TV Ratings: “General Hospital” Beats “Young and the Restless” in Key Demo, And Beats Odds
For the first time since February 2011, “General Hospital” beat number 1 soap “The Young and the Restless” in the key demo. In fact, the ABC soap–which was set to be cancelled in favor of Katie Couric’s talk show back in 2010–is within spitting distance of the CBS soap in the other demos, which are all about young women with buying power watching the shows.
It’s a vindication for “GH” after ABC mercilessly cancelled its other two soaps, “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” sending them into a licensing black hole with Prospect Park Productions. It’s also ironic as the producer who almost got “GH” snuffed, Jill Farren Phelps, has moved her unpopular way of driving a soap to “Y&R.” This past week she even copied an unpopular story she executed on “GH”– the hit and run death of a small child– to the CBS show.
Meanwhile, “GH” aims for November sweeps by having cliffhangers almost every day. As for “All My Children” and “One Life to Live”– no one seems to know if they’ll ever come back online via Prospect Park, or if ABC’s license with that company will ever end.
Does anyone else think that GH ratings are because of OLTL actors? I do. I wouldn’t be watching if they weren’t on there. OLTL should come back to tv!!
I love G H just wish the real lulu would come back. One life to live was awsome show too. Who knows maybe these big wiggs of tv networks will realize that were all sick to death of talk shows. & how the rich are so wonderfull & smart.
I think it is a big victory for “GH” and soap operas everywhere – and further proof that “All My Children”, “Guiding Light”, and “One Life to Live” should have been left intact and in place on the daytime dial. Sorry, networks, but the four soaps left on the air today (Y&R, B&B, GH, and Days) do not do it for me. I was truly enjoying the new versions of AMC and OLTL online, but they have suddenly disappeared and show no signs of returning at all. Which now leaves me, a long time fan of soaps for 30+ years, with no soaps to fill the huge void in my broken heart. Y&R, B&B, GH, and Days lack that “edge of your seat” kind of excitement which drives me to watch soaps. The way I see it from all of the headlines, Prospect Park struck gold with AMC and OLTL in ratings, viewers, clout, and recognition – but it appears they do not know a good thing when they have it. I hear Paul Rauch was close to getting GL back on just before his death last year.