A Surprising Plot Twist: Daytime soaps have audiences that rival (and often beat) primetime on network television
Ever wonder how well the four daytime dramas would fare when compared to primetime? If you are curious then this nerd has something for you! Here is a chart of the 72 first-run dramas, comedies, news magazines, and reality programs on the five major networks plus the four daytime dramas. The results may surprise you- and make you wonder why soap operas have such a bad reputation as losers in the ratings.
How The Soaps Stack Up
While none of the four soaps would rank in the top 20, or even the top 30 in total viewers, it helps to think about things in a broader sense. A lot more viewers are tuning in to television in the evening compared to the afternoon. And a lot fewer people watch traditional network television on the day it airs. It’s much more likely a viewer will be watching a series that airs once a week in primetime the old-fashioned way than carving out an hour in the afternoon every day five times a week to watch a series. All four soaps rank pretty well all things considered.
| # | Series | Network | Viewers (in millions) | % vs Last Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 60 Minutes | CBS | 9.587 | 1.05% |
| 2 | NCIS | CBS | 7.954 | -16.08% |
| 3 | The Equalizer | CBS | 7.59 | -13.62% |
| 4 | Chicago Fire | NBC | 7.283 | 1.20% |
| 5 | The Voice (Tues) | NBC | 7.058 | -3.92% |
| 6 | The Voice (Mon) | NBC | 6.987 | -4.71% |
| 7 | FBI | CBS | 6.987 | -10.77% |
| 8 | Chicago Med | NBC | 6.85 | -6.18% |
| 9 | Young Sheldon | CBS | 6.671 | -7.57% |
| 10 | Blue Bloods | CBS | 6.076 | -5.79% |
| 11 | FBI: International | CBS | 6.046 | |
| 12 | Chicago PD | NBC | 6.013 | -1.24% |
| 13 | FBI: Most Wanted | CBS | 5.993 | 4.06% |
| 14 | Survivor (Fall) | CBS | 5.849 | -8.95% |
| 15 | NCIS: Los Angeles | CBS | 5.75 | 1.52% |
| 16 | NCIS: Hawai’i | CBS | 5.661 | |
| 17 | La Brea | NBC | 5.407 | |
| 18 | Ghosts | CBS | 5.377 | |
| 19 | The Neighborhood | CBS | 5.376 | -3.15% |
| 20 | 9-1-1 | FOX | 5.26 | -18.82% |
| 21 | Bob ❤ Abishola | CBS | 5.258 | 1.49% |
| 22 | Magnum PI | CBS | 5.216 | -6.75% |
| 23 | Dancing with the Stars | ABC | 4.839 | -21.83% |
| 24 | SWAT | CBS | 4.833 | 52.79% |
| 25 | United States of Al | CBS | 4.59 | -1.61% |
| 26 | Law & Order: SVU | NBC | 4.587 | 6.32% |
| 27 | The Masked Singer | FOX | 4.567 | -31.18% |
| 28 | Station 19 | ABC | 4.567 | -11.90% |
| 29 | America’s Fun. Home Videos | ABC | 4.357 | -11.65% |
| 30 | Grey’s Anatomy | ABC | 4.193 | -18.85% |
| 31 | Celebrity Wheel of Fortune | ABC | 4.106 | -37.00% |
| 32 | Bull | CBS | 3.943 | -21.85% |
| 33 | CSI: Vegas | CBS | 3.859 | |
| 34 | B Positive | CBS | 3.854 | -17.30% |
| 35 | The Good Doctor | ABC | 3.82 | -7.94% |
| 36 | Law & Order: Organized Crime | NBC | 3.66 | -23.39% |
| 37 | Shark Tank | ABC | 3.617 | -13.20% |
| 38 | Young and The Restless | CBS | 3.578 | 9.64% |
| 39 | SEAL Team | CBS | 3.562 | -9.31% |
| 40 | The Conners | ABC | 3.431 | -6.34% |
| 41 | New Amsterdam | NBC | 3.374 | -6.80% |
| 42 | The Goldbergs | ABC | 3.232 | -7.17% |
| 43 | The Blacklist | NBC | 3.105 | -4.87% |
| 44 | The Resident | FOX | 3.066 | -12.74% |
| 45 | The Bachelorette | ABC | 3.003 | -17.97% |
| 46 | Bold and the Beautiful | CBS | 2.934 | 3.74% |
| 47 | Tough As Nails | CBS | 2.931 | -8.28% |
| 48 | The Rookie | ABC | 2.909 | -22.05% |
| 49 | Ordinary Joe | NBC | 2.906 | |
| 50 | Dateline NBC (Fri) | NBC | 2.897 | 1.76% |
| 51 | Big Sky | ABC | 2.885 | -17.90% |
| 52 | 20/20 | ABC | 2.784 | -8.11% |
| 53 | 48 Hours | CBS | 2.636 | -6.64% |
| 54 | The Wonder Years | ABC | 2.632 | |
| 55 | Supermarket Sweep | ABC | 2.482 | -22.14% |
| 56 | The Simpsons | FOX | 2.448 | 20.45% |
| 57 | Alter Ego | FOX | 2.43 | |
| 58 | General Hospital | ABC | 2.253 | 6.26% |
| 59 | Home Economics | ABC | 1.998 | -22.07% |
| 60 | A Million Little Things | ABC | 1.947 | -28.36% |
| 61 | Queens | ABC | 1.751 | |
| 62 | Our Kind of People | FOX | 1.47 | |
| 63 | Days of Our Lives | NBC | 1.612 | -4.94% |
| 64 | Family Guy | FOX | 1.452 | -5.21% |
| 65 | The Great North | FOX | 1.409 | -10.28% |
| 66 | Home Sweet Home | NBC | 1.399 | |
| 67 | Bob’s Burgers | FOX | 1.377 | 6.18% |
| 68 | The Big Leap | FOX | 1.332 | |
| 69 | Penn & Teller: Fool Us | CW | 0.678 | -17.04% |
| 70 | Whose Line Is It Anyway? | CW | 0.567 | -33.89% |
| 71 | DC’s Legends of Tomorrow | CW | 0.553 | 32.93% |
| 72 | World’s Funniest Animals | CW | 0.524 | -26.89% |
| 73 | Batwoman | CW | 0.478 | -3.43% |
| 74 | Nancy Drew | CW | 0.36 | -22.82% |
| 75 | Legacies | CW | 0.332 | -38.97% |
| 76 | Legends of the Hidden Temple | CW | 0.259 |
CBS’s Young & The Restless ranks at #38 despite airing at 12:30 PM with only a local news lead-in. The soap beats the network’s drama ‘Seal Team’ by 16,000 on average so far this season. What decades old franchise does the soap outperform? Scroll down to find out.
