9th December this year (Corrie's 50th birthday) is a Thursday. I wonder if ITV had this in mind when they rescheduled the Wednesday episode last year. No, that's too complicated for a TV executive's brain.

Bit unfortunate for Corrie that their 50th occurs 10 months after Eastenders 25th and that Eastenders should have done their birthday stuff so well.

The bar has been raised high and they'll need to come up with something epic and original just to match.

Corrie also showed its first ever episode at 7.00 before the live episode iirc

They're rumours that the anniversary episode is the Kevin/molly reveal:yawn:

Somebody get a taxi for Kim Crowther now!

Eh?????? Corrie's live episode was about saving the cobbles? Really? How um....interesting if true Can someone explain?

I think the cobbles storyline was just to get the entire cast out on the street right at the end of the live show as they celebrated beating the council. It was a good episode in the end.

Oh okay thanks lol

Vera gave a transplant to her grandson, in the episode as well iirc and a it was hyped in the papers that she might die in the live episode.

I think Coronation St is falling behind Eastenders in the public's affection even if it is not as grim at times. EE has a wider demographic- more teens, male viewers and Southerners watch it than Corrie- and is seen as a bit more trendy.

I think this post is quite true tbh

So Eastenders in total last night using the scheduled slot 8:00 - 8:30 average figure of 15.64m and the BBC3 repeat of 1.42m we have:

15.64+1.42 = 17.06m

Throw in the Sunday omnibus (2m?), Iplayer viewings (350k?) and the official 7 day recordings (650k?) could it be touching 20m in total? Certainly total peak must be, if there is such a thing.

EastEnders has been on top of iPlayer all of today so far, with the Aftermath in second. For an episode like this, the iPlayer viewings will probably be nearer 1m, even if some may just be watching it again to look for bloopers.

With all the EastEnders talk last night, I don't think anyone noticed that the provisional schedules for week beginning March 6th are out:

Saturday 6th March
BBC1
17:45 - Total Wipeout
18:45 - Let's Dance for Sport Relief
20:00 - The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
20:50 - Casualty
21:40 - Live at the Apollo
22:10 - BBC News
22:30 - Match of the Day

ITV1
17:00 - The FA Cup Live
19:30 - Harry Hill's TV Burp
20:00 - Ant and Dec's Push the Button
21:00 - TBA
22:00 - ITV News

BBC1 - seems like Who Dares Wins is replacing In It To Win It as expected when its current run ends. And yet again, BBC cannot keep a stable Saturday night schedule with Let's Dance going from 18:30 to 19:15 to 18:45! One could argue that its partially down to the Six Nations - but they really need to try and keep it on a stable slot.

ITV1 - they've done the right thing in my view putting TV Burp on at 19:30 - pointless scheduling it at 19:15, if it isn't going to start until 19:25!

Sunday 7th March - due to the FA Cup, ITV's Sunday line-up in primetime again doesn't end until 22:15. They need to make the News bulletins shorter, maybe 5 minutes for regional and 10 minutes for the national so Dancing on Ice finishes before 10pm.

Monday 8th to Friday 12th March - really not much of particular note, nothing at all (surprisingly) in the 9pm slots for BBC1, ITV1 is full except Tuesday.

Based on the provisionals, it looks like an incredibly dull week.

However, I live in the North West, where some people regard " Corrie" as like a religion and to criticise it can bring a nasty response. Yet even here it's mostly older women who watch it now and most men and teens wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.
EE was created as an attempt to attract viewers Coronation St seemed to find hard to attract- the middle class, Southerners and teenagers- and has worked successfully. Where I live EE has a younger and more affluent demographic than Corrie which is a more working class programme.

It'll be winter then, so they'll probably beat Eastenders.

Corrie going live for the 40th was a nice nod back to its past when its very first episode went out live back in 1960 along with every other episode until the end of 1961. They wouldnt necessarily need a reason like EE would, EE has no historical ties.

The decision wont be Kim Crowther's (the current exec) to make as a new EP is already there and takes the help at the end of March meaning everything written from September on is his work.

But they've done it before to mark the first episode being live so would seem repetitive if they did it again. EE did it because they'd never done a live show before, because it helped build suspense for their storyline and to keep the killer a secret and because it was a gimmick. Corrie would need a strong storyline to do another live episode. People won't just tune in for any old shite anymore although the live ep in 2000 wasn't very dramatic was it.

I think Corrie are screwed either way now - if they don't do it they're not putting the effort in, if they do they'll be accused of copying, even though they did it first, and will have to do something to match EastEnders. I'd say blow up the factory or something (either early on or in the previous episode) and have the episode be the real-time aftermath, with a few more stunts and some characters meeting their end.

What is crucial though is secrecy - last night's episode may have been live, and may have been to mark 25 years, but I think the reason it did so well was because for once a story played out on screen, not via leaks to the press.


All I remember is it being ruined by a lengthy speech by Ken Barlow. Now, if they'd mark 50 years by killing him off I'd be happy!

I think that because it goes out in December it will rate very well. Whether it'll be a live episode is anybody's guess. It'll probably be the culmination of a massive storyline.
Former Doctor Who producer Phil Collinson takes over then and I'm assuming anniversary plans will be down to him.

Hmm:

Highest Rating Per Year
EastEnders
2002 - 16.97m
2003 - 16.66m
2004 - 14.80m
2005 - 14.34m
2006 - 12.33m
2007 - 14.38m
2008 - 11.73m
2009 - 11.67m
2010 - 15.64m **30-minute slot overnight

Coronation Street
2002 - 15.01m
2003 - 19.43m
2004 - 16.33m
2005 - 14.36m
2006 - 12.60m
2007 - 13.08m
2008 - 13.02m
2009 - 11.46m
2010 - 11.83m

It's possibe I guess, but given that EastEnders will probably have 16.5m in the officials, Corrie will need its highest rating since 2003 to get that.

My guess is that there will be a live episode, and it will focus on the culmination of a trial.

Gail: will she be found guilty or not guilty of Joe's murder?

Having said that, if she does get arrested on suspicion of murder, would it really take until December to come to trial?

Anyway - that was superb for for EE last night. I would have guessed a maximum of 2m for the Aftermath show.

I just cant see Corrie beating EE this year even with a live episode or any other gimmick. The hype and build-up for EE was just massive and I doubt we will see another Soap rating like that for a long time if ever.

Coronation Street invaded by an army of daleks perhaps.

Maybe he'll bring back Russell T Davies as a writer, because that's where he used to work years ago.
I remember saying something similar after Wallace And Gromit got 16 million in Christmas 2008 and I thought we wouldn't get a massive rating like that for quite some time. Then a few months later we had Britain's Got Talent getting 19 million!!

I've given up predicting ratings nowadays!

16.5m in the officials seems a bit high? if it averaged 15.6m that would mean it has to timeshift 900k.

The ideas for the 50th will be Kim Crowther's though, PC will be the one who has to execute it but the storyline will all have been her ideas. Mores the pity.

KC has suggested theres a combination of 'events' which they havent decided which one to do yet. By that I infer explosion, storm or something. Which could be challenging yet satisfying for the viewer if done live.

And even though I dont expect them to top EE, they should be aiming for 13-14m really expecially as January averaged 11m+ for such low key stuff.