Latest Soap Opera Ratings: Week of 10/8/21
Check out the daily breakdown of the ratings. for every episode on every soap opera.
Three weeks into the 2021-2022 season, the soaps continue to perform well ahead of the previous year’s pace. However, this week had some trouble spots for every soap. Well, every soap opera except for ‘Young and the Restless.’ The CBS soap posted season highs in all three categories, proving it will remain in first place no matter how dreadful a storyline may be. Bold and the Beautiful added viewers but struggled in the demographics despite the continued presence of Sheila Carter and the improved lead-in from Y&R.
General Hospital was blindsided by a last-minute rerun on Wednesday, sending the soap down in all three categories, although the soap seems does not appear to have lost any of its momentum. Days of our Lives was up from last week in viewers, which wasn’t there given that it was near record lows. Things went to hell in the demographics for the NBC soap. However, considering how the shut-down protocol was an existential threat to the genre- things are great.
Y&R Defies Logic, Hits Highs
Last week the highest rated soap opera, Y&R on pulled in 3.487 million viewers after pulling in an identical audience. This week Y&R pulled in 3.602 million viewers, an additional 117,000 viewers more than it had last week, an improvement of 3 percent. The soap was up over the 3.078 million viewers who tuned in last year by 17 percent, adding 524,000 viewers. The fact that Y&R’s audience is responding to a storyline involving Victoria’s imminent wedding to a man who stole an inheritance from a cat sanctuary is scarier than anything on Days of our Lives- and they have Satan involved!
In women 18-49, Y&R dipped slightly from a .42 to this week’s .41 rating, down just 2 percent. The CBS soap was up from last year’s .37 by 5 percent. The soap’s performance in women 25-54 was just as strong, with its .68 rating beating the .66 rating from both last week and the last year by 3 percent. Y&R was the only soap opera up from the previous year in all three categories.
Season to date, Y&R is averaging a fantastic 3.526 million viewers, up 505,000 viewers and 17 percent from last year. The soap opera has managed to nearly erase the previous season’s decline in total viewers, with less than a 50,000 viewer difference from the 2019-2020 season and the current one. Year to year, Y&R has improved in the 18-49 demographic by 5 percent and matched last year’s .66 average in women 25-54. The soap also remains on top in all three categories.
B&B stable in viewers, off in demographics
Bold and The Beautiful was up 3 percent in total viewers, adding 74,000 to its total audience to hit 2.974 million viewers. The soap also had 30,000 more viewers than last year. Season to date, the half-hour soap increased by 9 percent, adding 141,00,000 viewers to its audience from last year’s average of 2.787 million.
While it managed to move up in total viewers, B&B lost ground in both demographics. With a .35 rating, the soap was down 8 percent from last week’s.38 AND 5 percent from last year’s .37 rating in the women 18-49 demographic. The soap is now averaging a .36 compared to the previous year’s .37 rating during the same three weeks.
B&B took a 5 percent tumble in women 25-54 from a .61 to .57 in the demographic. The soap dropped 11 percent from last year’s .65 as well. B&B’s season-to-date average lags behind last year by 8 percent, with a .59 rating from a .64 average.
So far this season, B&B is doing okay- but only marginally better in total viewers. While declines are expected, the fact that Y&R appears to be on a hot streak with a snooze fest of a storyline is puzzling. It will be interesting to see if Sean Kanaan’s return as Deacon will have an impact in the ratings, especially with his unholy alliance with Sheila unfolding this week.
Personally, I’d take Kimberlin Brown and Sean Kanaan’s devious deeds over cat sanctuary-related larceny by a non legacy character whose been paired with a younger actress for no reason, any day. But I have been reminded that the other focal story on the show is the icky erectile dysfunction storyline that manages to demean Eric, Quinn and Carter but every character who involves themselves in any part of it- nobody walks away without looking bad. Although I bet Sheila would get a hearty laugh out of it.
GH slides on last minute repeat, still up from last year
General Hospital has seen three of its best its highest-rated weeks since last year and is well ahead of last year’s sluggish start. But this week saw GH take a tumble in all three categories. Could the soap be losing its momentum? Hardly. But ABC seems to be slacking in how it handles repeat episodes in the series average. This week the ABC soap dropped 4 percent to 2.185 million viewers, down 91,000 from 2.276 million. Still, the soap was up eight percent last year when GH pulled in 2.023 million viewers, a solid 162,000 viewers increase.
GH’s decline in both demos was far more significant, as the ABC soap dropped 18 percent to a .31 in women 18-49. Last week the soap pulled in a .38 rating and tied for second place. The .50 rating in women 25-54 marked a 17% decline from the .60 last week. The soap was down year to year, declining 16% in women 18-49 and 13% in those aged 25-54. Three weeks into the season, GH remains ahead of the average in women 25-54 during the same weeks, by 9% with a .60 rating. The soap is now tied with the season-to-date average last year with a .35. GH is performing far better in the overall audience than last year, adding 237,000 more viewers to average 2.29 million so far this season.
The impact of a rerun is nothing new to GH, but the soap appears to be in a much stronger position overall. Last month, GH had a rerun counted in the weekly average the soap the results were worse- GH dropped 169,000 viewers and 8 percent, falling to a 1.954 million viewer average from 2.12 million. The demographic numbers paint a better picture: planned Monday rerun due to Labor Day averaged a .13 rating in women 18-49, just half the week’s average of .26. In women 25-54, the soap averaged 60 percent less than the average with a .20 compared to a .50 for the week. While this is only guessing on my part, without the rerun included, GH likely would have pulled in at least 2.35 million viewers for the week, a .35 in the 18-49 demographic and .58 in women 25-54. We’ll see how correct I am when the complete breakdown is released.
Is DAYS’ deal with the devil damning its demos?
The numbers for the soap have been on a decline despite an upturn leading up to the Beyond Salem limited series. The reintroduction of Satan to the soap began with quite a lot of buzz. Social media has celebrated the spooky storyline that has placed 73-year old Diedre Hall and 96-year-old Bill Hayes front and center.
During its last dance with the devil, DAYS went from 8th place to 2nd place over the course of eight months. DAYS had had an upturn in total viewers when it returned from the traditional two-week break for Olympics coverage alongside the announcement of its limited series on the streaming service Peacock. The well-received spin-off did not help as the soap has dropped since it aired- hitting a low last week of 1.555 million viewers. The soap rebounded this week by 4 percent but was still achingly low with 1.619 million viewers. The soap was down by 94,000 viewers, off by 9 percent.
That was better than the NBC soap’s performance in the demographics. DAYS was down 18 percent in women 18-49, dropping from a .28 rating to a season-low .23 rating. That’s a massive 32 percent decline from last year. In women 25-54, the soap declined 8 percent from last week to a .36 rating and was down 28 percent from last year.
I’ve been a massive proponent of Peacock’s streaming service being the future for DAYS and the traditional method of measuring viewers as outdated. However, unless NBC releases detailed numbers that prove contrary, the continued decline in all categories is not good news. However, I’ll watch a demonic Diedre Hall smack Susan Seaforth Hayes with a hospital cafeteria tray over what Y&R is playing any day of the week.
What do you think about the ratings? Is Y&R worthy of being first place until the end of times Does the devil dampen DAYS? Should repeat ever count? Leave a comment!
