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Old 15-06-2004, 12:09
KidA
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A drama or a crisis?
11 June 2004 11:00


Fewer people are taking a butcher’s at the residents of Albert Square - unless they’re on webcams, of course. Peter Keighron finds out how the bigwigs plan to reverse the ratings decline and get things sorted.


EastEnders has been providing some cracking drama lately. Only problem is most of it has been off rather than on screen. The papers have been replete with stories of EastEnders’ current plight. Ratings have plummeted, stars are being disciplined for boozing and self-abusing, and the producers are said to be staggering from one crisis meeting to another.

All complete nonsense, says executive producer Louise Berridge. "There is a press perception that we are in crisis but none of us are sure what it’s based on. It’s true ratings are down a small amount year on year but so are Coronation Street’s and nobody’s saying it’s in crisis."

Indeed not, but unlike Coronation Street, which has averaged 11 million viewers in recent weeks, EastEnders has taken some headline grabbing blows to the ratings. It even reached a new low of 7.3 million viewers (37% share) when it was beaten by Emmerdale with 8.3 million (45% share) one Tuesday last month.

ITV was obviously delighted but Emmerdale series producer Steve Frost is modest in victory. "EastEnders didn’t have the strongest stories at the time and we had our oldest original character in the show, Jack Sugden, being shot, so naturally we hit a peak when they didn’t have their biggest drama on screen."

EastEnders’ darkest half hour was, in effect, a victory for ITV schedulers. But the good news for EastEnders is that it’s not a trick that can be repeated too often. An hour-long special staging the climax of a major long-running storyline is not something that Emmerdale can whistle up at the drop of an ITV network scheduler’s hat.

So, is EastEnders in terminal decline? Well, no. It can’t be. It just can’t be.

The last soap to shuffle off its mortal coil was, of course, Brookside, and you only need to make the comparison with EastEnders to realise the BBC is not about to give up on its most valuable asset.

Channel 4 thought the unthinkable and realised it could live without its former flagship soap. Neither the channel brand nor the channel advertisers would suffer if Brookside disappeared. But take out EastEnders and BBC1’s schedule would be mortally wounded. This year, even in its current supposedly wretched state, it has averaged around 13 million viewers. If there is anything else that could deliver that four times a week Mr Thompson and Mr Grade would like to know about it.

"EastEnders is such a big beast and such a core brand of the BBC that there’s no way they’re going to let it disappear," says Talkback Thames head of drama Paul Marquess.

According to the EastEnders camp, the current "crisis" is little more than a tabloid-driven phenomenon. "That’s what I have to keep drilling into everyone," says BBC controller of continuing drama series Mal Young, "to stop listening to the press and listen to our viewers, they’re the ones that pay our wages."

Young admits that the show was guilty of over-confidence a few years ago. "I do think we got a bit too big for our boots in the last couple of years when we were winning [awards]. I thought we’re going to get a backlash, we’re riding too high, and indeed here it comes."

Carolyn Reynolds, Granada Manchester controller of drama, is careful not to gloat. As someone who has seen similar dark days on The Street, she knows that there but for the grace of a few million viewers goes Corrie. "There’s a lot more press coverage than there used to be," she says, "so if one show’s having a good run the other is vulnerable to criticism.

"Sometimes it’s more media-driven than a problem with the show itself because it’s in the media’s interest to create the war and to create the crisis because you get the headline."

Soaps and tabloids have a love-hate relationship - neither can live without the other and everything EastEnders does is news these days.

"A show like Emmerdale, when we have less successful times or less successful stories, we’re not so in the spotlight, we’re not quite on the pedestal from which to fall so we have an easier time in the media,", says Frost. "Whereas with a show like EastEnders, because it’s so in the public eye, the moment something doesn’t go quite right it’s crisis time."

While much of the criticism might be unjustified there is a danger that, if there’s enough of it, it becomes self-fulfilling criticism. "The pressure’s on everybody and the danger is you spiral all your stories up and in the end you don’t believe anything any of the characters are doing," says Reynolds, "that’s a huge danger."

Again, the tabloids are quick to offer their solutions. And, of course, the obvious solution is the one that would provide the most headlines - reach for the stars.

But that would be a wrong move, says Marquess. "To say, ‘Oh let’s bring back Ross Kemp’, for example, would not be the answer. That would be a terrible error. I thought Leslie Grantham was a terrible mistake. It was long-term pain for short-term gain. They broke the contract with the audience."

There’s no quick fix, says Family Affairs series producer Alison Davis, a former ’Enders producer. "They just need to look at plotting some powerful, long-running, complex storylines that they can span over at least a year - that’s the thing that Coronation Street is doing more effectively than them at the moment."

But that’s exactly what EastEnders is doing, says Mal Young. "You’ve got to keep your head down and say we’re going to be going through some smaller drama now, some more character-driven things. I was pushing Louise to use some of those older characters that we’d pushed to the background a few years ago. I said let’s go back a bit to the roots of it. Maybe that’s why it feels quieter, less sensational, but it was an intentional thing. But that doesn’t make tabloid headlines - webcams do."

Berridge concedes that not all the storylines have sparkled this year. "I hold my hands up that the long storyline with the Ferreiras didn’t work out exactly as we planned and it was rather more spun out and angst-ridden than it should have been," she says.

