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On the East coast, The Doctors were slotted at 2:30pm; on the Central time zone, it was seen at 1:30pm; on the West coast, it was seen at 12:30pm. Mountain time zone viewers might have seen the soaper slotted at 12:30pm (or 11:30am in Arizona during Daylight Saving Time) or another time slot the TV stations in your area might have slotted it.
A big part of studying the daytime network television schedules of history are the counterprogrmaming the other networks programmed agianst them, and The Doctors had its own unique set of counter programmers on each of the extreme side coasts.
On September 9, 1963, ABC replaced its show with Day in Court/ABC Five Minute News. On June 28, 1965, ABC replaced that show with A Time For Us/ABC Five Minute News.
On December 19, 1966, ABC replaced that show with Dream Girl of '67/ABC Five Minute News.
On January 1, 1968, ABC replaced that show with The Baby Game/The Children's Doctor (five minute report.)
On July 15, 1968, ABC moved The Dating Game to the 2:30 ET/1:30 CT slot from the 4 ET/3 CT slot it was in the week before (A new soap One Life to Live premiered that day.) That game show would last through July 1973. On September 9, 1968, CBS replaced Art Linkletter's show with an expanded The Guiding Light, which was a 15-minute soap airing at 12:45 ET/11:45 CT. This competition lineup would last through September 1, 1972.
On the West Coast, in the 1960s, The Doctors, at 12:30pm PT, was programmed aginst reruns of Father Knows Best on ABC and As The World Turns on CBS. On January 6, 1964, ABC left the 12:30pm slot blank for now, but on March 30, it slotted in The Tennessee Ernie Ford show.
On June 29, 1964, The Doctors were pushed back a half an hour to 1:00 PT; its new counterprogammers were Password on CBS and local programming on an ABC affiliate.
On December 28, 1964, ABC premiered "Hello, Peapickers" at 1:00 PT. On March 29, 1965, ABC replaced it with The Rebus Game.
On September 27, 1965, ABC slotted in reruns of Ben Casey (an hour long program).
On April 3, 1967, ABC replaced Ben Casey with reruns of The Fugitive (an hour long program).
On September 18, 1967, CBS replaced Password with a new soaper Love Is A Many Splendored Thing.
On April 1, 1968, ABC replaced The Fugitive with a game show Dream House (followed by Wedding Party at 1:30 PT).
On July 9, 1973, ABC replaced Dating Game with The Girl in My Life, followed by The Big Showdown on December 23, 1974, and then Rhyme and Reason on July 7, 1975 (Ryan's Hope also premiered that day.)
On December 1, 1975, "The Edge of Night" moved from CBS to ABC so that CBS could expand "As The World Turns" to a full hour, but "The Guiding Light" was pushed back to the 2:30 ET/1:30 CT slot to face The Doctors and ABC's game show offerings. On December 29, 1975, ABC moved Rhyme and Reason an hour earlier and premiered The Neighbors in the slot, but it was short-lived and was replaced with Break the Bank on April 12, 1976.
On the West Coast, in the 1970s, "The Doctors", at 1:00pm PT, was progrmamed against "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" on CBS and for one day, January 2, 1970, the just-canceled "Dream House" on ABC. Beginning on January 5, "All My Children" would debut in that time slot on the left coast; AMC aired at 1pm ET/12pm CT when CBS and NBC were dark, but on the PT zone, CBS and NBC (which had no noon break for its Pacific Time Zone feed) were active. There were three daytime soap operas running from 1 to 1:30 PM in the Pacific Time zone. The three-way left coast competition stayed that way until September 4, 1972 when CBS swapped around four of its late soapers and moved "The Guiding Light" to 1pm.
