Falcon Crest or Knots Landing, outside the USA which was more popular?

[Richard Denault]

In the United States, Falcon Crest was less popular than Knots Landing.
But in the rest of the world what happened?
A cast member commented
"The international success of the soap opera was much bigger than its popularity in the United States, especially considering the show's ratings in European countries, such as Spain, France, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and others. He mentioned the show has played in approximately over 70 countries up to now.
“It was hugely successful in Egypt and in Lebanon...,”
Carl Held (Gath) said
Falcon Crest was enormously successful in Lebanon and he was treated like a big star everywhere when he was on vacation there — at the airport, in the taxi, at the hotel…? Life seemed to stop in Lebanon when Falcon Crest was on the air because almost the whole population would watch the series, and people cared neither about their work nor their private lives during those hours?

In Spain it was much more popular than Dallas or Dynasty
Knots Landing, in Spain it was called California, it was only shown in regional chains and I think it was only for one season. too american
Members who are not from the United States, what do they think?

 

[Monzo]

My gut is telling me Falcon Crest was more successful than Knots Landing because it was like that in my home country Germany and from the international broadcasting history I've read here about both soaps, Knots Landing seems to have been treated pretty badly in quite a few countries and certainly not because of satisfactory ratings, but in the end nobody really knows.

Even nowadays, when you can add up ratings of all countries, mostly only fake numbers come out. For example, the Eurovision Song Contest has not even half as many viewers as is claimed, or The Bold and the Beautiful, whose cast believes half the world is watching their show, only has around 15 million viewers worldwide.

In the 80's, if someone told the Falcon Crest cast they were big in Europe, no one could verify in pre-internet days and the stars believed what they were told.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

In Britain, of the few people who had heard of them and could tell them apart, I'd say Knots was better-known. I did manage to have conversations with at least a few people who watched, while I don't remember hearing someone talk about Falcon Crest ever.

Both were treated shoddily by their respective networks. Knots was pulled off-air by the BBC for several years, eventually returning in a daytime slot where it chugged along with a (presumably) small-but-loyal viewership mainly made up of housewives and soap zealots. At the time, as someone heavily into Knots, I envied FC viewers since that series was on prime time for many years after Knots. However, I now understand that FC wasn't nationally syndicated, with regional ITV networks airing the series at different paces and different times. This would have made it incredibly difficult to gauge how many viewers were watching. It also gives FC more underdog appeal.

Because of its time slot, I always suspected FC was watched by more people in my ITV region, though I'm sure it filled one of those "sacrificial lamb" time slots where the network knew everyone was watching something more popular on BBC. If we looked at it using the American system of average audience percentage for their time slot, I suspect Knots would have been the most-watched show across our few channels for that hour.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has different experiences or any stats. I never really got to know how many people watched either show since (apart from perhaps some early Knots episodes) I doubt either appeared in the Top Ten or Twenty watched shows for any given week.

 

[Richard Denault]

In Britain, of the few people who had heard of them and could tell them apart, I'd say Knots was better-known. I did manage to have conversations with at least a few people who watched, while I don't remember hearing someone talk about Falcon Crest ever.

Both were treated shoddily by their respective networks. Knots was pulled off-air by the BBC for several years, eventually returning in a daytime slot where it chugged along with a (presumably) small-but-loyal viewership mainly made up of housewives and soap zealots. At the time, as someone heavily into Knots, I envied FC viewers since that series was on prime time for many years after Knots. However, I now understand that FC wasn't nationally syndicated, with regional ITV networks airing the series at different paces and different times. This would have made it incredibly difficult to gauge how many viewers were watching. It also gives FC more underdog appeal.

Because of its time slot, I always suspected FC was watched by more people in my ITV region, though I'm sure it filled one of those "sacrificial lamb" time slots where the network knew everyone was watching something more popular on BBC. If we looked at it using the American system of average audience percentage for their time slot, I suspect Knots would have been the most-watched show across our few channels for that hour.

'd be interested to know if anyone else has different experiences or facts. I never really got to know how many people watched either show since (apart from perhaps some early Knots episodes) I doubt either appeared in the Top Ten or Twenty watched shows for any given week.

In addition to seeing it on Spanish television. I saw it in English on Sky One a satellite TV
The first time I saw him at night. I'm done with the seventh season
Then they repeated it in the morning

 

[Jock Og]

Over in Ireland the two big guns were DALLAS and DYNASTY. Nowadays Irish folk don't seem to remember FALCON CREST, as much as the shows with Larry Hagman and Joan Collins leading. When I bring the subject of FC up unfortunately as little as 40% would know anything about it. The more favourable responses would be like "Susan Sullivan was in it", "the show with the vineyards" and was that the show with the "old doll with the permed hair." @Richard Denault I'm quite aware of the show's popularity in Europe and some other countries but the world is a very big place.


