Daytime Lineup Nielsen TV ratings averages, plus Top 5 Daytime Program Ratings:
| Daytime Nielsen Ratings |  |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (Millions) | 3.67 | 2.75 | 2.72 |
| Rating/Viewers: Women 18-49 | 1.3/836,000 | 1.3/875,000 | 1.4/950,000 |
Top 5 Daytime Programs Women 18-49:
|
Program |
Network |
Rating/viewers |
| The Young & The Restless |
CBS |
1.7 /1.12 million |
| General Hospital |
ABC |
1.5/1.00 million |
| Days Of Our Lives |
NBC |
1.4/950,000 |
| The View |
ABC |
1.3/862,000 |
| Bold and the Beautiful |
CBS |
1.3/844,000 |
| One Life To Live |
ABC |
1.3/841,000 |
| As The World Turns |
CBS |
1.3/827,000 |
Source: NTI, Live + Same Day, 4/14-4/18/08
Ratings via ABC Press Release.
Wow, I’m a huge Days fan and I always wondered why they kept it on the air. I know it comes in last place usually when it comes to Soaps. I didn’t realize it did so well with demo viewers. I bet the percentage of the total is really good.
Wow, I’m a huge Days fan and I always wondered why they kept it on the air. I know it comes in last place usually when it comes to Soaps. I didn’t realize it did so well with demo viewers. I bet the percentage of the total is really good.
Wow, I’m a huge Days fan and I always wondered why they kept it on the air. I know it comes in last place usually when it comes to Soaps. I didn’t realize it did so well with demo viewers. I bet the percentage of the total is really good.
Wow, I’m a huge Days fan and I always wondered why they kept it on the air. I know it comes in last place usually when it comes to Soaps. I didn’t realize it did so well with demo viewers. I bet the percentage of the total is really good.
Network television in general is hurting, but nowhere is that more evident than in the daytime daypart. A 2.0 rating in women 18-49 used to be a low-average even 4 years ago, now none of the soap manage to hit it. It’s depressing to watch because every year what is considered a good rating keeps slipping. Right now, a 2.3 HH rating will get you third in the ratings when 6 years ago that was Passions, the 9th rated soap and most were high twos or threes. The drop is even more startling in women 18-34, where Days usually leads with a 1.1 to 1.3 rating. 7 years ago during the summer, Passions was number one with a 4 rating in the demo. Days had lost literally 66% of this audience in the past 6 years.
Daytime is effectively dead.
Network television in general is hurting, but nowhere is that more evident than in the daytime daypart. A 2.0 rating in women 18-49 used to be a low-average even 4 years ago, now none of the soap manage to hit it. It’s depressing to watch because every year what is considered a good rating keeps slipping. Right now, a 2.3 HH rating will get you third in the ratings when 6 years ago that was Passions, the 9th rated soap and most were high twos or threes. The drop is even more startling in women 18-34, where Days usually leads with a 1.1 to 1.3 rating. 7 years ago during the summer, Passions was number one with a 4 rating in the demo. Days had lost literally 66% of this audience in the past 6 years.
Daytime is effectively dead.
Network television in general is hurting, but nowhere is that more evident than in the daytime daypart. A 2.0 rating in women 18-49 used to be a low-average even 4 years ago, now none of the soap manage to hit it. It’s depressing to watch because every year what is considered a good rating keeps slipping. Right now, a 2.3 HH rating will get you third in the ratings when 6 years ago that was Passions, the 9th rated soap and most were high twos or threes. The drop is even more startling in women 18-34, where Days usually leads with a 1.1 to 1.3 rating. 7 years ago during the summer, Passions was number one with a 4 rating in the demo. Days had lost literally 66% of this audience in the past 6 years.
Daytime is effectively dead.
Network television in general is hurting, but nowhere is that more evident than in the daytime daypart. A 2.0 rating in women 18-49 used to be a low-average even 4 years ago, now none of the soap manage to hit it. It’s depressing to watch because every year what is considered a good rating keeps slipping. Right now, a 2.3 HH rating will get you third in the ratings when 6 years ago that was Passions, the 9th rated soap and most were high twos or threes. The drop is even more startling in women 18-34, where Days usually leads with a 1.1 to 1.3 rating. 7 years ago during the summer, Passions was number one with a 4 rating in the demo. Days had lost literally 66% of this audience in the past 6 years.
Daytime is effectively dead.
Doug, great background — thank you.
Doug, great background — thank you.
Doug, great background — thank you.
Doug, great background — thank you.
Doug, I know Passions did decent in the demo but #1 with a 4 rating? That really doesn’t sound right as I remember it in last place each week in total viewers for soaps.
Doug, I know Passions did decent in the demo but #1 with a 4 rating? That really doesn’t sound right as I remember it in last place each week in total viewers for soaps.
Doug, I know Passions did decent in the demo but #1 with a 4 rating? That really doesn’t sound right as I remember it in last place each week in total viewers for soaps.
How can you possibly expect daytime ratings for soaps to be what they were even 10 years ago when you see the competition that exists now? It’s no longer ABC vs. NBC vs. CBS with a syndicated or cable channel or two in the mix. It’s choice galore. The daytime audience is completely fragmented, as are all the dayparts. That’s why demographics become important. Hit the right audience and you’ve made your product viable. I think soaps will never end — it’s a genre that is incredibly durable. What would you replace it with that you can count on delivering consistently and economically? Talk shows come and go; syndicated fare, too. General Hospital just logged 45 years on the air. Guiding Light was renewed for a 72nd year on air (including radio). The likes of Passions are transient – they tried to re-invent the soap like Dark Shadows had before it. If Jeff Zucker thinks cancelling Days of Our Lives will improve NBC’s daytime, he’ll be wrong. But then NBC Universal just keeps promoting Zucker for his mistakes. He’s such a horrible executive and they just keep on rewarding him.
