Daytime Nielsen Ratings For Week of Sept. 1-5, 2008

From the ABC Daytime ratings release: * ABC stood as Daytime's No. 1 network in Women 18-49 (1.3 rating/830,000), overshadowing runners-up NBC (1.1 rating/761,000) and CBS (1.1 rating/722,000) by a sizeable 22%. * In Women 18-34, for the second consecutive week every ABC program positioned among Daytime's Elite 5: "General Hospital" (No. 2T - 0.9 rating/308,000), "The View" (No. 2T - 0.9 rating/306,000), "One Life to Live" (No. 5T - 0.8 rating/262,000) and "All My Children" (No. 5T - 0.8 rating/260,000). * In Women 18-49, ABC placed all programs among Daytime's Top 5: "General Hospital" (No. 2 - 1.4 rating/910,000), "One Life to Live" (No. 3T - 1.2 rating/817,000), "All My Children" (No. 3T - 1.2 rating/802,000) and "The View" (N0 3T - 1.2 rating/791,000). * A Top 5 player in Daytime for the 21st straight week in key young women, "One Life to Live" surpassed CBS' "As the World Turns" at 2 o'clock by 35% in Women 18-34 (262,000 vs. 194,000) and by 24% in Women 18-49 (817,000 vs. 659,000). * In Total Viewers, "The View" (3.4 million) and "General Hospital" (2.7 million) positioned among the week's Top 5 most-watched programs in daytime. In Total Viewers, this week, featuring its 12th season opener, stood as "The View's" most-watched week in six weeks (since 7/21/08). * At 3 o'clock, "General Hospital" surpassed CBS' "Guiding Light," by a solid 120% in Women 18-34 (308,000 vs. 140,000), by 71% in Women 18-49 (910,000 vs. 531,000) and by 29% in Total Viewers (2.67 million vs. 2.08 million). By Network Daytime Rank: Total Viewers Women 18-49 (Rtg/000s) No. 1 CBS 3.45 million No. 1 ABC 1.3/830,000 No. 2 ABC 2.77 million No. 2 NBC 1.2/761,000 No. 3 NBC 2.55 million No. 2 CBS 1.1/722,000 Women 18-49 (rank based on rating)Program Net Rtg/000s The Young & the Restless CBS 1.7/1.15 million (-.2/-70,000) General Hospital ABC 1.4/910,000 (same/-12,000) One Life to Live CBS 1.2/817,000 (same/+4,000) All My Children ABC 1.2/802,000 (+.1/+76,000) Days of our Lives NBC TBD/TBD The Bold and the Beautiful NBC TBD/TBD As The World Turns CBS TBD/659,000 (TBD/-7,000) Guiding Light CBS TBD/531,000 (TBD/-52,000) Women 18-34Program Net Rtg/000s The Young & the Restless CBS TBD/TBD General Hospital ABC 0.9 rating/308,000 (same) One Life to Live CBS 0.8 rating/262,000 (same) All My Children ABC 0.8 rating/260,000 (+.1) Days of our Lives NBC TBD/TBD The Bold and the Beautiful NBC TBD/TBD As The World Turns CBS TBD/194,000 Guiding Light CBS TBD/140,000

Darkest Before the Dawn

Former soap writer Tom Casiello has written another brilliant blog on the state of daytime inspired after listening to Victoria Rowell's "Daytime Confidential Podcast" interview. 1 "If all of these people (myself included... God knows I've written more than my fair share of frustrated blog entries in the last two years) finally feel like it's time to stand up and say 'Wrong. This is wrong', then so be it. You piss off enough people, and eventually, there will be a revolution. I wish I wasn't around for it, to be honest. But I can't really argue with somebody's right to rise up, declare that they don't like something. It's the whole reason our country exists in the first place.It's not exactly fun to read/listen to this. If anything, it just leaves me even more frustrated, and completely unsatisfied. We should be creating entertainment, not decimating the art form. Somewhere out there, there must be another William Bell - a man who can take all of these artists, all of these differences of opinion and creative disagreements, and channel them - funnel them into one driving force that can create the number one daytime drama for over two decades without compromising anyone's artistic integrity. I wish he or she would show up - we're long overdue." Read the entire blog entry here.

Soap Ratings - Men vs Women

When looking at the ratings for last week, it is interesting to note that if you add the total viewers up for all shows you have over 23 million viewers. There is audience out there craving continuing drama, and even though many people now get their "fix" in prime time, there is nothing like the characterizations you can get from daytime soaps. Just imagine the ratings potential if the remaining daytime soaps were consistently good. We hear a lot about the "demos" and how the networks are obsessed with the Women 18-49 demographic (which includes the Women 18-34 demo). Last week, this segment of soap viewers accounted for 27% of the total viewers across the board. That's just over one in four. So if this is the group the shows are supposedly being written for, what about the other fans? As you can see from the table below, male viewers 18 and older accounted for 22% of total viewers. This demo is almost equal to Women 18-49 but yet gets overlooked by the show's producers, writers and sponsors. 1 What's interesting to note is that GENERAL HOSPITAL, known for mobsters and explosive drama, is the show with the smallest percentage of male viewers (it has the highest number of viewers in the Women 18-49 demo). Also, if you look at the shows with the most total viewers, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, you'll see they each have a higher percentage of Men 18+ viewers than Women 18-49. Those male viewers are critical to the success of both shows. Teen viewership (Girls 12-17) is so small it barely even registers. ONE LIFE TO LIVE was #1 last week with 25,000 teen girls watching. So who is left? We've accounted for men over 18 and women under 49. That leaves female viewers over 50. This is the primary audience watching soaps today. These are the most loyal viewers. These tend to be viewers that care about the histories of these shows. If the daytime soaps want to continue and remain profitable enough to hang on until "something" turns this around (as Casiello said in his blog - hopefully the next Bill Bell or Agnes Nixon will come along), these viewers are giong to have to be respected and the shows are going to have to focus on things these people care about. Of course, they could always just start writing good character-driven stories that make sense and don't insult the audience's intelligence which would appeal to "all" the demos. Good storytelling is ageless.

Soaps for Social Change

Last Friday, CBC radio show "The Current" discussed how soap operas can be used to bring about social change. The discussion touched on many interesting points on how soaps are making an impact around the world. Included were television soap NOOR and radio soap YEKEN KIGNI among others. TV Guide Canada's Nelson Branco was part of the discussion of soaps in North America, which seem to be lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of being a vehicle for social change. You can listen to this episode of "The Current" below.