THE NUMBERS

During the week of August 2-6, 2021, CBS’ “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful” were daytime television’s top two shows in both Women 25-54 and Women 18-49, the all-important key sales demos that set advertising rates for daytime programming. In fact, both dramas attracted their largest overall audiences in over a year (since the week of April 20-24, 2020) when you exclude the week of February 8-12, 2021, when most shows were preempted by network coverage of The Second Impeachment Trial of President Donald J. Trump which aired from Tuesday-Friday that week.

“Y&R” ranked number one in both Women 25-54 and Women 18-49 with a 0.70 and 0.48 rating, respectively, followed by “B&B” in second place in both demos with a 0.69 and 0.45 rating, respectively. In Total Viewers, just 239,000 viewers separated “Y&R” from the combined average of both half hours of audience leader “The Price is Right” which is in reruns. 

“GMA3: What You Need to Know” fell below “The Talk” in Women 18-49 for what is likely the first time ever as the CBS chatfest hit a 0.23 rating in the demo while the news hour only had a 0.22 rating. The opposite was true for both shows in Women 25-54 which found “GMA3” with a 0.34 rating to “The Talk’s” 0.32.

With its last week of originals for season 24, and Meghan McCain’s final week as a co-host, “The View” tied its week-ago Women 25-54 rating (0.50) while growing week-to-week in Women 18-49 (0.36 vs 0.35 rating). On her final episode (Friday, August 6), “The View” hit a 0.53 rating in Women 25-54 and a 0.36 rating in Women 18-49. In the latter demo, McCain’s last day was the third-highest out of the four shows Nielsen rated while in the former it was the second-highest for the week. The Tuesday, August 3 broadcast was retitled to “VIEW-ALT” and did not count into the show’s weekly average. Meanwhile, “General Hospital” remained steady in Women 18-49 week-to-week (0.32 rating) while growing in Women 25-54 (0.52 vs 0.51 rating).

NBC’s coverage of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games continued with “Days of our Lives,” “TODAY 3rd Hour” and “TODAY with Hoda & Jenna” on hiatus. The shows returned to originals on Monday, August 9.

What follows is a breakdown of how the daytime shows performed for the week of August 2-6, 2021, sorted by Women 25-54 rating. A closer look at the daytime soaps, including their daily performance in the demos, will be posted soon.

Week of August 2-6, 2021 Rankers

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Note: The numbers above are calculated using Live+Same Day viewing and DVR playback, defined as 3:00 a.m.-3:00 a.m, and are courtesy of Nielsen. Household ratings are the percentage of TV homes in the U.S. tuned into television.

*Notable Preemptions/Schedule Changes

• “Let’s Make a Deal” aired reruns all week.
• “The Price is Right” aired reruns all week.
• “The View” was retitled to “VIEW-ALT” on Tuesday, August 3, and aired for just 53 minutes. The episode had a 0.35 rating in Women 25-54 and a 0.23 rating in Women 18-49.