Comments on: Daytime Nielsen TV Ratings May 5-9, 2008

By: Scott ATL

Scott ATL — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:46:01 +0000

NBC still looks third place to me. And they are only calculating one show in for the average, sad. ABC still has 3 of the top 5 shows so good for them. GH is still rocking after all these years.

By: Scott ATL

Scott ATL — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:46:01 +0000

NBC still looks third place to me. And they are only calculating one show in for the average, sad. ABC still has 3 of the top 5 shows so good for them. GH is still rocking after all these years.

By: Doug

Doug — Sat, 17 May 2008 07:13:00 +0000

Days has stabilized, to be sure, but it’s still nothing to write home about. NBC doesn’t own it and can go cheaper by turning the hour over to affiliates or expanding Today once again. Don’t put it past them.

By: Doug

Doug — Sat, 17 May 2008 07:11:00 +0000

Soaps have been declinign for the past 15 years – since OJ, but the declines are becoming more pronounced in recent years. In the early 1990s, most soaps were in the 5.0 HH range, now most are holding around a 2.0. The reason? Who knows. Cable penetration, SoapNet, being able to read exactly what’s going to happen on every series 2 weeks before it happens, a dramatic improvement in the quality of nighttime dramas (making virtually all soaps appear, well, quite stupid), decline of the nets in general… nobody seems to be able to figure it out.

The last real hold-out was Y&R which stubbornly stuck around a 4.0 rating or above for the last 5-6 years. But in the past two months, it’s plunged below. During this ratings period, the Friday episode fell to a 3.3 rating, it’s lowest result ever. Where does it all end? My guess is the completely death of the daytime genre in the next 3 to 4 years. Even Y&R, which was so far ahead of the rest of the pack, is dramatically shrinking now, something that may throw it in with the rest if it doesn’t manage to turn the ship around.

NBC renewed Days until 2009 last time around and strongly hinted that that would be it. There were rumours that other nets might pick it up, but with those nets probably looking to dump their daytimes too, I seriously doubt it at this point.

By: Rob R

Rob R — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:25:38 +0000

It would seem that Days of Our Lives is doing what it needs to do to fend off cancellation. Exactly what could NBC do that would do better than keeping Days? All through 2008, only 2 soaps have done better in this demographic.

By: Rob D

Rob D — Fri, 16 May 2008 06:11:00 +0000

I’m a huge Days fan for 21 of my 31 years I’ve lived. I realize that I’m not their usual viewer, but my question is…………where did all of the daytime viewers go? Is it because more women work now?

By: Rob D

Rob D — Fri, 16 May 2008 06:11:00 +0000

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:42:00 +0000

Currently we have 3 soaps hovering around the 2.0 HH mark (ABC, OLTL, Days, GL and ATWT), and I wouldn’t be surprised to see 4 of them permanently knocked below by fall. Days seems to have stabilized from a year ago, which is good news for NBC, but now it has to make up some of those 30% losses from two years ago. Of course it won’t.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:42:00 +0000

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:12:00 +0000

tom, we don’t have any trend charts set up like we do for some of our other data, but you can browse our daytime data going back to last fall here:

http://tvbythenumbers.com/category/ratings/daytime

By: tom

tom — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:38:48 +0000

the view seems down compared to last year… anyone know?

By: THE_Anonymous

THE_Anonymous — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:48:47 +0000

FINALLY, NBC is #1 somewhere!