On April 21, 1975, NBC expanded "Days of Our Lives" to 60 minutes, and, only on the Pacific Time Zone feed, kept the start time of it at 12:30pm (it moved ahead a half hour to 1:30pm ET/12:30pm CT), pushing "The Doctors" to run at 1:30pm (it also created a half hour dark zone at 12pm for local NBC stations to run local programming in exchange for giving up the 3pm half hour time slot to NBC). As of this date, NBC's late afternoon schedule time slotting matched that of the schedule in the Central Time Zone. "The Doctors" new competitors were "Let's Make a Deal" on ABC and "The Edge of Night" on CBS. We'll talk about why NBC's late afternoon shows on the Pacific Feed were not matching the Central Time zone pattern in the days prior to April 21, 1975, in another subject.
On December 1, 1975, "Edge" moved to ABC after Procter and Gamble's deal to keep "Edge" on CBS until ABC had a time slot freed up available expired. While CBS expanded "As the World Turns" to run from 12:30pm to 1:30pm, "The Guiding Light" got pushed back to 1:30pm so, once again, it was running up against "The Doctors" on NBC. On December 29, 1975, ABC moved "Let's Make a Deal" to an earlier time slot on the Eastern feed, but kept the show on at 1:30pm Pacific Time until its cancellation the following year.
On both coasts since July 26, 1976, ABC's late afternoon soaps beginning with "One Life" matched the same time slot counterprogramming on CBS and NBC.
On Novemeber 7, 1977, CBS expanded "Guiding Light" (dropping the The from the title) to 60 minutes, making the show run from 2:30pm ET/1:30pm to 3:30pm ET/2:30pm. For just over two months, there were three daytime soapers beginning at 2:30pm ET/1:30, with NBC's ending at 3pm ET/2pm, ABC's ending at 3:15pm ET/2:15pm and CBS's ending at 3:30pm ET/2:30pm.
On January 16, 1978, ABC expanded "One Life to Live" to a full hour to run from 2pm ET/1pm to 3pm ET/2pm, with "The Doctors" running opposite the second half of the former. (ABC also expanded "General Hospital" to a full hour to follow "Life").
On March 5, 1979, NBC made a bold move to expand its top-rated daytine serial "Another World" to 90 minutes daily to serve two purposes: to help plug a hole in the 1pm ET/12pm time slot occupied by failed programs and to also provide a grooming ground for the new characters to be spun off into a new soap the following year, "Texas." This meant that "Days" would be pushed up half an hour to 1pm ET/12pm and "Doctors" move to the 2pm ET/1pm slot. The ratings for "Doctors" were eroding as it had to compete against the second half of "As the World Turns" on CBS and the first half of "One Life to Live" on ABC.
Then, when NBC premiered "Texas" on August 4, 1980, it needed an hour for its time slot. To make that possible, NBC contracted "The David Letterman Show" and "Another World" each from 90 to 60 minutes. "Texas" needed to be placed in a late time slot, the 3pm ET/2pm CT/PT slot, following "Another World," so NBC pushed "AW" ahead to begin at the 2pm ET/1pm CT and PT time slot, which displaced "The Doctors" to an unimportant time slot of 12:30pm ET/11:30am CT and PT. Depending on the CBS affiliate, "Doctors" was on opposite either "Restless" or "Search", but opposite the then-popular "Ryan's Hope" on ABC.
Beginning on June 8, 1981, CBS changed its schedule by moving "Search" to 2:30pm ET/1:30pm CT and PT, and let its CBS affiilates run local news and "Restless" between 12pm to 1:30pm ET/11am to 12:30pm CT and PT. The good news was that it was no longer competiting against "Search" but the bad news was that it competeted with either the first half or the second half of "Restless."
The final nail in the coffin was set when "Doctors" was placed at 12pm ET/11am CT and PT, opposite "Family Feud" on ABC and either local news or the first half of "Restless" on CBS affiliates in the time slot. The move was necessary because NBC acquired "Search" from CBS and placed it at 12:30pm ET/11:30am CT and PT (where it too would have the distinction of running opposite one of the two halves of "Restless"). On December 31, 1982, "The Doctors" aired its series finale and left the schedule, along with "Texas," which too was cancelled by NBC. "Search" left the NBC schedule in late 1986.
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