Soap Opera Ratings, July 13-17, 2009

Categories: Daytime and Soap Opera TV Ratings

(30) Comments - Add Yours!

1. strussman

   Posted July 23, 2009 at 5:23 PM

   Are these respectable ratings anymore? Or are the networks considering dumping soaps for more lucrative programming?

2. Anonymous

   Posted July 23, 2009 at 6:30 PM

   Everything seems to be down, down, down. But I don’t know what networks can replace their soaps with at this point. “Wendy Williams”, a very hyped up new syndication entry, absolutely tanked in her debut (despite big expectations).
   I guess the Soap genre will stick around for a while, as long as shows can continue cutting costs.

3. ohiogirl

   Posted July 24, 2009 at 2:56 AM

   Y&R and B&B ratings remain more stable, tho lower because their viewership is based on the lunch crowd. Other soaps are suffering due to two facts…the widespread use of daytime inappropriate subject matter, and the shriveling ‘summer vacation’. Viewers are getting to their DVR’s later due to hectic summer schedules, so ratings suffer, and teens and their families simply do not have the luxury of time to become involved in a daytime drama. The school year ends later and starts earlier, everyone who can is getting a summer job, and what free time there is, is taken up by school sports and other extra-curricular activities that now continue to meet throughout the vacation period…in other words, society is robbing our youth and parents of the traditional ‘down’ time and family time once treasured. No time for a show or a book…and I think society will suffer because of it.

4. Doug

   Posted July 24, 2009 at 8:36 AM

   Ohiogirl, you’ve hit a nail on the head with the school comment. Soaps could always count on a big summer boost in viewership and one of Christmas, too. Sometime sup to 1 ratings point. But now, the ratings during summer and over Christmas are worse than usual.

   Soaps are dead. I think that everybody is accepting that now, even on some of the soap board where these ratings come from. It doesn’t matter if they get new writers or change direction – the path has already been set.

   Y&R and B&B are just as week as the others, but they had much higher ratings to being with, so they’ve had further to fall.

   For the 1999/2000 season, the lowest rated soap, Passions, had a 2.2 rating. Compare that with these numbers and you have the whole story.

5. Dan

   Posted July 24, 2009 at 9:12 AM

   I don’t know if they are necessarily dead. The truth is, the soap industry has been claiming that “the sky is falling” since the OJ trial. If that’s the case, then the sky’s freefall has been occurring for 14+ years. There are viewers (hell, even actors on the shows) born after this supposedly started.

   Plus, compare these ratings to the CW primetime. Granted, “Gossip Girl” generates a lot more buzz and demos than, say, Guiding Light. However, these ratings are pretty par for the course for daytime in general.

   The best comparison I can make is the impending Leno domination of NBC primetime. The ratings for “The Jay Leno Show” will most likely pale in comparison to CBS and ABC’s 10pm hour. But that doesn’t matter to NBC. Leno will be produced on the cheap and be more profitable than scripted series.

   The average budget for an hour-long soap is $625,000/week. To do the math, it’s $125,000 an episode. Ratings for soaps suck, but they don’t matter. They’re still profitable and will continue to be as more and more veteran actors retire/get phased out.

6. Catherine

   Posted July 24, 2009 at 9:31 AM

   But the prime time soaps on the Spanish speaking stations do well.

   In addition to the fact that we have more hectic lives, those of us who have been watching shows for a long time are getting fed up with writers who either totally disrespect the characters’ histories or write the same (add your own expletive here) story lines over and over. I “watch” General Hospital. It is my last soap. I used to watch a lot of them but there is just no time. Right now they have two characters who are pregnant who are about to lose their babies; and gosh it is almost time for Sonny to get shot again. (another mob war is brewing) He’s already been shot at least 5 times and shot at more times than I can remember. Is there any originality any more? No. I don’t know what the solution would be. Maybe they should go back to the old days where the story lines were so so slow that you could not watch for a couple of weeks and pick right up where you left off.

   And stop aging kids. That used to be one of the nice things about GH. The kids actually grew up in real time. This summer we got the tweens and Michael, now 16, keeps talking about events in his pre coma life that never happened because he was all of twelve when he was shot. They are brats. So who cares.

   Holidays? They run “encore” shows now. On GH they used to make a big deal of the July 4th holiday. Not much happened story wise but it was a chance for most of the characters to interact and have a nice moment or a humorous moment together. This year we got to watch Michael’s awakening after his surgery all over again which had been shown about a couple of months before. I don’t know about other viewers but I prefer a new episode on my day off. As I said these holiday episodes weren’t story driven but they were tradition and were usually fun.

   With no soaps what we will end up with is infomercial hell. Some stations already run a half hour to an hour of infomercials before noon. I’m not sure who watches these things, esp. since they run the same one day after day. I guess someone is making money off of them.

7. Shem

   Posted July 24, 2009 at 10:19 AM

   I remember when i was younger, CBS aired soap classics- back from the golden age. Now they hardly do. ABC’s One Life to Live is the best thing going right now, even though its a little slow. Was NBC really loosing money from airing Passions- that show was wacky and wild which was accepted, at least for me.

   Concerning ratings, its sad to see Y&R going down but you get what you ask for. Soaps need a major shake-up like what GL did. I also noticed soaps are doing more out-door scenes. Hoping for change in the soap world!

8. Jordan

   Posted July 24, 2009 at 10:37 AM

   In Canada, the Young and the Restless regularly appears in the top 30 programs for daytime/primetime/weekends combined. It’s the only soap that ever makes the list and it usually places between 20th and 25. As well, I read recently that Y&R is one of the top 10 most watched shows online, ranking higher than many primetime dramas and reality shows.

   I don’t think its the genre that’s dieing, its just the timeslot.

9. JC

   Posted July 24, 2009 at 12:05 PM

   GH: Ugh, where to begin? If GH goes under, it will all rest on the head of Jill Farren Phelps. Did you know she has killed two shows and ruined another before? She killed GL when she killed off Maureen Bauer, then she killed Another World by killing off Frankie Frame. Then she turned OLTL into a dark and violent show, very similar to what GH is now. Remember when the show had a Nurse’s Ball? Remember when there were holidays with the Quartermaines? Oh, wait a minute, Phelps killed off AJ, Justus, Alan and Emily. And she put Monica, the longest-running vet on the show, on the back burner and it is rumored she will be taken off contract just like Jackie Zeman. So what do we get in place of these actors? One-dimensional disposable characters, rotten teens and a flood of mobsters. Isn’t the show supposed to be about a hospital? Since Phelps so cheaply rips off the Sopranos, why doesn’t she just rip off Grey’s Anatomy again? At least then the show steered away from the mob.

10. Shem

    Posted July 25, 2009 at 3:09 PM

    It would be so cool if Y&R could hit a new Low next week. It would serve them well.

11. R J C

    Posted July 27, 2009 at 4:05 AM

    Young & The Restless will be fine as long as Eric Braeden exists.