General Hospital and Days of our Lives continue to lose ratings

ABC soap General Hospital and NBC soap Days of our Lives continue to lose viewers as question marks remain over their futures.

The future of both soaps look to be in doubt due to low ratings; ABC will be hoping that new showrunner Frank Valentini will be able to turn around the fortunes of the medical soap by bringing across several One Life to Live characters as well as bringing back familiar faces such as Emma Samms and Rick Springfield. As yet though General Hospital continues to lose viewers but, crucially, it will take time for Valentini’s reign to take shape on-screen and time is one thing the medical saga may not have. According to the latest ratings date the soap, during the last week of January, was once again the lowest rated daytime serial on-air with 2.2 million viewers, on average, which is well over half a million viewers down on last week.

Days of our Lives meanwhile also continued to lose viewers compared to last year – also over half a million down. The last remaining NBC soap once again looks vulnerable to the axe when only a few years ago it managed to turn itself around and get renewed. Complaints from fans about a lack of focus on plots may be to blame for the ratings decline. Days of our Lives had an average rating of 2.3 million viewers for the last week of January – only narrowly ahead of GH.

Only CBS soap The Bold and the Beautiful managed to increase its ratings year-on-year with an average of 3.4 million viewers. The Los Angeles based saga is undergoing something of an upheaval, behind-the-scenes, at the moment with several cast members – such as Lesley-Anne Down and Jack Wagner – dropped from the main cast. Sister CBS soap The Young and the Restless had an average audience of 4.9 million viewers making it, as ever, the most watched daytime soap in America.