Soap Opera Ratings Race: GOOD News For Two Soaps On The Rise

The soap opera ratings race for the week ending January 26 show two soaps making big gains from last year.

Days of Our Lives
While Days of Our Lives (DOOL) remains the last place soap out of four, it’s certainly come out of the doldrums it was experiencing at this time last year.

DAYS garnered 2,412,000 viewers on average overall, down 119,000 from the week before, yet up 152,000 from the year before. However, the only place DAYS made improvement in the female demographics was with women 18-34, where it was up 7,000 from the previous week.

General Hospital
General Hospital (GH) kept its third-place spot overall, pulling in 2,726,000 viewers, down 6,000 from the prior week, but up 90,000 from the prior year.

GH also reclaimed its number two spot in the female demographics with women 18-49 and 18-34. It was also the only soap to make gains over the previous week in all three demos.

The Young and the Restless
The CBS soap did not fare nearly as well as DAYS and GH. While The Young and the Restless (YR) was of course number one because it’s been in that spot for decades, it did lose a significant amount of viewers.

Y&R garnered 4,470,000 viewers on average overall, down 370,000 from the previous week and 297,000 from the previous year. The soap also lost viewers from both the week before and year before in all three female demographics.

The Bold and the Beautiful
Sister soap The Bold and the Beautiful (BB) also experienced a loss, but not quite as hard as Y&R.

B&B pulled in 3,664,000 viewers on average overall, down 248,000 from the week before and 170,000 from the year before. The soap also lost viewers in all three female demos from both the prior week and prior year.