Weekly Nielsen Ratings for The Facts of Life

[valentina warner]

Originally Posted by 80s Dude

Which Facebook page? Some of the Facts of Life groups I am in have lots of Lost Girl fans.

It is not on a particular Facebook site: what i meant, is that when referring the 'Core of 4', most people choose JO as their favourite (except you and me lol!)

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by 80s Dude

People assumed that Nancy McKeon single handily saved the show. This provided evidence that the show had good ratings before the second season.

Yeah, once the series was moved, it became a regular in the Top 20. Certainly momentum was building over the summer months.

There's no doubt Nancy McKeon was a talented child actress, and her skills brought the show greater fame, but the myth of her saving the show needs to die. TFOL had already hit the top 20 a dozen times before Nancy was ever on the show.

[80schild.com]

the first Rerun of "The Little Chill" performed well, again showing us that core fans of the show were still very interested in the series (and the season 1 cast). This rerun outperformed many of the first run season 8 episodes.


Saturday January 17 1987 Post-Christmas Card #25. 17.3/29
Saturday January 25 1987 The Little Chill (Rerun) #25. 17.9/30
Saturday January 31 1987 A Star is Torn #24. 16.7/28

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by 80schild.com

the first Rerun of "The Little Chill" performed well, again showing us that core fans of the show were still very interested in the series (and the season 1 cast). This rerun outperformed many of the first run season 8 episodes.


Saturday January 17 1987 Post-Christmas Card #25. 17.3/29
Saturday January 25 1987 The Little Chill (Rerun) #25. 17.9/30
Saturday January 31 1987 A Star is Torn #24. 16.7/28

Thank you, 80sChild! I have added this info to the OP. May I ask where you get all of your info? Reason I ask is because I am using Newspapers.com, and it is a time-consuming process, checking each newspaper clipping, and a few of the clippings are illegible. There were several clippings where, right where the data would be, the image was smudged really badly (too dark, too light, printing error, etc).

[RetroGuy2000]

So far in my research, the only #1 week The Facts of Life had was the week ending Aug 9, 1981. It was a rerun.

However, I'm only about 1/3rd of the way done, so there might be some other #1 weeks.

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

So far in my research, the only #1 week The Facts of Life had was the week ending Aug 9, 1981. It was a rerun.

However, I'm only about 1/3rd of the way done, so there might be some other #1 weeks.

The #1 show of the entire week of television? Wow, that's astouding.

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by '80sSitcoms

The #1 show of the entire week of television? Wow, that's astouding.

Yeah, I sure was surprised!

[80schild.com]

I purchased Variety Magazine back issues to get a lot of the first run nielsen ratings. numbers are harder to find pre 1983, usually news articles only posted the top 20 during 1979-83.

TV Tango is one of the resources i used. They give you the ratings point, sometimes the share. You can see the networks nightly schedules and how each show competed in their timeslots:

http://www.tvtango.com/series/facts_...pisodes?page=2


Broadcast magazine gives you more in-depth weekly numbers, but again anything before 1983 is more difficult to find.
https://worldradiohistory.com/Broadcasting-Magazine.htm

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by 80schild.com

I purchased Variety Magazine back issues to get a lot of the first run nielsen ratings. numbers are harder to find pre 1983, usually news articles only posted the top 20 during 1979-83.

TV Tango is one of the resources i used. They give you the ratings point, sometimes the share. You can see the networks nightly schedules and how each show competed in their timeslots:

http://www.tvtango.com/series/facts_...pisodes?page=2


Broadcast magazine gives you more in-depth weekly numbers, but again anything before 1983 is more difficult to find.
https://worldradiohistory.com/Broadcasting-Magazine.htm

Wow! What great resources! I sure appreciate the help!

I've seen the Broadcasting Magazine archive site before, and it's just incredible. Never heard of TV Tango. Awesome!

[80schild.com]

Glad to help, if you need any help to fill the holes let me know. i've been researching FOL nielsens for decades. it's quite fascinating. The show truly was a powerhouse money making machine for NBC.

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by 80schild.com

The show truly was a powerhouse money making machine for NBC.

Which you wouldn't think at all, considering it was never a Top 20 show for a season ranking. That seems like it would just be more of a minor/mediocre success.

[80s Dude]

Originally Posted by '80sSitcoms

Which you wouldn't think at all, considering it was never a Top 20 show for a season ranking. That seems like it would just be more of a minor/mediocre success.

Like The Brady Bunch, Star Trek, and Gilligan's Island, The FOL never was a consistent top tier program, but the reruns do well in syndication. Even when the show was still on Prime Time. Thus why the ratings for "The Little Chill" were higher than any other episode in Season 8.

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by 80s Dude

Like The Brady Bunch, Star Trek, and Gilligan's Island, The FOL never was a consistent top tier program, but the reruns do well in syndication. Even when the show was still on Prime Time. Thus why the ratings for "The Little Chill" were higher than any other episode in Season 8.

But the next episode was one slot higher. And the one prior to TLC was the same as TLC.

That guy in the Reelz documentary claimed the ratings "spiked" for TLC, which now we see was not true. We see now it was simply on par with with its neighboring episodes (that would have been cool if the ratings really had spiked).

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by '80sSitcoms

But the next episode was one slot higher. And the one prior to TLC was the same as TLC.

That guy in the Reelz documentary claimed the ratings "spiked" for TLC, which now we see was not true. We see now it was simply on par with with its neighboring episodes (that would have been cool if the ratings really had spiked).

I've updated the ratings for S8, because the data I had before was very partial. It's much more complete, now, although there are still some gaps (which I will fill in later).

The Little Chill was both the highest-ranked regular episode of the season, and the second highest-rated. The average rating was a 16.2, and the episode scored an 18.2. More info will become available as more data points are added.

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

The Little Chill was both the highest-ranked regular episode of the season, and the second highest-rated. The average rating was a 16.2, and the episode scored an 18.2. More info will become available as more data points are added.

Not according to these numbers, not in the rating column nor the rank column. It's not the highest number in either one. "Boy About the House" is the highest rating, and TLC is the 3rd highest rank (so far).