in Carl & Rachel & someone (not known who) decided to fire Charles Keating. 

The online fans liked Goutman & put their faith in him. Until what I call the most hated finale in all soap history. 

 

[Jdee43]

NBC went to the well of Another World one too many times. In a 10 year period, there were 2 and half spin-offs, each of which took valuable characters from the mother show that never returned. And there were 2 expansions, each of which diluted the show even more. Hardly a surprise Another World was in such poor shape by late 1980. The only interesting thing the show really had left by then was Rachel and Mac. Too bad NBC never realized this. The 90 minute expansion and the Texas spin off were so unnecessary.