Young and The Restless dipped in viewers and women 18-49 this week but held steady in women 25-54. Y&R had no trouble keeping its first-place lead in all three categories. Despite the drop of 80,000 viewers from the previous week, this was Y&R’s second-best full week of the season (only behind last week’s 3.523 million) with 3.443 million viewers tuning in. The show remained on top in the demographics was down 12% from last week’s season-high of .49 in women 18-49, dropping to its lowest in over a month with a .43 (which is still in line with the season average). In women 25-54, Y&R repeated its .70 from last week and B&B came within .01 of tying for first place in the demographic.

Compared to the first week of its return from hiatus, Y&R was up 28% in total viewers. An additional 758,000 viewers have returned since Y&R’s disastrous post-shutdown premiere this time last year when just 2.685 million viewers tuned in. The soap also surged 32% from a .53 in women 25-54. The most convincing evidence of the show’s return to form was a 48% jump from the series low of .29 in women 18-49. Y&R is averaging 3.236 million viewers (down 7%), .43 in women 18-49 (-17%), and .70 in women 25-54 (-14%). Y&R remains firmly in the lead in all three categories.

General Hospital had a great week with increases from last week in all three categories. The overall audience for the ABC soap grew by 5%, with 102,000 more viewers than the previous week for 2.2 million viewers. This is only one of six weeks out of the last sixteen months that GH has hit an audience level of 2.2 million viewers in Live Plus Same Day viewing.The comparable week last year, GH’s second in its return from the pandemic production hiatus, GH had 1.898 million viewers. This week saw GH add more than 300,000 viewers for a 16% increase in its overall audience. The series, which celebrated its 58th birthday earlier this season, averages 2.116 million viewers this year. Despite deep declines across all areas of television, GH has lost just 59,000 viewers from last year’s 2.175 million. This 3% decline is the smallest drop among the four soap operas.

In women 25-54, GH jumped 13% from the prior week’s .52 to a .59. This was the best performance since the week of 6/25/2021 and matched last year in the demographic while remaining ahead of the season’s average. GH is averaging .57 in women 25-54 and is down about 17% year to year. GH also increased in women 18-49, up 5% from a .32 to a .34, its best since the week of 6/18/2021. This was a drop of 11% from last year when it managed to rank first among the soap operas with a .38 rating. Despite losing ground from last year in the category, this was an improvement over the 21% drop it has averaged so far this season. Season to date the average in women 18-49 has been a .35 compared to a .44 last year.