The 50th Anniversary season of ABC’s “General Hospital” is on pace of bringing the soap its largest overall audience in five years, the network noted today based on Nielsen Media Research Data. In addition, for the week of September 2, the daytime drama series hit 2-year highs in Women 18-49 (734,000/1.1 rating) and Women 25-54 (967,000/1.6 rating), 10-month high in Women 18-34 (274,000/0.8 rating) and 5-month high in Total Viewers (2.75 million) as “baby fever” continued to power much of the shows overall storyline. In fact, Thursday’s telecast (September 5), featuring the imminent birth of Britt’s baby, stood as the series’ most-watched telecast in nearly over 2 years in Women 18-49 (845,000) and Women 25-54 (1.06 million) and in 8 months in Women 18-34 (342,000) – since 8/15/11 and 1/18/13, respectively.
With only a couple weeks remaining in the 2012-13 season, “GH” is pacing for its strongest season in 5 years in Total Viewers (2.97 million), generating the biggest year-to-year increases of any broadcast daytime drama (+14% – vs. 2.61 million), and is also up the most season to season in Women 18-34 (+36% – 253,000 vs. 186,000) and Women 18-49 (+7% – 770,000 vs. 719,000).
For the current season, “General Hospital” is TV’s #1 broadcast program in daytime in Women 18-34, and ranks a solid #2 in Women 18-49 and Women 25-54.