CBS SOAPS UP IN VIEWERS, GH DOWN 10%, DAYS UP BUT STILL NEAR LOWS
Soap Opera Ratings: 6/28-7/2/2021
CBS Soaps Up In Viewers, GH Drops 10% Across The Board, DAYS Up But Still Near Lows
As previously reported here yesterday, CBS’ Young And The Restless and Bold and The Beautiful hit total viewer highs for the week of 6/28-7/2/2021. With all four soaps’ ratings available we can see how they ranked in total viewers and two sought after demographics: Women Ages 18-49 and 25-54. Young And The Restless was first in all categories, Bold and The Beautiful was second, General Hospital was third and Days Of Our Lives was last. The rankings among the four soaps have remained little changed since March. However every soap opera has fluctuated to a varying degree this season.
The reigning number one champ in most categories (counting live plus same day numbers), Young And The Restless ,continued its run on top. As reposted yesterday, Y&R was up 105,000 viewers week-to-week, which marked a 3% increase. In women 25-54, Y&R ranked first holding steady with a .69, the same as the show rated ast week. Y&R retained its hold on first place with a .43 in Women 18-49, and did so despite a drop of 7% from last week’s .46.
Y&R and B&B Up in Viewers, Despite Slight Dips in Demos
As previously reported, Y&R hit a season high on February 8th. However, that week is an outlier, as all four soaps surged to a season high, apparently benefiting from airing only one episode each. All four soaps were preempted by the impeachment trial for the rest of the week. Outside of that anomaly, the most recent week, the one ending July 2nd, was Y&R’s most viewed week since April 24, 2020. Check out Soap Opera Network for info on how Y&R stacked up to the rest of daytime.
Season to date, Y&R is averaging 3.206 million viewers which is down 12% compared to last season’s average through April before episodes ran out. The number one soap had 3.70 million viewers on average at that point last year, a loss of half a million viewers. Counting the entire 2019-2020 season,Y&R averaged 3.56 million viewers. Among demographics of women 18-49, Y&R has a .43 (-17%) and in 25-54 a .69 (-14%) season to date.. Despite the declines, Y&R remains number one in the three measures when accounting for Live Plus Same Day viewing among the four soap operas.
Fellow CBS soap opera, Bold and The Beautiful added 93,000 viewers from the previous week, increasing 3% to 2.969 million viewers. This was the soap opera’s highest rated week since April of 2020 as well when looking past the February outlier. In Women 18-49 and Women 25-54, B&B dipped week to week. The drop of .03 in Women 18-49 was down 8% from last week’s .40 to a .37. A similar drop of .03 brought the Women 25-54 rating down to .62, a drop of 5% from the previous week’s .65.
B&B Has Improved Retention of Y&R’s Audience In All Categories
Season to date, B&B is averaging 2.777 million viewers a 13% dip in total viewers. Last year in Women 18-49, the soap opera averaged .44 and is currently down to a .38, a 13% drop year to year. In women 25-54, the soap opera is also down double digits, averaging a .64 in the demographic.
B&B is retaining 87% of its lead in from Y&R so far for the season. Last year the soap opera held unto 86%. This week the soap held onto 88% percent of the audience watching the hour long soap just before B&B begins. In the demographics, B&B retained 94% percent of the audience of women 25-54 for the season to date but only held on to 89% this past week. In Women 18-49, the soap holds onto 88% on average but only held 86% this past week.
After Big Gains Last Week, GH Was Down 10% Across All Categories
While General Hospital was able to climb last week to its higher viewership in over a year, the soap opera lost 221,000 viewers compared to last week. This was the biggest drop in total viewers the soap has seen in at least the last 2 months and likely is the lowest rated since March. The soap opera dropped to 2.055 million viewers and saw a 10% drop in total viewers and both demographics this week.
In women 18-49, GH dropped from a .39 to a .35. The ABC soap is averaging a .35 for the season which is a 22% decline from the .45 the soap averaged last season. GH saw its Women 25-54 ratings decline .06 to a .57, in line with its season average which is down 20% so far this season.
GH remains down just 3% from last season’s numbers, the smallest decline from last year. GH dropped the least in total viewers compared to the other soaps. ABC’s remaining daytime drama has not dropped below 2 million viewers since the MLB playoff led to an unannounced early airing of GH back in October. That week the soap aired on Monday with strong numbers and aired Thursday instead of Friday to accommodate the baseball game. The unfortunate scheduling move reeked havoc on GH’s ratings and impacted the Live Plus Seven Day ratings performance for the week since the unscheduled episode was not recorded by the majority of DVRs.
Despite maintaining viewership above the 2 million viewer mark since October, GH has struggled to top 2.276 million viewers. Last week was GH’s highest-rated week of episodes since the week of April 24, 2020. That was the final week all four soaps aired original episodes before going on a hiatus due to the pandemic related shutdown. GH has a season-to-date average of 2.115 million viewers compared to 2.21 for the 2019-2020 season average prior to the shutdown.
DAYS Up Week-To-Week But Still Near Lows
Days Of Our Lives increased from last week’s lows in all measures. DAYS saw it viewership increase by 2%, adding 25,000 viewers from last week’s series low. This brought viewership up to 1.504 million and marks the fourth time in five weeks the soap has averaged below 1.6 million viewers. DAYS has not topped 1.7 million viewers since February.