David Selby speaks about the passing of his FALCON CREST colleague Jane Wyman on the 10th September 2007, aged 90 , (12/10/2007):

"As many of you have heard; we have lost a great actress and a great passionate classy woman, who was always very dear to me. She was the consummate professional and you always knew where you stood with Jane. If you didn't want to hear the truth, you didn't ask Jane."

 

[Angela Channing]

In the United States, Falcon Crest was less popular than Knots Landing.

I don't think it's correct to say that Knots Landing was more popular than Falcon Crest in the USA. For the first few seasons Falcon Crest rated higher than Knots and for the middle few seasons they swapped between which was the more popular. Knot Landing lasted longer but I would say they were equally popular in the USA when they were both on TV.

In the UK, I think both series are now largely forgotten but in their prime, I think Falcon Crest was bigger here than Knots Landing. As @Mel O'Drama pointed out, both series were moved from prime time to day time however, Falcon Crest held on to it's evening broadcast slot for far longer. In the Thames region were I live, Falcon Crest was broadcast at 8pm on Thursday for the first 2.5 seasons and the second half of season 3 went out at 10.30pm. However, in other parts of the country it continued to be broadcast at 8pm midweek, either on Wednesday or Thursday until season 5 or 6. I was always pleasantly surprised when I was in the Granada, Central or Yorkshire TV regions to see Falcon Crest was still being screened in prime time which suggests it had an enduring popularity.

 

[Falcon Crest I]

Originally away back in the day the show was in a primetime slot, for Scottish viewers. I really enjoyed the runs again on the Zone Romantica European channel and CBS Drama. I don't think it will be back anytime soon.

 

[Richard Denault]

Over in Ireland the two big guns were DALLAS and DYNASTY. Nowadays Irish folk don't seem to remember FALCON CREST, as much as the shows with Larry Hagman and Joan Collins leading. When I bring the subject of FC up unfortunately as little as 40% would know anything about it. The more favourable responses would be like "Susan Sullivan was in it", "the show with the vineyards" and was that the show with the "old doll with the permed hair." @Richard Denault I'm quite aware of the show's popularity in Europe and some other countries but the world is a very big place.


David Selby speaks about the passing of his FALCON CREST colleague Jane Wyman on the 10th September 2007, aged 90 , (12/10/2007):

"As many of you have heard; we have lost a great actress and a great passionate classy woman, who was always very dear to me. She was the consummate professional and you always knew where you stood with Jane. If you didn't want to hear the truth, you didn't ask Jane."

Some very nice words.

http://www.davidselby.com/blog/2007/09/12/jane-wyman/

Although the photo is revealing, both separated. It's from the fifth season
Some very nice words.
Although the photo is revealing, both separated. It's from the fifth season
In this one he takes Lorenzo by the arm, in the other he crosses his arms
Taking her eldest son by the arm is something impossible for her

 

[Seaviewer]

In Australia, rather than saying Knots was more popular, it would probably be more accurate to say that Falcon Crest was less popular. Both were treated rather shabbily, but Knots at least saw out its run at night, albeit very late. New Falcon Crest episodes were eventually relegated to a mid-morning timeslot.

 

[LB-Colby]

In Italy, Falcon Crest was more popular than Knots Landing (but less than Dallas and Dynasty, of course).
Well, Knots Landing was not popular at all here... even Flamingo Road was more popular.

 

[Karin]

In Sweden the two big prime time soaps in the 1980s were Dallas and Falcon Crest. Dallas was on Saturday nights over here and Falcon Crest was on Friday nights. They were on SVT, which is the public service channel, equal to the BBC in England. Back in the early 1980s we only had two channels so both shows were really popular pulling in 2-4 million viewers every week. For a country with a population of less than 10 million people those numbers were really good.

Around 1984 SVT tried to replace Dallas with Dynasty. It didn't work. The audience demanded Dallas came back.
In the late 1980s after we got cable channels Knots Landing was on TV3 and had the title "JR's bror". They only broadcast until the cliffhanger with Val's babies.
In the 1990s Dynasty, Dallas, Falcon Crest and Knots Landing were all rerun in the afternoons on channels like TV4, TV3 and SVT. I watched the shows after school.

 

[TJP]

On an international basis, "Falcon Crest" was way more popular than "Knots Landing". "Knots was also sold to fewer countries than "Falcon Crest".

Aside from the typical markets in North and South America and Europe, "Falcon Crest" was even highly successful in countries in the Middle East, in Israel, South Africa and Japan (among others).

"Knots" had a bad fate internationally because it was sold in many countries at a later time (far beyond the initial U.S. broadcast), and when it arrived abroad, the visual impression of the first few seasons, which was very 1970's, did not make a good, contemporary impact.

In Germany, it débuted even ten years after its original première, and although it still has a following here, it failed to find its niche among the classic prime time soaps during the original German broadcast, which is why one channel dumped it, and it was constantly shifted around in timeslots. It was only in the 1990's when a cable station decided to air the whole series on a daily basis.