Things are looking mighty bright for CBS -- at least in the
daytime. Through the first nine weeks of the fall TV season, CBS network live-plus-three-day
commercial ratings (C3) in the women 25-54 demo during the daypart are up 8%
compared to the same period last year, while ABC is down 11% and NBC is down
13%, according to Nielsen data compiled by media agency Carat.
Overall in the demo, CBS is averaging a 1.21, compared to ABC's
1.12 and NBC's 0.93.
CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful is up the
most of any network daytime show with an increase in C3 ratings of 13% in the
women 25-54 demo to a 1.33. That's the demo which serves as the basis for most
daytime upfront deals. CBS' The Young and the Restless, the most-watched
daytime soap on television, is up 5% in C3 to a 1.79.
NBC's one remaining soap opera, Days of Our Lives, is down 13% in the C3 women 25-54
demo to a 0.98. ABC's lone soap, General Hospital, is down 5% to a 1.24.
Among the newer daytime talk shows that replaced soaps on
ABC and CBS, The Talk on CBS is up 9% in fourth quarter this year vs.
last to a 0.96 in the demo, while ABC's The Chew is down 5% to a 1.24.
Veteran ABC morning talk show The View is down 18% in
women 25-54 so far this season, averaging a 1.23, while NBC's fourth hour
of the Today show is down 17% to a
0.85.
"Although NBC considers Days
of Our Lives as its sole daytime entry, Nielsen also counts the fourth hour
of the Today show with Kathie Lee [Gifford]
and Hoda [Kotb] as a daytime programming hour and it is down double digits
also," says Billie Gold, VP, director of buying/programming research at
Carat.
CBS game shows Let's Make a Deal and ThePrice
Is Right are both up between 7% and 9% in this vital demo. One half-hour of
Let's Make a Deal is up 7% to a 0.74, while the second half-hour is up
9% to a 0.82. One half-hour of Price Is Right is up 6% to a 1.15, while
the second half-hour is up 8% to a 1.33.
"CBS is the only network to increase its ratings in the demo
and has done so for every program, with The Young and the Restless
remaining the daypart's highest rated program," says Gold. "The show will
celebrate its 40th anniversary in March. In the past couple of
years, CBS got hit with unusual ratings declines in this already declining
daypart, so this increase is welcome news for the network."
Gold said while ABC canceled two soaps last year to make way
for The Chew and to allow local stations to clear space for the
syndicated Katie Couric show, "what's left of the network lineup is down in the
key daytime women's demo, with veteran talk show The View taking the
biggest hit."
With the solid increases in ratings of the CBS daytime shows
factored into the other two networks' daytime ratings, Gold points out that for
the first nine weeks, daytime "is the only network daypart besides primetime to
get a lift in C3 ratings versus live-plus-same-day ratings. The lift is slight,
about 2%-3% due to delayed viewing of the soaps, but the networks will take it
and hope it increases a bit more if DVR penetration and usage continues to
increase."
