Random TV Ratings

[Daniel Avery]

Had I been alive in this period I would have been a total couch potato, because all the top shows were "my kind of soap," so to speak. ATWT was basically unstoppable in this period; any network exec would wet themselves if they had shows with these types of ratings/shares. Another World was firing on all cylinders because they had Agnes Nixon as the Head Writer, while The Edge of Night had a late-afternoon slot that allowed them to capture a large male viewing audience (men coming home from work) that no other soap could really capture. All these soaps were half-hour at most, so there were more opportunities to see multiple shows per day.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

The daytime ratings:

View attachment 57788

All these soaps were half-hour at most, so there were more opportunities to see multiple shows per day.

The 1969-70 season was the peak of the daytime soap opera boom, with nineteen different soaps airing over that period. Starting with Love of Life at 11.30am, viewers could watch up to ten different back to back soaps a day if they wished.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

I agree that the lack of competition had a lot to do with it. I think that even in the late-1960s, ABC was not treated as an "equal" to NBC and CBS as far as networks go. In the chart shown in Post # 75, almost all the "Bottom" rated shows were ABC series. This is similar to how the Fox Network looked in the first ten or so years of its existence---a few hits but many, many more losers that filled up the "bottom rated" lists.

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Fred Silverman to the rescue for ABC:

"Silverman was named president of ABC Entertainment in 1975,[10] putting him in the ironic position of saving Happy Days, the very show that Good Times had brought to the brink of cancellation. Silverman succeeded in bringing Happy Days to the top of the ratings and generating a hit spin-off from that show, Laverne & Shirley (another spin-off, Mork & Mindy, was also a ratings winner initially ending its first season at number three but the ratings quickly free fell).

At ABC, Silverman also greenlit other popular series such as The Bionic Woman (a Six Million Dollar Man spin-off), Family, Charlie's Angels, Donny & Marie, Three's Company, Eight Is Enough, The Love Boat, Soap, Fantasy Island, Good Morning America, long-form pioneer Rich Man, Poor Man, and the award-winning miniseries, Roots. These moves brought ABC's long-dormant ratings from third place to first place. However, Silverman was criticized during this period for relying heavily on escapist fare (it was Silverman who conceived the infamous The Brady Bunch Hour with Sid and Marty Krofft in late 1976) and for bringing T&A or "jiggle TV" to the small screen with numerous ABC shows featuring buxom, attractive, and often scantily-clad young women (such as the popular Battle of the Network Stars).

ABC Daytime had mediocre ratings, so in order to increase them, Silverman hired Gloria Monty to produce the ailing General Hospital. He gave Monty thirteen weeks to increase the serial's ratings or it would be cancelled. He later expanded General Hospital, All My Children, and One Life to Live to a full hour, and created a 3+1⁄2-hour afternoon serial block. Among game shows, Silverman introduced Goodson and Todman's Family Feud to the network."

Fred Silverman - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Daniel Avery]

ABC Daytime had mediocre ratings, so in order to increase them, Silverman hired Gloria Monty to produce the ailing General Hospital. He gave Monty thirteen weeks to increase the serial's ratings or it would be cancelled. He later expanded General Hospital, All My Children, and One Life to Live to a full hour, and created a 3+1⁄2-hour afternoon serial block. Among game shows, Silverman introduced Goodson and Todman's Family Feud to the network."

I guess then it was likely his idea to pick up The Edge of Night from CBS in late 1975. CBS had mis-handled the show by moving it from a strong 4pm (Eastern) slot (literally airing at "the edge of night") to mid-afternoon, where the ratings fell like a stone. Rather than admit their mistake and move it back to 4pm CBS announced they were cancelling it. it aired its final episode on CBS on a Friday, and a 90-minute episode aired (3pm to 4:30) the following Monday on ABC to "reintroduce all the characters and plotlines" to ABC viewers before the show settled into its new/old timeslot of 4-4:30pm. It lasted nine additional years on ABC.

ABC first experimented with expanding GH and OLTL to 45-minute episodes but ultimately decided it was best to stick to the 30-minute/60-minute blocks that Nielsen preferred to use when charting their ratings. CBS had also experimented with 45-minute soaps previously and abandoned it in favor of eventually expanding Guiding Light and As the World Turns to 60 minutes each.

