Nearly A Year Since Soaps Returned Withy Fresh Episodes, A Steady Week
Soap Ratings Fans rejoice! Numbers fans can soon enjoy some year to year increases, since we are JUST three weeks away from having data to compare year to year numbers for all four soap operas!
Going into those weeks, it looks like only one soap opera is in danger of losing viewers year-to-to-year. Ironically, it was the one soap opera that did not have any interruptions last year due to a unique production schedule. If you guessed Days Of Our Lives, you are correct. Even more bizarre, is that Days Of Our Lives will not be airing for the next two weeks. The cause for this hiatus? The 2020 Olympics. You read that right. Despite making it through last year without missing episodes, DAYS is being preempted for last year’s postponed Olympics ceremony. I’m not entirely sure if that sentence makes any sense but welcome to the world we live in; down is up, 2020 is still going strong, and the ratings for the daytime soaps are on the upswing.
This week, three out of four soaps saw their total viewer numbers increase from the previous week. While any increase is a positive thing, the audience growth was negligible. But the same could be said about this week’s sole “loser,” Bold and The Beautiful, which lost only 53,000 viewers from last week. B&B hit its second-highest viewer tally the previous week with 3.032 million and dipped to 2.979 million viewers, a decline of less than 2% week-to-week and is 190,000 viewers more than the season average, up by 7%. Season to date, B&B is averaging 2.789 million viewers a week and is down just 7% from the final average of the 2019-2020 season.
Looking back at the last twelve weeks, B&B has been consistent and has made considerable strides in closing the gap from last year. B&B has averaged 2.817 million viewers over the past three months, 2.869 million for the past two months, and 2.964 million in the past four weeks. Small growth is better than no growth,and B&B’s incremental progress over the past three months has made a difference. The season’s overall average increased by roughly 12,000 viewers a month is a big deal.
In fact, for Days of Our Lives, any increase is a massive victory, and the soap added more viewers this week than the rest. Days added 18,000 more for a 1% increase to 1.643 million viewers and hit at least a twelve-week high. This marks the third straight week of gains for the NBC soap opera after hitting a series low of 1.489 million viewers.
So far this season, Days is averaging 1.694 million viewers and has shed 11% of its viewers from last year (1.91 million). The recent trend, however, over the previous twelve weeks is not the positive picture that B&B has. DAYS is only averaging 1.586 million for the last three months, 1.575 million for the last eight weeks, and 1.565 million for the previous four weeks.
DAYS hasfallen from the year-ago comparable 12-week period by 14%, and that’s when it was the only game in town. As bad as these numbers are, NBC decided to renew the soap for two more years. Considering the shenanigans the network has pulled on DAYS when it came to season renewals, this must mean the numbers on Peacock are at the least above average.
Young and the Restless remained at the top, as it had for what seems like eons. The CBS soap was up 5,000 viewers (roughly 1%) to a total of 3.346 million viewers. Y&R was hit the hardest last year upon its return with new episodes, but has bounced back considerably. Y&R is averaging 3.214 million viewers , down 10% from last years 3.56 million viewers, and is also showing a positive trajectory over the last twelves weeks.
The last three months have the soap averaging 3.258 million, eight weeks of episodes have averaged 3.263 million, and the last month of episodes is at 3.332 million viewers. In comparison, the first month after the show returned with new episodes, Y&R averaged 2.729 million and has seen almost 600,000 viewers return to the soap.
General Hospital added viewers for the second week in a row, up from 2.105 million to 2.119 million viewers for a 14,000 increase weeks to week (1 %). This week’s total viewer average was right in line with the season average of 2.115 million, which is just 3% less than last season’s 2.183 million viewers. GH is down the least among total viewers of all four soap operas season to date.
Based on the consistent trends and information released over the past few years, GH adds the most viewers in live-plus seven day viewers. Tha ABC soap’s increase among viewers watching outside the live airing is higher than any other soap opera.,
GH’s average for the past twelves weeks has been encouraging. For the three months the average was 2.145 million, 2.153 million for two months, and 2.138 million for the last four weeks. In that last span of time, GH hit both a season high and fell to one of its lowest of the season the very next week. That volatility usually implies shaky ground but in the past twelve weeks, GH outdid the season average seven times. The lowest level was 2.055 million viewers, just 60,000 vieers below the season. The average of the underperforming five weeks was 2.093 million viewer overall, just 12,000 viewers less.
2.153 million for two months, and 2.138 million for the last month. During that last month, GH hit both a season high and one of its lowest of the season the very next week.
