Soap Opera Ratings Race: SURPRISE News For All Four Soaps

The soap opera ratings race for the week ending October 20 shows soaps might have found a positive trend after a dreary year.

For the second week in a row, all four soaps have seen ratings improvements over all, which is a far cry from how things have been of late.

The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless (YR) took first place of four soaps as usual, pulling in 4,479,000 viewers on average overall, up 109,000 from the week before and 5,000 from the year before.

Y&R was also up in all three coveted women’s demographics from the previous week, yet down in all three from the previous year. A month ago, it was hemorrhaging viewers, but things are definitely looking up.

The Bold and the Beautiful
Sister soap The Bold and the Beautiful (BB) took second place as always, garnering 3,530,000 viewers on average overall. It was up 20,000 from the week before, but down a whopping 200,000 from the year before.

Like Y&R, B&B also made gains in all three demographics from the prior week, but lost viewers from the prior year.

General Hospital
General Hospital (GH) remained in third place, pulling in 2,531,000 viewers on average overall, 17,000 from the week before, but 75,000 from the week before.

While GH retained its second-place spot with women 18-49, it was also down from both the week before and year before in that demo. It was also down from the previous week and previous year with women 25-54.

Days of Our Lives
Days of Our Lives (DOOL) continued to make gains, garnering 2,142,000 viewers on average overall, but it was only up a mere 18,000 from the previous week and down 68,000 from the same time last year.

DAYS did not fair as well in the demographics, only making gains from the prior week with women 18-49 and 25-54.