Daytime Ratings: Adults 18-49 vs. Women 18-49 and the Men ?

THE NUMBERS

As we prepare to publish another week’s worth of ratings covering the daytime soaps “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Days of our Lives,” “General Hospital” and “The Young and the Restless,” we felt it was worth noting the difference between daytime and primetime when it comes to demographics as part of a year-end report.

While primetime advertising rates are primarily set by the Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54 demos, the rates for daytime are set by Women 18-49 and Women 25-54. As advertisements are predominantly sold with female viewers in mind, one can only wonder why men are universally shut out considering there are several male viewers who admit to watching soaps on social media and within the media itself (myself included). Therefore, why not take a look at the Adults 18-49 demo used in primetime and see how daytime shows stack up?

During the week of December 7-11, 2015 (the most recent week in which ratings are available), we posted the following about the soaps:

Women 18-49 Viewers
1. Y&R 752,000 (+19,000/-40,000)
2. B&B 595,000 (+37,000/-23,000)
3. DAYS 516,000 (+64,000/-3,000)
4. GH 468,000 (-60,000/-145,000)

When filling in the gaps with the rest of daytime (talk shows, game shows and news) sorted by Women 18-49 rating, you get:

Rank	Show	Network	Women 18-49 Rating	Women 18-49 Viewers
1	The Young and the Restless	CBS	1.18	752,000
2	The Bold and the Beautiful	CBS	0.93	595,000
3	The Today Show II	NBC	0.91	584,000
—	The Price is Right 2	CBS	0.91	582,000
5	Days of our Lives	NBC	0.81	516,000
6	The Price is Right 1	CBS	0.78	497,000
7	General Hospital	ABC	0.73	468,000
8	Let’s Make a Deal 2	CBS	0.71	455,000
—	The Today Show III	NBC	0.71	450,000
10	Let’s Make a Deal 1	CBS	0.64	408,000
11	The Talk	CBS	0.63	402,000
—	The View	ABC	0.63	401,000
13	The Chew	ABC	0.59	378,000

What’s noteworthy about the above chart is how both “Y&R” and “B&B” stay at #1 and #2 in the ranks, while “DAYS” and “GH” fall 2 and 3 spots, respectively, with the additional programs. What’s also noteworthy is how talk shows, while significantly cheaper to produce, don’t necessarily do all that well in the sales demo.

Now concentrating solely on Adults 18-49 (with the added bonus of Total Viewers), you get the following breakdown of daytime programs airing on ABC, CBS and NBC sorted by Adults 18-49 rating:

Rank	Show	Network	Adults 18-49 Rating	Adults 18-49 Viewers	Total Viewers
1	The Young and the Restless	CBS	0.81	1,027,000	4,786,000
2	The Price is Right 2	CBS	0.75	954,000	5,565,000
3	The Price is Right 1	CBS	0.66	833,000	4,816,000
4	The Today Show II	NBC	0.65	827,000	3,216,000
5	The Bold and the Beautiful	CBS	0.63	802,000	3,645,000
6	Let’s Make a Deal 2	CBS	0.61	770,000	3,603,000
7	Let’s Make a Deal 1	CBS	0.53	669,000	3,131,000
8	Days of our Lives	NBC	0.5	628,000	2,545,000
9	The Today Show III	NBC	0.48	614,000	2,191,000
10	General Hospital	ABC	0.46	586,000	2,645,000
11	The View	ABC	0.45	574,000	2,724,000
—	The Talk	CBS	0.45	568,000	2,572,000
13	The Chew	ABC	0.41	520,000	2,418,000

For comparisons sake, outside of “The Today Show II,” all of CBS’ programs have more than 200,000 Men 18-49 watching daytime (exception being “The Talk”). The most watched daytime program overall, “The Price is Right 2,” had the most Men 18-49 with a 372,000 difference between Women 18-49 viewers and its overall Adults 18-49 viewership total. The game show was followed by “The Price is Right 1” (336,000) and “Let’s Make a Deal 2” (315,000) with “Y&R” ranking 4th with 275,000 Men 18-49 viewers. “DAYS” is the least watched soap and least watched overall among Men 18-49 with just 112,000 viewers.

During the comparable week last year (week of December 8-12, 2014), ABC’s lineup consisting of “The View,” “The Chew” and “GH” did considerably better than they are now in Adults 18-49, while “The Price is Right 1,” “The Price is Right 2,” “The Talk” and “Let’s Make a Deal 2” are notably up.

What follows is a breakdown of daytime programs airing on ABC, CBS and NBC sorted by Adults 18-49 rating (during the week of December 8-12, 2014):

Rank	Show	Network	Adults 18-49 Rating	Adults 18-49 Viewers	Total Viewers
1	The Young and the Restless	CBS	0.84	1,066,000	4,758,000
2	The Price is Right 2	CBS	0.72	909,000	5,417,000
3	The Today Show II	NBC	0.68	870,000	3,283,000
4	The Bold and the Beautiful	CBS	0.67	849,000	3,770,000
5	General Hospital	ABC	0.65	826,000	3,035,000
6	The Price is Right 1	CBS	0.64	814,000	4,701,000
7	Let’s Make a Deal 2	CBS	0.6	758,000	3,496,000
8	Let’s Make a Deal 1	CBS	0.53	675,000	3,035,000
—	The Chew	ABC	0.53	674,000	2,869,000
10	Days of our Lives	NBC	0.52	666,000	2,455,000
11	The View	ABC	0.51	649,000	3,053,000
12	The Today Show III	NBC	0.47	596,000	2,094,000
13	The Talk	CBS	0.43	547,000	2,707,000

Noteworthy: Collectively daytime averaged a 0.57 in Adults 18-49 rating, which is better than most of The CW lineup (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” “Reign,” “Jane the Virgin,” “The Originals,” “The Vampire Diaries” and “iZombie”). Only “Supernatural,” “Arrow” and “The Flash” do better.

READ: DAYTIME RATINGS: Should Advertisers Consider Men Over Women?

On the broadcast front, “Y&R” is virtually tied with the season average of CBS’ “CSI: Cyber” (0.81 vs. 0.83) when both are rounded down to a 0.8 rating. In addition to the crime drama, “Y&R” also beats, or is on par with, the season averages of FOX’s unofficially canceled “Minority Report” (0.71), ABC’s now canceled “Wicked City” (0.67), and NBC’s unofficially canceled “The Player” (0.83) and “Truth Be Told” (0.63). The rest of daytime beats outright several programs airing on cable network’s like TBS, ABC Family (soon-to-be Freeform), USA Network, BET and even ESPN.

What Do You Think?