Digging into the available ratings archives, one can point to the years when networks had a particular surge or slide in their ratings. Very this was driven by one event or one soap, but often more than one soap were able to get their stuff together at the same time. However, there is strong evidence to suggest that the rise or fall in the fortunes of a particular soap has a knock-on effect on the network's entire Daytime lineup. So here goes:

MAJOR RISES
NBC's Golden Age, 1970s-
up to the late 60s, CBS were completely and totally dominant in the field of soaps. However, as the 70s began, this would start changing and NBC was the first to make a serious dent into CBS supremacy with its lineup of Another World, Days of Our Lives and The Doctors. By the 1973-74 ratings season, Days and AW tied with ATWT for first place- and The Doctors were a very close 4th. This was also, arguably, the all-time high for soap viewership which went into what was in effect a gentle decline.

ABC's Surge, late 70s-early 80s-
ABC enjoyed mixed fortunes in the 70s. By 1976, only All My Children was in the top half of the ratings chart whilst General Hospital (who had a few good ratings years earlier in the decade) and One Life To Live were struggling in the bottom half. This all changed with Gloria Monty and Douglas Marland at General Hospital, stabilising ratings. By 1979, AMC had reached the top whilst GH finished second- and in 1980 GH had reached the top, where they remained for the majority of the 1980s.

In the early 1980s, it was very evident that the rise of GH had an effect on the entire ABCD lineup- OLTL was enjoying new highs in the ratings, and Ryan's Hope was also doing well. Even the Edge of Night prolonged its existence by a few years. In fact, the week of Luke and Laura's wedding in 1981 showed that AMC, OLTL and RH all garnered very strong ratings and even EON rated above ALL NBC soaps that week! ABC's big three soaps remained there or thereabouts for the remainder of the 80s. But EON would be cancelled and A change in timeslot between Loving and Ryan's Hope in 1984 had the effect of virtually sealing RH's fate... whilst Loving enjoyed its best ratings years in 1984-86.

NBC Silver Age, 1980s-
NBC was really in the gutter in the early 80s, which will be explained below. But by 1983 things were looking up even though picking up Search for Tomorrow had halved that show's ratings compared to what it got on CBS. Both Days of Our Lives and Another World saw their ratings make something of a miraculous recovery compared to their post-1980 lows. Santa Barbara saw their own ratings slowly climb and by 1987-88 that three-hour soap block was looking like NBC's strongest Daytime lineup since the Golden Age of the 70s. Unfortunately, that didn't last.

CBS on the other hand never really had such dramatic surges and slides, only the wavering fortunes of individual soaps (see below). Overall their lineup during Daytime's golden years was fairly steady bar the odd bad decision- e.g. the change of scheduling in 1972 saw Edge of Night's ratings take a dive, ditching Search for Tomorrow when it still had decent ratings. Capitol garnered reasonable enough ratings during its run, and B&B has the extreme fortune no other more recently-created soap had, by being sandwiched between Y&R and ATWT.

MAJOR SLIDES
NBC's Catastrophic Collapse, 1980
Partly because of the rise of ABCD but not entirely because of it, NBCD saw its ratings decline in the latter half of the 70s. Another World fell from its hitherto habitual top two in the charts but remained NBC's highest-rating soap- and contrary to popular belief, the short-lived 90-minute did not adversely affect its ratings either since they were declining before then.

So what exactly happened? In 1980 the following things happened: NBC for one was reeling from the Supertrain failure and the Olympics boycott. The "massacre" over at Days in which longtime stars were axed and a slew of new characters nobody cared about came on (only Gloria Loring as Liz Chandler had any staying power), causing the show's ratings to tank. Beverlee McKinsey left AW for its spin-off Texas (which also ended the 90-minute experiment), which also failed dismally but also caused AW to lose more viewers due to McKinsey leaving. Meanwhile, The Doctors changed timeslot once more, effectively killing it off. So all these events caused a catastrophic collapse in NBCD's ratings, and with the exception of the Silver Age they would never again have a truly competitive lineup compared to CBS or ABC.

ATWT and GL, 1995-97
The untimely death of Douglas Marland in 1993 was a blow to ATWT and Daytime generally. The show for the couple of years was written by Juliet Law Packer and Richard Backus, and then Richard Culliton. However, Caso remained in charge as EP and it can be said that everyone expected the show to come down a bit in this period and it did, but that period is generally not viewed negatively in retrospect considering what followed. Meanwhile Guiding Light under Jill Farren Phelps was reeling from the departures of Ellen Parker (Maureen) and Beverlee McKinsey (Alexandra)... however, take out those events (though very damaging to the show) and JFP's four-year tenure at GL was rather good in terms of quality.

In 1995, however, Proctor & Gamble made some stupid decisions that did a great deal of harm to all of its shows. JFP moved from GL to AW (Michael Laibson, whose five-year stint at AW with Donna Swajeski writing was well-regarded, took her place), and we all know what happened there. John Valente moved from AW replaced Laurence Caso at ATWT, and was repportedly bitter about the move as subsequent events would reveal. Of course, we all know what happened. The effects of the changes on all these shows was unspeakably bad. Especially on ATWT under the reign of terror of Valente, Black and Stern, making the show (according to one source) "the worst on TV" at the time. To see the decline of such great shows (as with anything else) in a remarkably short period is truly horrifying. But to the credit P&G, the realised what was going on and fired all those responsible, starting with Kenneth Fitts as executive in charge of production.

Even though all soap ratings were in steady decline (and the impact of the OJ trial is, as I see it, generally overstated), ATWT and GL suffered sharp drops in ratings during 1996, a slide which did not halt until about 1998.

ABC's Fall, 1998
ABCD's ratings in the 90s remained strong, though obviously not at the levels of the 1980s. AMC was already doing well when Megan McTavish became HW first time round in 1992, and was lucky Felicia Minei Behr was in charge. GH entered a new era with Wendy Riche as EP, and Claire Labine would become HW. Whilst OLTL had Michael Malone as its HW. In any case, all this changed in by middle of the decade. Malone left OLTL, Labine left GH, whilst Broderick took over at AMC and the show still garnered much acclaim under her before McTavish returned for a second stint. And JFP, having received stinging criticism for her actions at GL and AW, would become EP of OLTL.

By 1998, it was obvious that the changes at AMC and OLTL were having a negative impact. AMC had enjoyed a solid place in the upper echelon of the ratings charts for many, many years- starting in the 70s when it was often ABC's most consistent performer in that regard. There were substantial ratings losses for GH, AMC and OLTL during 1998 at a time when Y&R, B&B and Days were leading the ratings. AMC's ratings would sink to their lowest in years, and OLTL saw very poor numbers as well, and even GH would fall away from the above-mentioned top three. Meanwhile, ATWT and GL had seen their ratings stabilise and even climb that year.

So there you have it. I see these as the most significant rises and falls as far as I know. I'll also add that Days' rise in the 90s under JER doesn't really count in this, because it didn't have a clear knock-on effect on the rest of the NBCD lineup as Santa Barbara had already been killed off, Sunset Beach never really got off the ground, and AW didn't improve its numbers even though they were doing comfortably better than the worst-rated soaps.