Latest Soap Ratings: ‘Days Of Our Lives’ Hits New High (Plus Season To Date Deep Dive)
The littlest soap opera that could, keeps on chugging along. ’Days of Our Lives’, that had the most impressive week of all four soaps, up 119,000 viewers week-to-week. ’DAYS’, hit a season high with a massive 1.909 million viewers tuning in to see Johnny possessed by the Devil. That was an increase of 7 percent over last week’s 1.790 million viewer total.
| Days Of Our Lives | Total Viewers 2021-22 | 2020- 2021 | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09-24-21 | 1,697,000 | 1,723,000 | -2% |
| 10-01-21 | 1,555,000 | 1,781,000 | -13% |
| 10-08-21 | 1,619,000 | 1,713,000 | -5% |
| 10-15-21 | 1,607,000 | 1,537,000 | +5% |
| 10-22-21 | 1,583,000 | 1,680,000 | -6% |
| 10-29-21 | 1,673,000 | 1,689,000 | -1% |
| 11-05-21 | 1,586,000 | 1,739,000 | -9% |
| 11-12-21 | 1,646,000 | 1,743,000 | -6% |
| 11-19-21 | 1,634,000 | 1,728,000 | -5% |
| 11-26-21 | 1,694,000 | 1,733,000 | -2% |
| 12-03-21 | 1,716,000 | 1,684,000 | +2% |
| 12-10-21 | 1,715,000 | 1,650,000 | +4% |
| 12-17-21 | 1,706,000 | 1,778,000 | -4% |
| 12-24-21 | 1,809,000 | 1,829,000 | -1% |
| 12-31-21 | 1,806,000 | 1,741,000 | +4% |
| 01-07-22 | 1,783,000 | 1,763,000 | +1% |
| 01-14-22 | 1,790,000 | 1,812,000 | -1% |
01-21-22 | 1,909,000 | 1,795,000 | +6% |
| Season-To-Date Average | 1,696,000 | 1,729,000 | -2% (-33,000) |
‘DAYS’ is Doing Even Better Than It Seems
So far this season ’DAYS’ is averaging 1.696 million viewers- but that’s not an accurate picture of where the show is currently at. Let’s break the season down and look at what the trajectory has been. This may be a little dorky by lets look at it this way:
Weeks #1-6
‘DAYS’ began the season in a stable place. The first official week of the 2021-22 season matched the week before and was also identical to the average of the 2020-21 season. Week #1 is just ahead of this season’s current average with 1.697 million viewers compared to 1.696 million.
This was also the beginning of the MarDevil storyline, a throwback to the iconic (and controversial) story that sent DAYS from 7th place to 2nd place back in 1995.
Weeks #2 through Weeks 4 that followed were not so hot. In fact, the four weeks that followed the premiere currently rank as four of the five lowest rated episodes of the season. However, the soap did bounce back to 1.673 million leading up to Halloween in week #6.
#1 09-24-21 1,697,000 0% #2 10-01-21 1,555,000 -8% #3 10-08-21 1,619,000 +4% #4 10-15-21 1,607,000 -1% #5 10-22-21 1,583,000 -2% #6 10-29-21 1,673,000 +6% - Weeks #1-6 : 1.622 million viewers
- 2020-21: 1.687 million viewers
- (-65,000/-4%)
- 2020-21: 1.687 million viewers
- Weeks #1-6 : 1.622 million viewers
Weeks #7-12
Despite what seemed like the audience rejected the escalating MarDevil storyline in week #7 where it fell to the 3rd lowest point of the season (1.586 million viewers), things quickly improved by the midpoint of the season.
At the time week #10 was just 3,000 viewers away from tying the season high. The following two weeks were practically tied for the season high at 1.716 million (Week #11) and 1.715 million (Week #12).
#7 11-5-21 1,586,000
-5%#8 11-12-21 1,646,000 +4% #9 11-19-21 1,634,000 -1% #10 11-26-21 1,694,000 +4% #11 12-3-21 1,716,000 +1% #12 12-10-21 1,715,000 0% - Week #7-12: 1.665 million
- 2020-2021: 1.713 million
- (-48,000 viewers/-3%)
- 2020-2021: 1.713 million
- Week #1-12: 1.644 million
- 2020-2021: 1.7 million
- (-56,000 viewers/-4%)
- 2020-2021: 1.7 million
- Week #7-12: 1.665 million
Week #13-18
‘DAYS’ really started to heat up during the holiday season. The soap pushed over 1.8 million viewers for the first time since February during week #14, hitting a season high with 1.809 million viewers. The next week practically tied that number with 1.806 million viewers.
The last five weeks all rank in the soap’s top five rated of the season. This past week’s increase was a pretty phenomenal one, increasing 7 percent to the new season high of 1.909 million viewers and highest since February of 2021. In fact this past week ’DAYS’ pulled in the soap’s third biggest audience since May of 2020.
#13 12-17-21 1,706,000 -1% #14 12-24-21 1,809,000 +6% #15 12-31-21 1,806,000 0% #16 01-07-22 1,783,000 -2% #17 01-14-22 1,790,000 +0% #18 1-21-22 1,909,000 +7% - Week #13-18:1.805 million
- 2020-2021: 1.786 million
- (+19,000 viewers/+1%)
- 2020-2021: 1.786 million
- Weeks #1-18: 1.696 million
- 2020-2021: 1.729 million
- (-33,000 viewers/-2%)
- 2020-2021: 1.729 million
- Week #13-18:1.805 million
‘DAYS’ Has Turned The Season Around
The first change between the first third of the season (weeks #1-6) and the past six weeks of the season is pretty extraordinary. The NBC soap opera is up 183,000 viewers compared to earlier in the season. The fact that the last eight weeks have all been among the top eight weeks of the season is pretty amazing as well. Not to mention that ’DAYS’ has been consistent as hell (sorry had to do it) the last five weeks.
Giving the ’devil’ his due
Head-writer for ’DAYS’ Ron Carlivati has a reputation for polarizing the opinion of those in front and behind the camera as well as the audience. But whether or not you agree the man puts in the work that most writers on soap operas do not. And his writing always eventually yields the ratings results that networks look for and often times the show’s desperately need to stay on the air. We can thank him for breathing new life into ’One Life To Live’, ’General Hospital’ and now ’Days Of our Lives’.