The slow but steady ratings growth was not sustained in the long run. "Loving" fell back to 11th place, hitting last place for the first time, in early 1989 (between the January series finale of "Ryan's Hope" and the March premiere of NBC's "Generations"). In 1990, the show ranked 11th place as well. After "Santa Barbara" went off the air in January 1993, "Loving", according to television historian Alex McNeil, "was consistently the lowest rated of the ten network daytime soaps."