I wonder if they would have kept most or all of the Lost Girls if the casting decisions were made after the Summer 1980 ratings spike?

Many people don't know that it was the summer of 1980 1st season reruns was when the show stated to catch on. The ratings during that summer reached a level of where the show would be at in most of it's prime time run from fall of 1980 to spring of 1988.

I don't know if they would have fired five cast members. Probably NBC would have ordered four episodes for the new season (like they did during Summer 1979).

It really is a shame they decided to purge the cast before summer ratings were in. It would have changed everything.

The ratings during that summer reached a level of where the show would be at in most of it's prime time run from fall of 1980 to spring of 1988.

They didn’t, though. The show got a 14 rating (rating, not ranking) a few times during that summer. But the following two seasons had average ratings in the 18/19 range. Only in the last season did the average rating come back down to the 14 range.

In fairness, average ratings are lower during the summer than they are in-season. But we simply don’t know if the show would have continued that upward ratings trajectory had it had a second season with the original cast, scheduled after Diff’rent Strokes and getting a better lead-in. As it was, the revamped show started outperforming “Diff’rent Strokes”, and inherited the DS time slot by its third year.

It really is a shame they decided to purge the cast before summer ratings were in. It would have changed everything.

It makes me wonder when they decided to bring the purged girls (I mean women) back on a part time basis? Was it after they saw the the summer ratings spike?

I guess it will always remain a mystery, but in my fictional world, the 'Lost girls' never left and JO was just added as the girl number 8.....

I guess it will always remain a mystery, but in my fictional world, the 'Lost girls' never left and JO was just added as the girl number 8.....

Eight is Enough, Part 2.