 

[ClassyCo]

October 10-25, 1964:

 

[ClassyCo]

while The Edge of Night had a late-afternoon slot that allowed them to capture a large male viewing audience (men coming home from work) that no other soap could really capture.

My dad has mentioned on a few separate occasions that he used to watch EDGE OF NIGHT.

 

[ClassyCo]

 

[ClassyCo]

 

[Monzo]

These are the ten most-watched television programs in West Germany exactly 40 years ago:



Feature films were particularly popular during Christmas week 1985: Doctor Zhivago, Flatfoot in Hong Kong, Mary Poppins and Topaz were all in the top 10, as was the German TV movie The Woman with the Carbuncle Stones.

 

[ClassyCo]

December 16-22, 1985

 

[ClassyCo]

 

[ClassyCo]

 

[ClassyCo]

 

[ClassyCo]

I kind of agree with that. GILLIGAN was a Top 10 show and, formulaic as it was, it seemed to warrant another year.

GILLIGAN'S ISLAND had at least one more season in it before it completely exhausted every possible storyline for a group of seven castaways stranded on an island. Just one more season of, say, 30 episodes and a proper series finale with Tina Louise still around as Ginger.

 

[ClassyCo]

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Ratings from the two RTE channels in Ireland (RTE1 and Network 2) from September 1991.

 

[Monzo]

How enlightening to see some Irish ratings! I had to do some research on the top shows because Glenroe, Where in the World?, and Bibi were completely unfamiliar to me. It's cool that Ireland had its own primetime soap!

Paradise being the most-watched US series is quite a surprise! It's also nice that Knots Landing was still popular in Ireland so late in its run. The Irish liked Home and Away more than Neighbours, which doesn't even appear on the list—that's interesting information too!

 

[Mel O'Drama]

How enlightening to see some Irish ratings!

Yes. It's refreshing to see how thorough it is.

It's also nice that Knots Landing was still popular in Ireland so late in its run.

Always nice to see it appear in a top ten, even if it is only on a technicality.

I'd love to know what kind of numbers the British airings of Knots did during its original (mostly daytime) run, but could never find that kind of information as the published TV ratings only ever seemed to include the Top Ten or Twenty for the week across all channels combined.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I had to do some research on the top shows because Glenroe, Where in the World?, and Bibi were completely unfamiliar to me. It's cool that Ireland had its own primetime soap!

Glenroe was huge in its time, even if it was pretty gentle by modern soap standards. At the time of these ratings, Ireland’s population was only 3.5m, meaning over a third of the country watched the show.

It's also nice that Knots Landing was still popular in Ireland so late in its run.

Always nice to see it appear in a top ten, even if it is only on a technicality.

If I’m remembering correctly, Knots Landing remained Top Ten or Twenty, right up until the end. It was originally stripped across weekday afternoons on RTE1 (similar to BBC) but due to them either catching up on US broadcasts or because of its popularity, it was moved to a weekly primetime slot.

The Irish liked Home and Away more than Neighbours, which doesn't even appear on the list—that's interesting information too!

Home and Away was huge here, particularly among younger viewers. Neighbours doesn’t appear on the list here because it didn’t start broadcasting in Ireland on RTE until the early 00’s. Prior to that, only viewers that had access to BBC1 could watch it. Pre-Sky Digital, that meant viewers living along the border with Northern Ireland or on the east coast.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Glenroe was huge in its time, even if it was pretty gentle by modern soap standards.

It was big enough for me to have heard of it without ever having watched it. I don't even know if it aired on British TV.

This is random, but I remember in the early Eighties, ITV attempted to give many of its franchises regional soaps, most of which were very short lived (like Taff Acre for HTV Wales). I wonder if this in some way could have inspired RTE.

If I’m remembering correctly, Knots Landing remained Top Ten or Twenty, right up until the end.

Wow. That's great.

It was originally stripped across weekday afternoons on RTE1 (similar to BBC) but due to them either catching up on US broadcasts or because of its popularity, it was moved to a weekly primetime slot.

Which is the opposite of British TV, where it began in prime time but got shelved then given the daytime treatment for most of its run.