General Hospital Tops The Young and the Restless in Key Demos

General Hospital has reason to celebrate. The last surviving ABC soap topped The Young and the Restless in the all-important women 18-49 female demo during the week of October 7, ABC announced Friday. It wasn't just among the W18-49 demo where GH delivered. The soap also grew among in other categories too.

For the first time in over two-and-a-half years, “General Hospital” ranked as the #1 program in daytime in Women 18-49 (735,000/1.1 rating) – since week of 2/21/11 – placed #1 for the 8th straight week in Women 18-34 (285,000/0.8 rating) and came with 7% of “Young in The Restless” for #1 in Women 25-54 (938,000/1.5 rating), its closest competitive finish in over two years – since week of 8/15/11.

Impressively, this week stood as the series’ most-watched week in over 3 years in Women 18-34 and in over 2 years in Women 18-49 – since weeks of 9/27/10 and 9/26/11, respectively.

“General Hospital” surged by 40% in Women 18-34 (285,000 vs. 203,000), by 17% in Women 18-49 (735,000 vs. 629,000) and by 12% in Women 25-54 (938,000 vs. 840,000).