UPDATED 09/02/2024: After the three daytime broadcast soap operas saw a surge in viewership over the previous two weeks, the shows came back down to earth during the week of August 19-23, 2024.
ABC / CBS
In the case of “The Young and the Restless,” the daytime drama series averaged just 2.802 million viewers for the week. Compared to one week earlier, the series was down -99,000 viewers. However, the show’s performance year-to-year was much worse, down -283,000 viewers. In Households, the show pulled in a 1.9 rating, down from its 2.0 rating last week and down from its year ago performance when it pulled in a 2.1 rating.
Among Women 18-49, “The Young and the Restless” once again tied “The Bold and the Beautiful,” each with a 0.3 rating (rounded), while among Women 25-54, the two soaps also tied, each with a 0.4 rating (rounded). That said, “The Bold and the Beautiful” topped “The Young and the Restless” among unrounded Women 18-49 for the second consecutive week the half-hour soap attracted a 0.27 rating vs. a 0.26 rating for the hour-long series. Things remained steady week-to-week for the Genoa City-set soap among unrounded Women 25-54 with its 0.44 rating while the drama in Los Angeles was down -0.01 over its performance one week earlier (0.27 rating vs. 0.28 rating).
“General Hospital” averaged just 1.955 million viewers for the week, on par with its performance during the same week last year. The series fell the least among the three soaps week-to-week, down -37,000 viewers. The show remained flat among Households week-to-week and year-to-year, pulling a 1.3 rating. This marks the 19th consecutive week in which the show has averaged less than two million viewers. Demographically, the Port Charles-set series has now made it to 24 consecutive weeks at a 0.2 rating (rounded) among Women 18-49, and pulled a 0.3 rating (rounded) among Women 25-54. That said, the show pulled in a 0.21 rating in unrounded Women 18-49 and a 0.29 rating in unrounded Women 25-54, the latter of tied its series low.
Averaging 2.572 million viewers, “The Bold and the Beautiful” was down -67,000 viewers over its performance one week earlier. Compared to the same week last year, the series was down -92,000 viewers. Among Households, the show pulled a 1.7 rating, down from its 1.8 rating one week earlier. Among unrounded Women 25-54, “The Bold and the Beautiful” pulled in a 0.4 rating, down from its 0.42 rating one week earlier.
Elsewhere, “GMA3: What You Need to Know” averaged 1.209 million viewers while “NBC News Daily” averaged 1.099 million viewers. Repeats of “The Talk” averaged 1.050 million viewers.
Among Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54, the key news demographics, “NBC News Daily” topped “GMA3” with 144,000 viewers vs. 131,000 viewers in the former category and beat the ABC News show by +20,000 viewers in the latter category (208,000 vs. 188,000). Compared to the same week last year, “NBC News Daily” was +12,000 viewers, or 1%, and narrowed the gap with “GMA3” by 66%.
“NBC News Daily” topped both “GMA3” and “The Talk” among viewers Women 18-49 and Women 25-54. For the week, “NBC News Daily” averaged 98,000 viewers among Women 18-49 vs. 81,000 viewers for repeats of “The Talk” and 79,000 viewers for “GMA3.” Among Women 25-54, “NBC News Daily” averaged 137,000 viewers, beating repeats of “The Talk” with its 131,000 viewers and “GMA3” with its 114,000 viewers.
A closer look at how the daytime soaps performed, including their daily performance breakdown in the demos, will be posted shortly.
Note: “The View,” “The Talk,” “Let’s Make a Deal” and “The Price is Right” each aired amended repeats which are excluded from each show’s weekly average and will not factor into their season average.