‘Days of Our Lives’ Boosted to 8-Month Ratings High With Rise and Return of Popular ’80s Characters

New head writers and a murder mystery storyline also sparks renewed interest

NBC

“Days of our Lives” rose to an 8-month high in women 18-49 — its core demographic — and hit nearly a full-year high among females viewers 18-34 last week. Both accomplishments were ties.

The soap’s boost represents an 11 percent increase week-to-week in 18-49, and an impressive 28 percent in the 18-34, according to Live Plus Same Day viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research.

The struggling soap has brought back ’80s fan-favorite characters in an effort to boost viewership: Bo (Peter Reckell) and Patch (Stephen Nichols) returned this month, reuniting them with their ex’s.  The show’s new writing team’s material has also been picking up steam with a murder mystery storyline, prompting viewers to tune in same-day to find out who gets killed next.

Looks like both plans have worked.

For the week of September 7-11, “Days” averaged a 0.80 rating/6 share among women 18-49, and 0.46 rating among women 18-34. Those numbers were good enough to rank fourth among network daytime series in both categories. However, it is important to note that “DOOL” was preempted on Labor Day Monday due to golf coverage — so only Tuesday-Friday were counted in this case.

Season-to-date, “Days of our Lives” is No. 7 in the women 18-49 category and No. 12 in the women 18-34 demo.

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