Ratings

[Rafael]

had an interesting conversation with one of my buddies ,who also watches the show.

Anyway ,she argues that Nicole is bad for ratings .

 

She actually tried to prove her point by bringing up the 2017-2018 annual ratings summary , 2018-2019 annual ratings summary and the 2019 - 2020 annual ratings summary . 

And when I checked the ratings when she was on the canvas and off the canvas , i reckon she could have a point .  We know that she left the show in 20 October 2017 and returned briefly in October 2018 and returned permanently in April 2019 . 

when she was on during October 2018 and her fakeout death took place ,the ratings did go down abit  and she was at the forefront during her brief return . And the week after her "death" , the ratings  kinda did go up . They actually gained like 100 000 viewers the week after Nicole's "death ".

Now that she is back on contract and also getting prominent storylines ,the ratings have gone down down to the point where the show is averaging 1.9 Million viewers. When she was gone in 2018 ,the show had an average of 2.1 million viewers. Do you think that  my buddy might have a point ? 

 

Il do my best to quote her ,she also said something along the lines of :

"Back in 2010 , When Ej got rid of Nicole and she went off-screen ,the ratings were at their best and  so the Nicole "was the saving grace of the story" is pure BS.

After that she came back in full-force in the story and  she had a pretty heavy role in a storyline and guess what ? The ratings sucked ! Nicole is not a positive factor ratings wise in any way, shape or form..some Nicole lovers want to believe it ok but the truth is seriously different." 

What do you guys think of this claim? Is there any validity to what my buddy said regarding Nicole Stella Walker -Robbins-DiMera-Kiriakis-Brady being bad for ratings. 
 

[CanaryFan98]

No one character/couple on this show has that much power over the ratings. At the end of the day the writing still sucks and the budget is low level...

Soaps used to provide escapism in not only production values but storylines which no longer exist in today's soaps.

[Rafael]

I still find it amazing that the TIIC are still determined to shove this Rafe  character down our throats despite this character barely leaving a lasting impression on the show . 

He ,(together with EJ and Tan Man ) supplanted Lucas as one of the  the leads back in 2008 and the show's ratings went below 2.6 and never r3covered and yet when Lucas was prominent during the show's lowest point in 2005-2006 ,the show still had an average of 2.6 million viewers . While under Corday's 3 muskateers (Tan man ,EJ ,Rafe ) ,the show never broke through the 2.6 Million viewership barrier. 

Which is why I find it astonishing that they still view Rafe as a lead . 

[buffynut]

Still pretty bad ratings for Days, but they were the only one with higher total viewers than the week/year before week of Feb 15-19.

 

[CanaryFan98]

I think Days was the only soap that let episodes be available online which is something GH didn't do. That may have helped.

[SanDiegoInExile]

NBC announced in February 2021 that they no longer will use Nielsen.

https://www.thewrap.com/nbc-tv-ratings-live-same-day-stop-abc-fox/

Snippets:

NBC has joined Fox and ABC in swearing off Nielsen’s Live + Same Day TV ratings. 

This means that CBS is the only broadcast net among the so-called “Big 4” channels sticking with the earliest snapshot of how a show performed. 

"We didn’t come to this decision lightly, but believe it’s important to accurately reflect how the television business is changing and, specifically, how these early ratings numbers are no longer representative of the performance of a particular show or series."

 

 

[CanaryFan98]

I heard about this so how will the gauge who watches Days vs who doesn't. Or will that not matter anymore?

[Rafael]

Oh boy ,during last week, the show's viewership figures dropped  to 1,576,000 ,which I think is  their lowest numbers ever. 

[SanDiegoInExile]

And its bound to go even lower.. As will nearly every not-live over-the-air broadcast on the traditional four networks.  NBC doesn't even use Nielsen ratings to judge show performance any longer.  They get a much better feel from sources they can actually monitor, like show streaming/downloads, as well as overseas sales.

The announcement of the two-season renewal (until August 2023) mentions that the show is not profitable for Sony.

Deadline:

Because of Days of Our Lives‘ age and declining linear ratings in all day parts, including daytime, the show no longer is profitable for Sony TV, but there has been a commitment by the studio and the network to find a way to keep the show on the air.

https://deadline.com/2021/05/days-of-our-lives-renewed-two-years-nbc-season-57-58-1234754112/

I presume they are making money from the 25+ countries that carry the program, as well as a *loss-leader* driving viewers to nbc dot com, the NBC app, and Peacock.

[DisneyBoy]

What is a loss-leader?

[Irlandesa]

Just now, DisneyBoy said:

What is a loss-leader?

It's when something is sold at below cost in order to stimulate sales in other areas. 

A simplest example would be to use a sale, like those offered on Black Friday.  A store might buy 20 TVs at $300/piece but instead of marking the TVs up to sell, they might mark them down.  They'd lose money on the sales but the goal is that the opportunity to buy a TV at a ridiculously low price will drive people to the store to try and get that TV. 

The hope is that they'll end up buying a lot of other stuff at that store instead of going across the street and the store will make up its losses in the sale of other items.

With a TV example, House of Cards was likely a loss leader for Netflix.  It had a movie star cast and director.  It was expensive.  Because of that, regular TV journalists/critics talked about the show's existence and that's how a lot of people found out about Netflix.  They probably didn't get enough people to sign up for Netflix to cover the cost but Netflix's hope is that once they did sign up, they'd get too lazy to cancel.

HBO Max is likely using the big box office movies approach.

I am curious whether "no longer profitable" means break even of losing money.  I don't see any benefit for Sony to keep producing DOOL if it loses money for them.