‘General Hospital’ Overtakes ‘The Young And The Restless’ For First Time In More Than Six Years

As the citizens of Port Charles reel from learning Robin is alive, and AJ’s murder trial continues, ABC’s General Hospital overtook CBS‘ The Young And The Restless for the first time in more than six years to rank No. 1 in Daytime among women 25-54 (1.18 million/1.9 rating) the week of December 2. General Hospital also ranked No. 1 in Women 18-34 (289,000/0.9 rating) and Women 18-49 (880,000/1.4 rating), marking the series’ first sweep across the key female demos in more than six years.

General Hospital averaged 3.31 million viewers overall – its most watched week in nearly six years. The daytime drama is pacing to nab its most watched season in seven years. Turns out, returning legacy characters and sensational storylines brings back lost viewers.

“Whatevs,” CBS responded – or words to that effect, noting Y&R is No. 1 ranked this season among women 25-54 and 18-49. Y&R has been No. 1 in that 25-54 bracket for 354 of the past 356 weeks, and No. 1 in that 18-49 bracket for 349 of the past 352 weeks, CBS noted. And, Y&R is celebrating its 1,300^th consecutive week — or 25 years —  as the No. 1 daytime drama in overall audience, with the release of the Nielsen ratings for the week ending December 2.  Y&R is averaging 5.1 million viewers – its largest audience to start a season since 2011-12.