Daytime Broadcast Ratings: 'Days of our Lives' Comes Back Strong, 'General Hospital' Surges While the CBS Soaps Hold

THE NUMBERS

The week of August 9-13, 2021 marked the return of “Days of our Lives,” “TODAY 3rd Hour” and “TODAY with Hoda & Jenna” to the weekly schedule after two weeks of NBC’s coverage of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Upon their return, viewers flocked to “DAYS” as the daytime drama series attracted its largest overall audience since the week of February 15-19, 2021, with 1.753 million viewers tuning in. In the key demos, “DAYS” had a 0.44 rating in Women 25-54 and a 0.29 rating in Women 18-49, the show’s best performance in both demographics since the week of May 10-14, 2021, which also hit a 0.44 rating in Women 25-54 and a 0.29 rating in Women 18-49.

“General Hospital” had a good week with 2.2 million viewers tuning in, its best performance since the week of June 21-25, 2021. In the demos, “GH” ranked sixth in Women 25-54 with a 0.59 rating and seventh in Women 18-49 with a 0.34 rating which appears to have been held up by the stellar performance of the Wednesday, August 11 telecast which had a 0.74 rating in Women 25-54 and a 0.42 rating in Women 18-49. In fact, the episode tied the Thursday, August 12 repeat broadcast of the second half-hour of “The Price is Right” and the Friday, August 13 broadcast of “The Young and the Restless” as the second highest-rated single episode for the week, each with a 0.74 rating in Women 25-54. Only the Monday, August 9 episode of “Y&R” and the Tuesday, August 10 episode of “The Bold and the Beautiful” rated higher. Both soaps averaged a 0.75 demo rating on the respective days.

Speaking of “Y&R,” the CBS daytime drama series lost some ground in Total Viewers week-to-week but maintained its week-ago numbers in Women 25-54 (0.70 rating). Ditto for “B&B” which held its week-ago Women 25-54 figures as well (0.69 rating). Both soaps remained over the three million viewer mark.

“The Talk” was all-new for the first two days of the week before switching to reruns for the rest of the season beginning with its Wednesday, August 11 broadcast. Unfortunately, that led to the show hitting yet another new series low due to its repeats being counted into the weekly and season averages as Nielsen coded the episodes as originals. Just 1.16 million viewers tuned in. In the demos, the show held up similar to how it has performed most of the season with or without originals. Season 12 launches in September.

“The View” is in reruns for the remainder of the season. As such, the show was retitled “VIEW-ALT,” which does not factor into the show’s season average. Season 25 launches in September.

What follows is a breakdown of how the daytime shows performed for the week of August 9-13, 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 9-13, 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. On Tuesday, August 12, the show aired for just 12 minutes.
“The Price is Right” aired reruns all week.
“The Talk” aired originals on Monday, August 9 and Tuesday, August 10. Beginning Wednesday, August 11, the show is in reruns for the remainder of the season. The Friday, August 13 repeat broadcast was not rated by Nielsen.
In reruns, “The View” was retitled to “VIEW-ALT” which does not factor into the show’s season average. On Tuesday, August 10, the show aired for just 54 minutes.
“The Young and the Restless” aired for just 42 minutes on Tuesday, August 10.