Soap Opera Ratings Race: Bad News for Y&R, Good News For DAYS & GH

The soap opera ratings race for the week ending October 7 shows The Young and the Restless losing the most viewers both overall and in the key female demographics.

The Young and the Restless
While Y&R retained its number one spot as always, it pulled in only 4,450,000 average viewers overall, down 241,000 from the week before and 208,000 from the year before. The soap also lost viewers from the previous week and previous year in the women’s 18-49 and 25-54 demographics. The only demo where Y&R gained viewers was from the week before in the 18-34 category.

The Bold and the Beautiful
Sister soap The Bold and the Beautiful fared a bit better, while still maintaining its number two ratings spot. It garnered 3,719,000 average viewers overall, down 194,000 from the week before, but up 101,000 from the same time last year. Like Y&R, B&B also lost viewers in each demographic.

General Hospital
General Hospital actually overtook B&B for the number two spot in the 18-34 female demo. While it remained number three overall, pulling in 2,671,000 overall viewers on average, it garnered 141,000 viewers in the 18-34 demographic, up 23,000 from the previous week, but down 10,000 from the previous year.

Days of Our Lives
Days of Our Lives remained in last place out of the remaining four soaps, but gained viewers from the previous week  in all categories. It pulled in 2,218,000 viewers overall, up 5,000 from the week before, but down 257,000 from the year before. The same basic trend remained for all demographics in which the soap made gains from the previous week, but saw a loss from the same time last year.