How can you possibly expect daytime ratings for soaps to be what they were even 10 years ago when you see the competition that exists now? It’s no longer ABC vs. NBC vs. CBS with a syndicated or cable channel or two in the mix. It’s choice galore. The daytime audience is completely fragmented, as are all the dayparts. That’s why demographics become important. Hit the right audience and you’ve made your product viable. I think soaps will never end — it’s a genre that is incredibly durable. What would you replace it with that you can count on delivering consistently and economically? Talk shows come and go; syndicated fare, too. General Hospital just logged 45 years on the air. Guiding Light was renewed for a 72nd year on air (including radio). The likes of Passions are transient – they tried to re-invent the soap like Dark Shadows had before it. If Jeff Zucker thinks cancelling Days of Our Lives will improve NBC’s daytime, he’ll be wrong. But then NBC Universal just keeps promoting Zucker for his mistakes. He’s such a horrible executive and they just keep on rewarding him.
How can you possibly expect daytime ratings for soaps to be what they were even 10 years ago when you see the competition that exists now? It’s no longer ABC vs. NBC vs. CBS with a syndicated or cable channel or two in the mix. It’s choice galore. The daytime audience is completely fragmented, as are all the dayparts. That’s why demographics become important. Hit the right audience and you’ve made your product viable. I think soaps will never end — it’s a genre that is incredibly durable. What would you replace it with that you can count on delivering consistently and economically? Talk shows come and go; syndicated fare, too. General Hospital just logged 45 years on the air. Guiding Light was renewed for a 72nd year on air (including radio). The likes of Passions are transient – they tried to re-invent the soap like Dark Shadows had before it. If Jeff Zucker thinks cancelling Days of Our Lives will improve NBC’s daytime, he’ll be wrong. But then NBC Universal just keeps promoting Zucker for his mistakes. He’s such a horrible executive and they just keep on rewarding him.
How can you possibly expect daytime ratings for soaps to be what they were even 10 years ago when you see the competition that exists now? It’s no longer ABC vs. NBC vs. CBS with a syndicated or cable channel or two in the mix. It’s choice galore. The daytime audience is completely fragmented, as are all the dayparts. That’s why demographics become important. Hit the right audience and you’ve made your product viable. I think soaps will never end — it’s a genre that is incredibly durable. What would you replace it with that you can count on delivering consistently and economically? Talk shows come and go; syndicated fare, too. General Hospital just logged 45 years on the air. Guiding Light was renewed for a 72nd year on air (including radio). The likes of Passions are transient – they tried to re-invent the soap like Dark Shadows had before it. If Jeff Zucker thinks cancelling Days of Our Lives will improve NBC’s daytime, he’ll be wrong. But then NBC Universal just keeps promoting Zucker for his mistakes. He’s such a horrible executive and they just keep on rewarding him.
Ratings are not going to be the same as they were 10 years ago, no, but the loss in daytime is astounding. Before, soaps used to have a ratings advantage over most talk shows, but now that’s completely evaporated. In the next few years, we’re going to see almost all of the soaps can and the hours given back to the affiliates because talk shows get similar ratings to soaps, but without the high overhead.
As for Passions, between seasons 2 and 5, it did extremely well for NBC and in the summer would usually be in the 2.2 to 2.5 HH ratings range. It was still 9th overall, but it did huge demo numbers, peaking at a 4 rating in women 18-34 one week in 2001. Outside of Will & Grace, it was the highest rated series in that demo on NBC for that week. I used to run a ratings website myself and dug these numbers up from the archives: (week ending May 31, 2002, with comparisons made to the week reported above)
Households
RTNG SHR Comp
Young & The Restless 4.6 16 -17%
Days Of Our Lives 3.6 12 -44
Bold & The Beautiful 3.6 12 -25
General Hosptial 3.2 11 -31
As The World Turns 3.1 11 -29
All My Children 3.0 10 -37
Guilding Light 2.7 9 -33
One Life To Live 2.7 9 -29
Passions 2.0 7
Port Charles 1.5 5
Women 18-49
RTNG SHR
Days Of Our Lives 2.9 20 -52%
General Hosptial 2.2 16 -32
All My Children 2.1 15 -43
Young & The Restless 2.0 14 -15
One Life To Live 1.9 13 -32
Bold & The Beautiful 1.7 13 -23
Passions 1.6 12
As The World Turns 1.6 12 -19
Guilding Light 1.4 8 -21
Port Charles 1.2 8
Women 18-34
RTNG SHR
Days Of Our Lives 3.9 26 -74%
Passions 2.3 16
General Hosptial 2.0 14 -45
One Life To Live 2.0 14 -55
All My Children 1.8 13 -62
Young & The Restless 1.6 11 -37
Bold & The Beautiful 1.6 11 -50
Port Charles 1.4 10
As The World Turns 1.0 7 -30
Guilding Light 0.8 4 -37
The drop in women 18-34, now that’s research it, is astounding. These are the future soap viewers, and in the past 6 years, more than half of them have disappeared.