Soap Opera Ratings Race: GREAT News For One Soap, Mixed For Others

The soap opera ratings race for the week ending December 1 show improvements for one fledgling soap, and up and down numbers for three others.

Days of Our Lives
Days of Our Lives (DOOL) seemed to be on death’s door earlier this year, but is now enjoying a renaissance of sorts with Ron Carlivati’s writing. The show has a quicker pace, more character-driven storylines, snappier dialogue, and an overall better feel and it shows in the numbers.

While DAYS remained in fourth place out of four soaps, it was the only show to make overall improvements from both the week before and year before. It pulled in 2,398,000 viewers on average overall, up 19,000 from the week before and 95,000 from the same time last year.

DAYS also made gains in all three female demographics from the previous week, showing a definite upward trend for the soap.

General Hospital
While General Hospital (GH) saw losses, including dropping from its number one perch in the demographics, it did manage to hold onto number two with women 18-49.

GH garnered 2,691,000 viewers on average overall, down 113,000 from the week before, yet up 21,000 from the year before.

The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless (YR) held onto its number one perch but continued to hemorrhage viewers. It pulled in 4,485,000 viewers on average overall, down 57,000 from the previous week and 192,000 from the previous year.

However, Y&R did see gains in all three female demos from the week before but not the year before.

The Bold and the Beautiful
Sister soap The Bold and the Beautiful (BB) garnered 3,589,000 viewers on average overall, down 80,000 from the prior week and 207,000 from the prior year. B&B did make gains from the week before with women 18-49 and 25-54.