Special Report: Hope For Soaps As Ratings Show Positive Signs

While the four remaining soaps have held the same place in total viewers for quite some time now, that doesn’t mean that shows aren’t improving or there’s not good news for your favorite show.

For starters, The Young and the Restless remains daytime’s top rated show. For the week ending January 19th, the sudser attracted nearly 5 million viewers (4.85 million, to be exact). That’s the largest weekly number in a year!

Y&R has been daytime TV’s No. 1 drama for 29 consecutive years.

There’s good news for General Hospital, too. For the week ending February 2nd, GH took the top spot in the coveted Female 18-49 year old demographic.

The Bold and the Beautiful remains in second place of all daytime dramas and, season to date, ranks No. 5 out of all daytime programs in the Female 18-49 demographic.

Don’t count out Days of Our Lives just because it’s in fourth place among daytime serials. Season to date, the show ranks in sixth place in the Female 18 -49 and Female 25-54 demographics.

In more recent ratings news for DAYS, the show was up in total viewers, an increase of 7%, for the week ending February 2nd with 2.4 million viewers over a year ago at the same time, which had 2.24 million viewers.

How do all these numbers translate into the future of soaps? We see that numbers have been going up and can increase when shows put care and thought into stories, returning favorites, and pacing — where you can’t miss a day and you still want to come back tomorrow because the story isn’t over! So, as the saying goes, tune in tomorrow!