Radio Soap Operas: The Ratings
Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:43 pm
Recently I've been visiting a web site (www.dg125.com/Gazette/BestOfTheBest/RATINGSMAINMENU.htm) which lists the most popular radio shows from the years 1930 to 1956 according to rating services widely relied upon at that time. This is of particular interest to me because soap operas, as one might expect, are well represented among daytime favorites.
There are many ways to satisfy your curiosity about soaps at this site. One exercise I have found enjoyable is to look for changes in which of the shows were top-ranked throughout the years. During the 1937-38 season, for example (the first for which daytime ratings are given), The Story of Mary Marlin was not only the most popular soap opera, but placed number one among all daytime programs.
Five years later (1942-43), a trio of soaps led the pack. They were Big Sister (number one overall), Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories and Young Widder Brown. Moving ahead five more years (1947-48) we find Big Sister again holding the top spot, but now followed by Ma Perkins and The Romance of Helen Trent. And by 1952-53 The Romance of Helen Trent had risen to first place in daytime shows, with Our Gal Sunday and Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories next in line.
In the spirit of some of the other posts on this forum, let me throw out a couple of questions you can investigate for yourself. First, when a show was run on two or more different networks, its numbers were not aggregated but were treated separately. So it was possible for a single soap opera to be listed more than once among a particular year's top-rated programs. Did that ever happen?
Also, the two soap operas I am aware of (there may have been others) which aired more than seven thousand episodes were The Romance of Helen Trent and Ma Perkins, both of which ran for twenty-seven years. How did these two fare against each other in the ratings during the period covered? And how many times was each the overall top-ranked daytime show?
This is a good place to spend some time.
There are many ways to satisfy your curiosity about soaps at this site. One exercise I have found enjoyable is to look for changes in which of the shows were top-ranked throughout the years. During the 1937-38 season, for example (the first for which daytime ratings are given), The Story of Mary Marlin was not only the most popular soap opera, but placed number one among all daytime programs.
Five years later (1942-43), a trio of soaps led the pack. They were Big Sister (number one overall), Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories and Young Widder Brown. Moving ahead five more years (1947-48) we find Big Sister again holding the top spot, but now followed by Ma Perkins and The Romance of Helen Trent. And by 1952-53 The Romance of Helen Trent had risen to first place in daytime shows, with Our Gal Sunday and Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories next in line.
In the spirit of some of the other posts on this forum, let me throw out a couple of questions you can investigate for yourself. First, when a show was run on two or more different networks, its numbers were not aggregated but were treated separately. So it was possible for a single soap opera to be listed more than once among a particular year's top-rated programs. Did that ever happen?
Also, the two soap operas I am aware of (there may have been others) which aired more than seven thousand episodes were The Romance of Helen Trent and Ma Perkins, both of which ran for twenty-seven years. How did these two fare against each other in the ratings during the period covered? And how many times was each the overall top-ranked daytime show?
This is a good place to spend some time.