1978 daytime ratings

[thomas_meighan]

Found something interesting in the 10-16-1978 issue of Broadcasting: ratings and rankings for daytime series covering January-August 1978 (the list doesn't include already-canceled series like Tattletales, Pass the Buck, et al.). Full details can be seen at the link below; here are the game shows:
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/78-OCR/1978-10-16-BC-OCR-Page-0038.pdf

01. Family Feud (9.1 rating, 38 share)
15. The Price is Right, second half (6.1, 28)
15. Wheel of Fortune (6.1, 27)
17. Match Game (5.8, 19)
19. The Price is Right, first half (5.7, 28)
20. The $20,000 Pyramid (5.6, 22)
22. The Hollywood Squares (5.4, 27)
23. High Rollers (5.1, 24)
24. Card Sharks (4.3, 24)
25. Tic Tac Dough (3.9, 21)

Observations:
--Probably stemming from its time changes, Match Game has fallen a ways from its 1975 ratings (mentioned in the 8-11-1975 issue of Broadcasting as 11.3 with a 35 share).

--In its first months, Card Sharks did only somewhat better than Tic Tac Dough, but CS managed to hang on for 3-1/2 years.

--The two shows that Card Sharks and High Rollers replaced on the NBC lineup were Knockout, which averaged 5.0/22, and To Say the Least, which averaged 3.9/16 (both numbers from the 4-3-1978 issue of Broadcasting, page 52). Wheel of Fortune improved numbers in 11:30 slot when it moved there to replace Knockout, and probably would've done even better if it hadn't faced Family Feud.

[tyshaun1]

Found something interesting in the 10-16-1978 issue of Broadcasting: ratings and rankings for daytime series covering January-August 1978 (the list doesn't include already-canceled series like Tattletales, Pass the Buck, et al.). Full details can be seen at the link below; here are the game shows:
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/78-OCR/1978-10-16-BC-OCR-Page-0038.pdf

01. Family Feud (9.1 rating, 38 share)
15. The Price is Right, second half (6.1, 28)
15. Wheel of Fortune (6.1, 27)
17. Match Game (5.8, 19)
19. The Price is Right, first half (5.7, 28)
20. The $20,000 Pyramid (5.6, 22)
22. The Hollywood Squares (5.4, 27)
23. High Rollers (5.1, 24)
24. Card Sharks (4.3, 24)
25. Tic Tac Dough (3.9, 21)

Observations:
--Probably stemming from its time changes, Match Game has fallen a ways from its 1975 ratings (mentioned in the 8-11-1975 issue of Broadcasting as 11.3 with a 35 share).

--In its first months, Card Sharks did only somewhat better than Tic Tac Dough, but CS managed to hang on for 3-1/2 years.

--The two shows that Card Sharks and High Rollers replaced on the NBC lineup were Knockout, which averaged 5.0/22, and To Say the Least, which averaged 3.9/16 (both numbers from the 4-3-1978 issue of Broadcasting, page 52). Wheel of Fortune improved numbers in 11:30 slot when it moved there to replace Knockout, and probably would've done even better if it hadn't faced Family Feud.

Interesting in that looking at the 18-49 demos, CS and TTD were dead even in number of viewers, too. Me thinks there was an alternate reason why CBS canceled TTD so quickly. I know CBS's rating expectations were much higher than NBC's in daytime, but just 9 weeks seems odd looking at this.

[Jimmy Owen]

They probably didn't want to split the audience potential with the five-day-a-week syndicated version that would start that September.

[BrandonFG]

IIRC, from the Wheel “True Hollywood Story”, that was NBC’s highest-rated daytime show. I’m guessing the state of NBC’s daytime lineup kept Card Sharks going. I wonder how long it lasts on CBS or ABC in the late-70s, given how strong their lineups were?

[tyshaun1]

IIRC, from the Wheel “True Hollywood Story”, that was NBC’s highest-rated daytime show. I’m guessing the state of NBC’s daytime lineup kept Card Sharks going. I wonder how long it lasts on CBS or ABC in the late-70s, given how strong their lineups were?

If by highest-rated game, then yes, it was. But as the highest-rated show? Nope. 3 of NBC's soaps did considerably better in the 70's.

[SRIV94]

Interesting that the ratings box specifically mentions "January-August 1978," but SANFORD and GONG (which ran until 7/21/78) are nowhere to be found on the list.

I did find that SANFORD averaged 4.8/19 for its final four weeks in daytime, while GONG averaged 5.4/21.  AMERICA ALIVE! for the premiere week averaged 3.5/13.

https://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/78-OCR/1978-08-14-BC-OCR-Page-0069.pdf#search=%22gong show%22

[Ian Wallis]

In looking at the full list, I'm surprised that All in The Family and Happy Days were still doing so well in daytime reruns.  All in The Family had been in daytime nearly 3 years by this point, and Happy Days went to daytime in Sept '75 with only a year-and-a-half worth of episodes, which were repeated many times before new ones started filtering in.  Usually ratings would start to drop once they'd been run that many times, but these shows were proving their worth.

I guess that's why networks stuck with daytime repeats of primetime shows for so long - they obviously got the ratings.

Too bad that - outside of Feud - most of the other game shows were grouped together near the bottom.  I guess we all hoped they would do better than some of the soaps.