Latest Ratings Soap Opera Ratings: Week of August 6th, 2021
With NBC‘s coverage of the Olympics, Days of Our Lives remained on break for a second week. The network has continued to dominate every timeslot any of Tokyo Games events have aired in and by a landslide. However, the sporting event is down up to 40% fromxhxj the Rio Games in 2016. Viewers with no interest in sports looking for an alternative during Days Of Our Lives‘ short hiatus turned to CBS. Young And The Restless and Bold And The Beautiful posting strong numbers versus the week before. General Hospital gain some viewers but remained near season lows but did not lose any ground from last week.
NBC Airs Olympic Coverage, But CBS Gets the Gold
In women, 25-54 Y&R maintained last week’s .70 in line with the season average. In women 18-49, Y&R average this season by 12% once again. Those demographic numbers propelled Y&R to season highs with 3.523 million total viewers, up nearly 200.000 from the previous week and more than 300,000 viewers compared to the season average. This week marked the fourth consecutive week of increases for America’s number one daytime drama.
Y&R’s spike in total viewers and steady performance in demos was out shined by increases across the board for Bold and The Beautiful. Joining Y&R in the three million viewer club once again, 3.067 million viewers sent B&B past the season-high set just four weeks ago. Unlike Y&R which remained flat in demos, and GH which dropped. B&B jumped from last week’s .41 to a .season high.45 (+10%). The half-hour soap opera surged 20% in women 25-54, up 10% from a .63 to a .69.
‘Bold’ Keeps Audience Hooked On Hot Storylines
Bold And The Beautiful‘s scorching streak in the rating can be has been the product of good, old-fashioned soapy storytelling. With the forbidden and steamy affair between Quinn and Carter that set social media ablaze, viewers have consistently had reasons to tune in. Those who were invested and engaged received the payoff of the fallout as Eric and Quinn’s renewal of vows turned out to be a reveal of Quinn and Carter’s scandal. Viewers then had shock and awe replaced with romance leading up to Steffy and Finn’s wedding.
Viewers would have been pleased with a wedding (who doesn’t love a soap wedding?) but B&B ended the week on a cliffhanger as Steffy (along with everybody else) learned Finn’s mother was Sheila Carter. There is nothing more soap opera than an uninvited wedding guest. I don’t even watch B&B but I do know one thing for sure Sheila Carter is trouble. And the audience loves her. When Kimberlin Brown brought Sheila on to B&B after wreaking havoc on Y&R, the younger soap went from solid performer to a bonafide hit for CBS.
‘DAYS’ Absence Benefits CBS Soaps Not ‘GH’
While Days Of Our Lives has not been on for the past two weeks, it manages to keep itself at the forefront of all the soap opera blogs and publications. The indiustry and fans are alike are looking forward to Days Of Our Lives: Beyond Salem. The buzz about the limited series spin-off has continued as fan favorites Eileen Davidson, Chandler Massey, and several other fan-favorites have been announce as part of the cast.
General Hospital hasn’t benefitted much from DAY’s hiatus over the past two weeks, but the CBS soaps thrived. This is not too surprising since DAYS goes head to head with the last half-hour of Y&R and B&B in most major markets around the country. GH was flat in women 18-49, where it posted a .32 in the demographic for the third straight week and only increased .01 in women 25-54 to a .52. The ABC soap hasn’t been able to rise above its season average in either category in nearly two months.
GH Still Holding On To Total Viewers As Demos Drop
As has been the case all year, GH performed better in total viewers than the demographics, pulling in 2.098 million viewers, just 16,000 behind the 2.114 million seasons to date. While GH is down double digits in those demographics, it’s down the least in total viewers compared to its peers, down only 3% for the season. Compared to last year’s return from hiatus, when GH averaged 1.907 million viewers, the soap added 191,000 viewers for a healthy 10% increase. Despite the bigger audience, that pales in comparison to the only other soap airing fresh episodes last year, B&B which was up more than 45% in both demographics and added over 800,000 viewers.
GH Fans Do Not Have To Worry… I think
The demographic declines likely would be cause for alarm four or five years ago. However, there’s be a seismic shift in how people view programming. The target audience of a specific demographic of women, much like the majority of the viewing audience as a whole watches less programming during its initial airing. Judging by the last set of numbers during the final quarter of 2020, GH consistently increases more than the other three soaps when Live plus 7-day ratings are tabulated . The exact figures for the soap opera’s performance on ABC.com and Hulu are not public knowledge, nor has NBC made DAYS’ performance on Peacock public nor is there any data from CBS for their soaps’ streaming audience. But we know GH outdraws DAYS in total viewers and demographics, increases more with Live+7 Day included, and (this is purely conjecture) SoapNet reinforced the habit of watching GH outside of its afternoon timeslot far sooner and longer than its peers so GH’s streaming figures are on par with DAYS at the very least. NBC‘s decision to not only renew the soap for two years but ordering a spin-off tells me GH is doing fine. And there’s also this fact…
All Four Soaps Are Outperforming Their Respective Networks Compared to Five Yeas Ago
What a difference five years makes, right? As low as the four remaining soaps have dropped, none have lost as much of their audience as their respective networks have in primetime. The number one network in the daytime and primetime is still CBS, although the network has the distinction of being the biggest loser in primetime as well. CBS went from 10.91 million viewers to 6.2 million, losing 43% of its audience over the course of five years- close to a million viewers a year. NBC has lost 36% of its primetime audience, just under 2.9 million viewers. ABC lost “only” 32% of its audience and ended up faring better by losing the least amount of viewers 2.2 million viewers. Unfortunately for ABC, the network also fell behind FOX for fourth place this year.
Despite having had the biggest decline of the soaps, Y&R‘s audience dropped 33% (a little over 1.5 million viewers). DAYS was the next biggest drop percentage-wise (-29%) shedding 690,000 viewers, B&B lost 24% ( down 805,000 viewers) and GH was close behind with a 23% drop (-658,000 viewers). All four soap operas combined lost less of their audience than CBS did alone in the same amount of time. All three networks lost more viewers than their respective soaps currently have to watch them. Anybody watching the ratings should keep this in mind because soap operas aren’t likely to go extinct any time soon.