General Soap Operas

Soap Opera Ratings Race: SHOCKING Numbers For All Four Soaps

Published by

Hope Campbell

7 years ago

The soap opera ratings race for the week ending May 18 sees all four daytime dramas coming out of the doldrums. While one soap had kept pace for weeks, the other three are catching up.

For the first time in months, ALL of your favorite soaps showed BIG improvements from both the prior week and the prior year.

It looks like May sweeps was a lot more successful than February sweeps, but then again, soaps didn’t have to compete with the Winter Olympics this time around.

The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless (YR) remained at number one as per usual, garnering 4,174,000 viewers on average overall, up 98,000 from the week before and 54,000 from the same time last year.

Y&R also made improvements in the demographics, seeing gains from the previous week and in all three demos, and gains from the week and year before with women 18-34.

The Bold and the Beautiful
Sister soap The Bold and the Beautiful (BB) pulled in 3,398,000 viewers on average overall, up 133,000 from the previous week and 83,000 from the previous year.

B&B saw the same general gains in the demographics as Y&R, making improvements from the week and year before with women 18-34 and from just the week before with women 18-49 and 25-54.

General Hospital
General Hospital (GH) has reclaimed its number three spot for two weeks now, after a shocking turn in which it dropped to last place.

GH garnered 2,452,000 viewers on average overall, up 162,000 from the week before and 76,000 from the year before.

The 55-year-old soap also saw gains from the week and year before with women 18-34, as well as improve numbers from the previous week in the other two female demographics. The Nurses’ Ball seemed to do the trick.

Days of Our Lives
Days of Our Lives (DOOL) is the little soap that could, still proving it can. After a dismal 2017, DAYS sees improvements each week.

The lone NBC soap pulled in 2,245,000 viewers on average overall, up 7,000 from the prior week and a whopping 281,000 from the same time last year. DAYS was also the only soap to make gains from the previous week and previous year in all three female demos.