In women 18-49, DAYS increased 13% from a .24 to a .27 and rose from last week’s .37 to a .40 in Women 25-54. The soap increased 8% week to week in that demographic. DAYS was the only soap to increase week to week in all three measure as it added viewers as well as increased its ratings in both demographics. The sole NBC soap is down 21% from a .39 to a .31 in Women 18-49 for the season to date. In women 25-54 the soap is down dramatically to a .46.
All raw data was courtesy of www.soapoperanetwork.com and information released by Viacom/CBS via www.viacompressexpress.com. I highly recommend checking out Soap Opera Network and all the information their team puts out each week. I know I check in every day!
Y&R Still Holds #1 , Despite Drops After Hiatus
Y&R had the most significant drop in viewers when it initially returned from the hiatus on August 10. This show is the highest-rated and older of the two CBS soaps. It was the last to return to production after Bold and The Beautiful on July 20th and ABC’s General Hospital on August 3rd, with new episodes beginning
Y&R has been number one every week since 1988 except for one. This one-off week involved episode preemptions that did not affect Bold & The Beautiful. This gave the younger soap a chance to spend its first and only week in the top spot. Last season before the shutdown, Y&R averaged 3.70 million viewers. In the final weeks of original episodes, the soap hit a season-high of 4.213 million. It averaged above 4 million for four out of the five final weeks, the last of which averaged 4.042 million viewers.
Y&R Returned August 10, 2021, Bounced Back After Tough Start
Young and The Restless returned a week after GH with just 2.685 million viewers, down 34% from the last week of originals and 28% for the season to date before the hiatus. The soap would remain in first place despite the drop, even after it fell to 2.542 million. The turnaround was relatively swift as it surpassed 3 million viewers the following week. This season is down 13% from the entire season and roughly 14% from before the hiatus. Y&R has been renewed through 2024.
B&B Was First Soap On Air After Hiatus July 20, 2021
B&B was the canary in the coal mine when it returned with just 2.105 million viewers. The drop in viewers set the expectations for both GH & Y&R in the weeks that followed. The soap’s final week in April averaged 3.275 million viewers, and only weeks before had hit a season-high of 3.66 million viewers. The decline meant a loss of 36% from the final week, 43% from the season-high, and 35% from the season average up to that point.
B&B’s Ratings Have Improved After A Rough Start
The premiere marked a series low, far below the 2.642 million viewers of the previous one. The second week would fall another 4% to a new low of 2.033 million. The first six weeks after the return from reruns would tick upwards but averaged just 2.27 million viewers. However, B&B would return to far more substantial numbers. So far this season, B&B is averaged 2.78 million, down 13% but much higher than the initial return from hiatus.
B&B has performed remarkably well, especially in retaining viewers from Y&R. B&B is the only half-hour soap still on the air and was the last hit daytime soap opera to premiere. However, the soap has not performed as well in DVR playback as it’s peers and adds the fewest amount of viewers. B&B has more episodes of any daytime drama available for streaming on CBS’ streaming service Paramount Plus. The viewership statistics for the streaming service remain a mystery. The soap opera was renewed through 2022.
GH Returned on August 3, 2021, Overall Audience Steady
General Hospital also saw declines, although the decrease in viewers was not as pronounced. GH returned with 1.907 million, a 13% decline from the 2.17 million viewers tuning into its last week of originals. The ABC soap it a two-year-high just a few weeks earlier with 2.57 million viewers and 2.21 million for the season up through the hiatus. The soap would drop as low as 1.665 million viewers in September due to a scheduling mishap due to baseball.
Since the beginning of this season, GH has declined the least in total viewers and is averaging 2.12 million viewers, a decline of 3% from last season and 4% not including the post-shutdown episodes. Last week the soap pulled in 2.276 million, a season-high and best since the beginning of April 2020. GH has continued to hold onto more of its overall audience than any of its peers.
General Hospital Is The Greatest Gainer In DVR Playback
In time-shift viewing, GH leads the daytime drama genre when Live Plus 7 Day viewers are accounted for. The ABC soap adds a higher percentage of viewers than any other soap opera. When those viewers are counted, GH has consistently outperformed B&B overtaking the CBS soap in Women 18-49 and coming close in women 25-54. The overall numbers for GH including streaming on multiple platforms such as Hulu and ABC.com have not been revealed by ABC or Disney.
DAYS Continues Like Sand Through The Hour Glass
Days Of Our Lives did not stop production and did not need to air any reruns or go on hiatus. This was due to its unique production schedule which has provided DAYS with a cushion of nine months of epsiodes. Unfortunately, DAYS did not see any benefit from its competition not being on the air for an extended period of time. The lowest rated soap is pulling in 1.70 million viewers each week this season, down 9% from last season’s 1.91 million average. The soap’s last few weeks all rank among the series lowest to date in total viewers. Still NBC renewed the soap opera for two more years.
Peacock App Now Exclusive Home to DAYS Online Episodes
In a vote of confidence due to its strong streaming performance on NBC.com, DAYS is now only streaming on the free Peacock Streaming app. DAYS performance including live plus 7 days of DVR playback is the second strongest of the four soaps. DAYS is behind only GH in percentage increases when accounting for Live Plus 7 Day viewing