US Neilsen Ratings

[Swellin]

Hi All

Below is as accurate yearly ratings as I could find comparing the soaps year to year.

 

[Monzo]

Did Knots Landing have strong competition in its third season time slot or why was it so weak, especially considering parent show Dallas was at the top at the time?

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Did Knots Landing have strong competition in its third season time slot or why was it so weak, especially considering parent show Dallas was at the top at the time?

I just checked here and it looks as though it was in direct competition with Hill Street Blues for part of that season.

I imagine the choppy time slot didn't help matters either.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I just checked here and it looks as though it was in direct competition with Hill Street Blues for part of that season.

I imagine the choppy time slot didn't help matters either.

KNOTS was pretty much always against HILL STREET BLUES from 1981 onward, but viewers (like myself) got tired of the dour pretentiousness of HSB and wandered over to KNOTS and quickly realized it was better.

Also, the "Who Killed Ciji?" stunt was effective, bringing viewers to KNOTS out of curiosity -- then staying because the show was good.

Odd, though: I never remembered CAGNEY & LACEY ever being on Thursday; I only recall it being on Monday nights at 10pm.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Also, the "Who Killed Ciji?" stunt was effective, bringing viewers to KNOTS out of curiosity -- then staying because the show was good.

This has reminded me that I don't recall ever seeing promos or any kind of publicity relating to the Ciji stuff. Living in a country where Knots aired without fanfare in a daytime slot for most of its run, I'm curious to know how the storyline was promoted on TV and in magazines back in 1983.

I just took a quick peek, but the only related thing I found was this CBS Thursday Night promo. Oh, and another from the following season which shows Chip coming face-to-face with Cathy.

I never remembered CAGNEY & LACEY ever being on Thursday; I only recall it being on Monday nights at 10pm.

That first season with Meg Foster was only 6 episodes, so possibly not enough time for it to register and have any kind of association with that day.

Curiously, Wikipedia says it was moved to Thursday in "the summer of 1988", but the airdates it gives suggest those last episodes went out on a Monday.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

This has reminded me that I don't recall ever seeing promos or any kind of publicity relating to the Ciji stuff. Living in a country where Knots aired without fanfare in a daytime slot for most of its run, I'm curious to know how the storyline was promoted on TV and in magazines back in 1983.

I just took a quick peek, but the only related thing I found was this CBS Thursday Night promo. Oh, and another from the following season which shows Chip coming face-to-face with Cathy.

It's been so long, I can't entirely remember. There were probably some ads and promos because CBS wanted DALLAS' little sister to surge as much as possible. But I really only just remember some organic easing over from HILL STREET to KNOTS -- at least on my part, but also the audience in general -- because murder mysteries had not yet been done to death (ha!) in primetime, and "Who Killed Ciji?" was the first real cliffhanger since "Who Shot JR?" (not on the same scale, of course).

I think people just kind of found KNOTS LANDING at that point. Through whatever means.

Jock's death and his subsequent last will and testament also made many DALLAS fans curious about what might be going on over on the spin-off. Especially when Furillo's & Davenport's vampiristic romance just creeped you out too much.

That first season with Meg Foster was only 6 episodes, so possibly not enough time for it to register and have any kind of association with that day.

Curiously, Wikipedia says it was moved to Thursday in "the summer of 1988", but the airdates it gives suggest those last episodes went out on a Monday

Interesting. I don't ever remember it being on any night except Mondays -- but then I think I wandered away from C&G towards the end, so my memory isn't entirely reliable.

 

[Daniel Avery]

S3 of Knots Landing was in a transitional period, plot-wise. The overall arc of the season was Karen's widowhood, what with Sid dying in episode 3 of the season and Mack not arriving in her life until S4. So that was kind of a downer. The show was flirting with the serialized format but still cranked out just as many self-contained episodes, with some of them being downright strange ("Silver Shadows" and "Three Sisters" come to mind). So perhaps viewers were as confused as the producers were.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The show was flirting with the serialized format but still cranked out just as many self-contained episodes, with some of them being downright strange ("Silver Shadows" and "Three Sisters" come to mind). So perhaps viewers were as confused as the producers were.

It seems British viewers (or the BBC) had given up by midway through Season Three when the plug was pulled on it here.

I think people just kind of found KNOTS LANDING at that point. Through whatever means.

The overall arc of the season was Karen's widowhood, what with Sid dying in episode 3 of the season and Mack not arriving in her life until S4. So that was kind of a downer

Post Letting Go, the Val/Gary/Abby triangle defines the latter part of the season, I think, and this was kind of my jumping on point for the series since that's when the series resumed here after several years (now condemned to the afternoon).

With Cricket being the first episode shown after the pickup and Silver Shadows the third, I imagine there were some who were put off by the changes in tone and theme, but I'd say everything from Letting Go onwards is solid gold.

But I'd guess most had tuned out by that point on home territory, and S4's Ciji/Chip arc was the boost it needed.

 

[Robert H]

I think Knots' "slow and steady" Nielsen performance throughout it's run contributed to it's longevity. Had it been a number 1 show like Dynasty and Dallas, higher-ups may have chased those heights by damaging show quality. If Knots reached number 1 in seasonal rankings and then took a dramatic ratings dip, would we have suffered through ever-increasing plot absurdities, a la late-era Dynasty? Solid and consistent numbers may have contributed to the overall success, from a storyline perspective.