The numbers for ABC Daytime's General Hospital continued to be the driving Nielsen ratings story for the week of Oct. 22-26. (Source: Soap Opera Network) GH managed to maintain much of the surge in numbers it saw the previous ratings cycle, which is hella impressive. We're used to daytime soaps having huge spikes one week and then bleeding out those numbers the next. GH, however,  only lost 30,000 total viewers from the previous week. READ MORE

 

You've been asking for it, well now Ratings, Rants and Raves is back! I took a break because the ratings had become so depressing across the board for our final four daytime sudsers. That certainly isn't the case anymore, thanks to ABC Daytime's comeback kid General Hospital. (Source: Soap Opera Network)

The week of Oct. 15-19, GH was watched by almost 2.8 million viewers. That was the soap's highest viewer totals since Feb. 28–March 4, 2011. It was also the highest total viewers to tune in since Frank Valentini and Ron Carlivati took over. READ MORE

 

Everything old doesn't appear to be sustaining new viewers for NBC's Days of Our Lives. After an initial few weeks of positive numbers, DAYS' reset of all of the stories the soap was telling during Gary Tomlin and Chris Whitesell's last stint fell in total viewers, households and women 18-49 the week of Sept. 3-7. (Source: Soap Opera Network)
 

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Three of the four daytime soaps on the dial boasted impressive gains the week of Aug. 20-24. (Source: Soap Opera Network) The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful and Days of Our Lives all climbed, while General Hospital remained pretty much flat in the Nielsens.
 
B&B was arguably the week in question's biggest success story. The 30-minute serial went up 213,000 total viewers and was up an insane 357,000 year-to-date. B&B also went up one-tenth of a point in households and was up two-tenths of a point in households. B&B held steady in women 18-49 and W18-34, yet was up one-tenth of a point year-to-date in both key demos. I guess Brad Bell can grab his package and tell all of us who have been griping about the Hope/Liam/Steffy triangle to suck it.

In story, the tale of the aforementioned, show-eating triangle reached a climax as eternal bride Hope Logan (Kimberly Matula) told Liam (Scott Clifton) how the cow ate the cabbage following his drunken night of partying with Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood). The high point of the week was when a fed up Dollar Bill (Don Diamont) throttled his douchey, pathetic son. Instead of attempting to summarize the rest of that week's B&B episodes, I am going to let Clarence do it after the jump! READ MORE

A "DAYSaster" is what they called the cliffhanger storyline that tided Days of Our Lives fans over during the soap's Summer Olympics hiatus. That term certainly can't be used to describe what happened in the Nielsens the week the soap returned to the NBC airwaves. (Source: Soap Opera Network)  READ MORE

If Madison Avenue cared more about total viewers, then all three soaps airing the week of Aug 6-10 would have an Olympic-sized reason to celebrate. (Source: Soap Opera Network). As it is though, it's all about the demos, baby!  READ MORE