Soap Opera Ratings Race: Gains for GH and B&B, Losses For Other Soaps

The soap opera ratings race for the week ending December 9 showed mixed news for all four daytime soaps, but at least two shows saw improvements over a year ago.

Both General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful lost viewers in the three female demographic categories, but overall made gains over the same time last year.

The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful remained in second place and pulled in 3,726,000 overall viewers on average, gaining 81,000 from the year before, but losing 51,000 from the previous week. However, B&B lost from the year before and week before in the demographic categories.

General Hospital
ABC’s General Hospital found the same fate. It pulled in 2,654,000 overall viewers on average, but only made a very modest gain of 9,000 from the same time last year, while losing 17,000 from the week before.

The Young and the Restless
The number one-rated The Young and the Restless garnered 4,659,000 viewers overall, but lost 18,000 from the week before and 127,000 from the year before. The only demographic in which it made any gains was women 18-34 in which it picked up just 6,000 viewers from the week before.

Days of Our Lives
Days of Our Lives numbers continued to drop overall, pulling in an average of 2,284,000 viewers. It lost 19,000 viewers from the week before and a whopping 261,000 from the previous year. It only made gains in one demo, where it picked up 1,000 viewers from the week before with women 18-34.