News

Ratings Report for the Week of December 21-25, 2015

After months of rumors surrounding the possibility of a contract player telling producers of their soap they had no plans of renewing their contract when it came up for renewal, despite major plans by the show for their front-burner storyline, word has it that actress Kate Mansi is on her way out as Abigail Deveraux on NBC’s “Days of our Lives.”

Nearly a year after alleged network mandates reportedly forced the four remaining daytime soaps to trim some of the fat in their casts throughout 2015, word has it that at least one soap is about to make another round of “budget-dictated” cast cuts.

“The Bold and the Beautiful’s” Heather Tom (Katie Logan) is joining fellow daytime actresses Alison Sweeney (ex-Sami Brady, “Days of our Lives”), Kimberly McCullough (Robin Scorpio, “General Hospital”) and even former colleague Susan Flannery (ex-Stephanie Forrester) from in front of the camera to behind-the-scenes: The soap star directed the Tuesday, January 5 episode of the CBS daytime drama series!

In the January 4, 2016 issue of Soap Opera Digest, on newsstands now, “Days of our Lives” executive producer Ken Corday revealed the reasons behind the soap’s decision to bring back actor Brandon Beemer (ex-Owen Knight, “The Bold and the Beautiful”) to the role of Shawn Douglas Brady, the eldest child of Hope (Kristian Alfonso) and Bo (Peter Reckell), so soon after the blink-and-you-missed-it return and departure of original adult portrayer Jason Cook.

In the current issue of TV Guide, on newsstands now, the magazine examines the four remaining daytime soaps consisting of “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Days of our Lives,” “General Hospital” and “The Young and the Restless” and how FOX’s “Empire” may have influenced a push for more diversity in 2015 during love in the afternoon.

Who says daytime soaps are dead? In 2015, CBS’ “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful” and NBC’s “Days of our Lives” all placed among 2015’s top searched non-reality TV shows on Yahoo! In fact, outside of “The Walking Dead” and “Game of Thrones,” all three dramas placed in the top five on the search giant’s year-end list.

Ratings Report for the Week of December 14-18, 2015

After reporting how daytime stacks up when looking at the Adults 18-49 demo as used by primetime advertisers, one has to wonder what daytime looks like in the actual key sales demo of Women 18-49 when it comes to the season-to-date rankings. What’s surprising is how poorly “The View” does overall, and how well “General Hospital” is actually doing when factoring in the Live+7* numbers vs. the traditionally reported Live+SD** numbers seen here on Soap Opera Network each week.

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.