Daytime Soap Ratings During The Pandemic – When Will New Episodes Air?

As a soap fan you might be wondering how the soaps have fared in the ratings in light of the coronavirus pandemic that has resulted in most of the world is in lockdown. While we’ve all been isolated at home, have we been watching soaps?

According to TV Line, the ratings for daytime soaps hit their highest numbers yet in late March 2020. This coincides with the time that the pandemic necessitated the shut down of television production, affecting all four American soaps as well as soaps filmed in other countries.

What has COVID-19 done to soap ratings?

According to the site, both CBS’s The Bold and the Beautiful and ABC’s General Hospital had their best ratings in two years.

In addition, NBC’s Days of our Lives reached their highest ratings in over a year, while CBS’s The Young and the Restless hit, “an 11-month high.”

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All of this means that the soaps averaged their best weeks as of late March. Three of the soaps have now run out of original episodes and are airing encore episodes; Only NBC’s DOOL continues to have a stock of new episodes and is airing them five days a week.

What has caused the spike in soap viewership?

The increase in ratings across the board is likely connected to the fact that more people are now home during the day, allowing them to tune in in greater numbers.

Unfortunately, numbers from the week of May 11 to 15 show that all four soaps saw a reduction in viewership. Does this mean that viewers are tiring of watching the soaps and desire different options?
For example, when CBS began airing vintage episodes of Y&R the ratings declined.

What will the numbers look like for new episodes?

Numbers from the week of May 11 to 15 reveal that Y&R had 2,193,000 live and same-day numbers, which is down 148,000 from the prior week, according to Soap Opera Network.

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Y&R cannot begin filming new episodes until the pandemic restrictions are lifted, so how long will viewers have to wait to once again see new content?

According to TV Line Y&R tapes shows from between four to six weeks ahead of schedule. They do plan for normal preemptions, but the current hiatus is unprecedented.

The good news is that the writers may be working on scripts from home at this time so that the show is able to film quickly once production resumes.

The Bold and the Beautiful are on a similar production schedule as The Young and the Restless so if they begin filming in June, as has been speculated, their start dates are likely to be similar and the best-case scenario is that new content will hit the airwaves in late summer. In contrast, DOOL has enough new material to last until October.

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