Soap Opera Ratings Race: One Soap Keeps Defying The Odds

The soap opera ratings race for the week ending March 2 shows one soap still on the rise while other soaps take a tumble.

A year ago, Days of Our Lives (DOOL) ratings were so low that its headwriter was gone and a new one had taken the helm.

While Ron Carlivati’s work didn’t start airing till the late summer of 2017, since then DAYS has shown it’s the little soap that could. Its numbers have gotten consistently better and it was just renewed for another year.

For the week ending March 2, DAYS pulled in 2,243,000 viewers on average overall, down 86,000 from the week before, but up 110,000 from the year before. In fact, DAYS was the only soap to make any improvements overall.

DAYS also saw higher numbers from the week before with women 18-34 and 25-54, and improvements from the year before with women 18-49, ranking number three in that demo.

The number-one rated The Young and the Restless (YR) had a dismal week, but maintained its top perch per usual. Y&R garnered 4,196,000 viewers on average overall, down 75,000 from the previous year and 234,000 from the previous week.

Y&R was also down from the week before and year before in all three female demographics, and even tied hit a new low with women 18-49.

Sister soap The Bold and the Beautiful (BB) pulled in 3,438,000 viewers on average overall, down 22,000 from the prior week and 201,000 from the prior year. The only place B&B saw any improvements was with women 18-34.

General Hospital (GH) also had a poor ratings performance in the week leading up to its big earthquake. In fact, Thursday that week saw its best numbers, and not Friday when the earthquake began.

GH garnered 2,504,000 viewers, down 150,000 from the week before and 104,000 from the year before. The only place GH saw improvements was from week before with women 18-34 and 18-49.