Fellow CBS soap, Bold & The Beautiful ranks at number 46, better than long running news programs ‘20/20’ and ’48 Hours’. What new series does the half hour soap beat? Find out below.
General Hospital ranks father down at 58th. But the the longest running series on television beats the next highest rated show, fellow ABC series, ‘Home Economics’ by 255,000 viewers. Guess what hit drama on its network it beats? Keep reading.
Days Of Our Lives ranks last in daytime and 63rd up against all of primetime. Keep reading to find out how many CW dramas it take combined to beat the NBC soap opera.
Young & The Restless Arresting More Viewers Than Law & Order: Organized Crime, Bold & The Beautiful is Tougher than ‘ Nails’
Y&R ranks at number 38, just a few spots ahead of B&B at number 46. GH and DAYS are down a bit further at 58 and 63 respectively. While none would rank in the Both CBS series are up from last season which is always a positive. Of the 72 primetime series on the chart, 13 are brand new series. Only five of those series rank higher than Y&R and B&B. GH outranks five of those series and DAYS is ahead of three of these series. There are only 14 series on the chart that are up from last season’s final average and three of them are Y&R, GH, and B&B. Of those series showing an increase, Y&R ranks as having the 3rd biggest percentage increase, GH has the 6th biggest increase and B&B has the 8th biggest increase. Even DAYS performed well compared to last year percentage-wise, ranking 22nd of the 59 returning series.
Y&R is just below Law & Order: Organized Crime which is currently in its second season. The NBC drama is a spinoff of the show it airs directly behind, Law & Order: SVU which ranks at number 26 and is up 6.32 percent year to year. Y&R can average 3.578 million viewers with a local news lead-in at 12:30 in the afternoon while the spinoff of the longest-running primetime drama, starring one of the franchise’s biggest stars on NBC’s once-legendary Thursday night lineup only averaged 3.66 million viewers.
B&B is just behind The Bachelorette, one of ABC’s most recognizable series, also a spin-off of a well-known franchise. The ABC reality show is averaging 3.003 million viewers compared to the 2.934 viewers who watch B&B. The CBS soap is also ahead of the fourth season of Survivor spin-off, Tough As Nails, which pulls in roughly 2.931 million viewers. It’s pretty impressive that B&B is on par with two spin-offs of legendary reality series.
General Hospital & Days of Our Lives Beat Some of FOX’s Biggest Hits and Everything on the CW
While GH isn’t too far ahead of DAYS at 58th, it is only a few hundred thousand viewers behind the heavily promoted reboot of the Wonder Years at number 54. As the longest-running soap opera and actually the longest-running series on television, GH is in good company near the longest-running comedy on television. The Simpsons are at number 54 season to date with 2.448 million viewers. GH also beats out three high-profile series on ABC: second-year sitcom Home Economics, four-year-old Million Little Things, and most surprisingly the heavily promoted premiere of Queens.
DAYS ranks at number 63 out of 76 primetime programs. While that sounds a lot worse than ranking 4th place, the NBC soap isn’t exactly surrounded by nobodies on the chart. As with the other three soaps, DAYS is ranked higher than every series on the CW. This isn’t exactly an achievement since no CW show ranks higher than Penn & Teller at number 69 with just 678,000 viewers. In fact, DAYS’ audience in the middle of the afternoon is comparable to all four of CW’s current dramas combined. Those four dramas: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow 553,000 viewers, Batwoman with 478,000 viewers, followed by Nancy Drew with 360,000, and Legacies with 332,000 viewers comes out to 1.7 million viewers compared to DAYS 1.612 million.
Even more impressive, DAYS is higher rated than the four series that air on FOX. While it’s not too big of a deal for the soap opera to rank above a new series like The Big Leap, it is a big deal to perform better than a returning series like the animated comedy The Big North. But who could have guessed that a revisiting of Marlena’s demonic possession storyline from 25 years ago would be seen regularly by more viewers than fresh episodes of FOX icons like Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers?
Special thank you to, Soap Opera Network, an amazing great resource for soap opera ratings data- and soap opera news of all kinds.
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