Though the other Daytime TV numbers do appear to be encouraging to soap fans, we do need to remember that those talk shows are much cheaper to produce than our soaps. NBC has already traded a soap for an extra hour of talk. We all just need to hope it's a long time until the rest of the networks follow suit.

With ratings like these, you would think ABC might stop trying to alienate the long term fans. But I won't hold my breath.

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but I want to point out that many of the daytime talk shows such as Ellen go into reruns in the summer just like the primetime shows. Others, such as The View, take certain weeks off during the summer, although this particular week, they were live from Las Vegas. So, saying that the soaps are doing better than Ellen really isn't fair b/c the soaps are always new programming while Ellen is a rerun. New programming should always do better in the ratings than reruns. The fact that the new episodes of soaps are only faring slightly better in the ratings than reruns of other shows that are cheaper to produce (and can obviously be reaired w/ little affect in the ratings) does not bode well for our beloved soaps.

I would also be intrested to know how many markets air these mostly syndicated daytime shows versus how many carry the network shows. For example, do as many stations carry The Martha Stewart Show as show All My Children? Also, my local affiliate airs Martha Stewart at 3 a.m., so of course the ratings are going to be much lower for a show that can be put on at virtually any time, versus a network mandated show like Genaral Hospital, which airs at 3 p.m. on most affiliates. Most affilates air Oprah as a lead-in to their evening news, so of course her raitings are going to be higher. Are any of these circumstances taken into account?

For these reasons and more, I hold little stock in the Neilson ratings. I wish advertisers agreed with me.

Overall, these numbers are more or less holding with the patterns I thought they would given various factors throughout the country (including flooding along the Mississippi, which caused many premptions for news coverage in the St. Louis market in particular) over the last few weeks.

Prediction: Next week or two numbers will be even lower on the aggregate level as the holiday and vacation travel (such as it is) & Wimbledon preempts several soaps and . After that, we'll see a slow uptick for several shows, including GL hoewever small those number might be. Within a month --barring any other major developments -- we'll get a true sense of where the shows currently stand.

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CBS Daytime - "Magic"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SAkkdsuR4s

THE EDGE OF NIGHT: 2008 - Hi-Octane Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA5DbWdX8IA

Im not surprised by gl at all that show is a train wreck .P&g needs to invest serious money in there soaps.One network that is devoted to their shows is abc we can criticiaze brian frons all day but he treats most of his stars like royalty

Does summertime influence ratings?

I don't watch much TV during the summer; here in the midwest, I'm out & about, vacationing; enjoying my 90 days of summer.

Don't watch many clips or utubes, I read a lot more anyway I've read eg (ABC) geared the summer for their coveted younger audience because that's what advertisers pay for (even though I pay for their my younger audience stuff). I get snubbed (for the most part) what gets me is their arrogance in telling me I don't matter.

I've read, in as much, "veteran viewers need not watch" we are only interested in the "OneTreeHill age group" so I'm not.
Most of the stories I'm seeing have been told
(and much better)...I tuned in GH "same dialog" from 2 wks ago for the most part; I didn't miss much.

With no Bauer barbeque? one Bauer left? The Qs dismantled for preference of a mob kingpins' family? Veteran players shoved in a corner with no story only dusted off (and disrespected) by a genre they defined (and very well I might add) to pimp their latest newbie du jour.

I'm reading awesome fanfiction from so many websites so there is story to be told but with the politics of soaps it won't be. Its their "pimping method" of storytelling that's doing it in.

In my opinion they are trying to redefine this genre of story telling with progressive ideas (new isn't bad) but ignoring /replacing what "drives" this method of storytelling. A quote from a forum I belong to holds true for me as well.

"The audience haven't forsaken the genre; the genre has forsaken its audience."