'The Young and the Restless' Tops Soap Ratings for 24 Years in a Row

The Young and the Restless, nearing its 40th year on television early next year, just hit another type of milestone: The CBS soap opera has topped all other daytime scripted programming in the U.S. for 24 years in a row.

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It's not so surprising, given its wide margin of victory (typically at least 1 million viewers) over its closest competition, but Nielsen's live- plus-same-day returns for last week mark the series' 1,248th consecutive week on top.

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The Young and the Restless bests network neighbor The Bold and the Beautiful, ABC's General Hospital and NBC's Days of Our Lives.

As The Hollywood Reporter recently reported, daytime drama viewership has been up across the board since ABC thinned the pool by canceling One Life to Live and All My Children a year ago. The Young and the Restless is averaging 3.9 million viewers, season to date.

Among daytime's coveted female demographics, the series is maintaining similar (if shorter) streaks. It has only failed to top in women 25-to-54 once in the past 303 weeks and women 18-to-49 once in the past 298 weeks.

With The Bold and the Beautiful, The Price Is Right, Let's Make a Deal and, most recently, The Talk, CBS has topped the other broadcast networks among daytime viewership for 26 years.