CBS Tops in Daytime C3 Ratings Among Women 25-54; Soaps Lead the Way

By John Consoli -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/20/2012 2:29:42 PM

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 The Price 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 40^th 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."