Originally Posted by
D.M.N.:
“Not a fair comparison, Hollyoaks airs at 6:30pm, Brookside most of the time aired at 8pm.
And Brookside did dip that low, or near to it:
2002
- 27/02 - 1.9m (8%)
- 27/03 - 0.4m (2%) vs Coronation Street, 11.1m (52%)
- 16/05 - 1.2m (7%)
- 19/06 - 1.3m (7%)
- 20/06 - 1.1m (6%)
- 07/08 - 1.5m (7%)
- 14/08 - 1.5m (8%)
- 21/08 - 1.2m (7%)
- 29/08 - 1.0m (5%)
- 11/10 - 1.3m (6%)
- 17/10 - 0.6m (3%)
- 25/10 - 1.2m (6%)
Source: Media Guardian
Which is not very good considering it was in primetime and did at one point get twice as high as that.
Just for comparison in the parallel week this time last year for Hollyoaks:
1) 1.8m (9.4%) vs 1.3m (7.0%)
2) 1.6m (8.3%) vs 0.9m (5.6%)
3) 1.5m (8.8%) vs 0.9m (5.2%)
4) 1.4m (8.0%) vs 1.0m (5.3%)
5) 1.1m (6.8%) vs 0.8m (4.4%)
First look editions were around 0.4m to 0.6m now they're around 0.3m.
Source: Digital Spy”
Remember though towards the end Brookie moved to 4pm Saturdays then 11pm Tuesdays. Again with C4 they reacted too late but I think if before the axe fell they'd reworked it as a weekly hour-long 9pm show (remember Brookie's downfall was really the other soaps taking it's slots in primetime) I think it could have survived a few years longer, but I'm not sure it would still be around today.
Originally Posted by tka:
“They need to stabilise the audience first so autumn sounds about right, otherwise its no use having a big stunt getting big ratings, only for most of the 'new' viewers to tune out straight away because they don't really care what happens afterwards.”
Worth noting though that everything with soaps is gradual. The decline for Hollyoaks has been over a period of 6-9 months, and any recovery will take just as long too. I think the target really is to halt the decline by the autumn, with a gradual improvement in ratings for early 2011, hopefully leading to being back where they should be towards the end of 2011. That's a good 18 months - not a problem that can be fixed within weeks.
Originally Posted by Glenn A:
“Unfortunately it has lost two thirds of its audience and is the most expensive show Channel 4 has and has no repeat or DVD value. Channel 4 said they only broke even on the last series. Yes they could have carried on with BB, but it could have done a Hollyoaks and slumped in the ratings, but at a far greater cost. C4 did right by axeing it as most people say it's had its day.”
The last contract both kept the show on air and led to it's downfall - Endemol's greed obviously cost them the show.
However, although a break is definately long overdue now I still think the show could have a long term future with a comeback in a few years - as long as it's a complete new start for the show, not picking up from where they left off. Sticking to the same format, same scheduling and bringing back Davina and Marcus would do it no favours at all. There are other adaptations of the Big Brother format around the world which if used as the basis of a relaunch could easily sustain the show for at least 4-5 more years.
