Ratings
The Facts of Life was originally not a ratings winner on Friday nights in its summer debut in 1979 or in its second tryout in the spring of 1980. It ranked #74 out of 79 shows on the air in the year-end Nielsen ratings, and was NBC's lowest-rated series. The show was retooled in hiatus and brought back in a Wednesday time slot, where it flourished in its second season, ranking a respectably moderate #26 in the ratings. At the time, it was NBC's fourth highest-rated scripted series, after Little House on the Prairie, Facts' parent series Diff'rent Strokes, and CHiPs.
The show ranked in the mid- and upper-20s in the ratings for nearly every season until 1985–86 (its seventh), the same season it was moved to Saturday nights. Another timeslot change, this time to 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturdays, brought the ratings down to #31 in 1986–87 and #37 in 1987–88.
- 1) 1979–80: #74 (3.6 million viewers)
- 2) 1980–81: #26 (15.4 million viewers)
- 3) 1981–82: #24 (15.5 million viewers)
- 4) 1982–83: #32 (14.7 million viewers)
- 5) 1983–84: #24 (14.4 million viewers)
- 6) 1984–85: #24 (14.4 million viewers)
- 7) 1985–86: #27 (15.2 million viewers)
- 8) 1986–87: #31 (14 million viewers)
- 9) 1987–88: #37 (12.7 million viewers)
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