But she insists there will be no radical overhaul - Ross Kemp, Gillian Taylforth and Tamzin Outhwaite are not on the way back - new characters and "a lot of comedy" are coming in and, most importantly, Berridge herself is not on the way out. "The BBC is totally unworried and I have complete support from Mal Young, [BBC director of drama, entertainment and children’s] Alan Yentob, [BBC1 controller] Lorraine Heggessey and everybody right up to the top," says Berridge.

So, a happy ending? On EastEnders? Hold the front page.




Source:broadcastnow.co.uk
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Old 15-06-2004, 12:22
alan45
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Originally Posted by KidA
According to the EastEnders camp, the current "crisis" is little more than a tabloid-driven phenomenon. "That’s what I have to keep drilling into everyone," says BBC controller of continuing drama series Mal Young, "to stop listening to the press and [/b]listen to our viewers, they’re the ones that pay our wages."[b]




Source:broadcastnow.co.uk
WELL ITS HIGH TIME THEY DID LISTEN TO US THE ONCE LOYAL EE FANS
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Old 15-06-2004, 13:30
HotCrossBun
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Thank you so much for getting hold of that KidA! That saved me some time trundling round WHSmiths looking for it!
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Old 15-06-2004, 16:12
Agent Krycek
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"Maybe that’s why it feels quieter, less sensational, but it was an intentional thing. But that doesn’t make tabloid headlines - webcams do"

No, it feels badly written, poorly plotted, full of desperate attempts at sensational storylines that don't stack up (Kat/Andy/money etc) badly acted in a lot of cases and at the moment totally without hope. But hey, I'm just a once loyal viewer who's fed up being taken for granted, what the hell would I know?
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Old 16-06-2004, 11:56
Lenfairclough
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I seem to remember that when Corrie had a bad year in 2000-2001 they actually put their hands up and said "yes, it's not as good as it should be and we will rectify that". I had stopped watching Corrie at that point, but I was impressed by this admission and gave the show a chance to recover and boy did it recover.

Now that the Todd saga is calming down it is a good time to compare Corrie and EE (maybe wait till Euro 2004 is finished to judge ratings). A simple comparrisson of episodes shows Corrie to be bouncing with energy and stories. We have Norris's ghost. the return of Leanne, the Bev, Shelley, Charlie story, Devs health, Jacks fitness drive, Sallys demetia and the introduction of the new Baldwins. Over on EE the stories are fewer and trite. Scenes are longer and pointless and comedy is utterly awful. Forr Young and Berridge to come out and say that there is not a problem is a dire insult. If viewers are going to trust the show again their judgement that its currently crap has to be acknowledged
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Old 16-06-2004, 12:40
Lippincote
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Originally Posted by Lenfairclough
I seem to remember that when Corrie had a bad year in 2000-2001 they actually put their hands up and said "yes, it's not as good as it should be and we will rectify that". I had stopped watching Corrie at that point, but I was impressed by this admission and gave the show a chance to recover and boy did it recover.

Now that the Todd saga is calming down it is a good time to compare Corrie and EE (maybe wait till Euro 2004 is finished to judge ratings). A simple comparrisson of episodes shows Corrie to be bouncing with energy and stories. We have Norris's ghost. the return of Leanne, the Bev, Shelley, Charlie story, Devs health, Jacks fitness drive, Sallys demetia and the introduction of the new Baldwins. Over on EE the stories are fewer and trite. Scenes are longer and pointless and comedy is utterly awful. Forr Young and Berridge to come out and say that there is not a problem is a dire insult. If viewers are going to trust the show again their judgement that its currently crap has to be acknowledged
Yep, EE seem to be wildly underestimating the size of the problem. The problem isn't 'quiet' storylines, it's sensational yet simplistic and unbelievable storylines (and all the other things mentioned on alan's HQ thread).
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Old 17-06-2004, 23:39
KidA
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I think that 'lenflairclough' makes a valid point, it's the sheer cheek of LB & MY to think there is nothing wrong that makes your blood boil.

Don't they ever read forums like this?

I guess that they no they've gotta try harder and seeing as they're currently working on storylines for Christmas 2004, I wonder what they're planning on pulling out the bag seeing as no one actually cares about anyone anymore. Actually I know what will get us all watching on Christmas Day, The Dulleires leaving.
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Old 18-06-2004, 00:14
Neily N
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Corrie's bad patch in 2000-1 wasn't as bad as Eastenders. If I remember correctly we did have a few high-profile storylines such as Sarah Lou with the Internet pervert and Toyah's rape, but in between it all it had strong cast links and its light-hearted storylines.

It improved and now its gone from strength to strength yet I don't think its viewers tumbled below 7 million like EE's did.

EE's bad patch well future is terrible. No gripping storylines, storylines that are built up are as exploisive as opening a packet of crisps. Terrible acting and terrible community links. Storylines that are never ending.

As for Christmas, well if it is as boring as last year with the Scotland mini-bus thing then I hope I get a shed-load of DVD's, then yet again has the money on a Christmas storyline been spent on another Christmas Variety Show? I expect those sort of shows in countries like Albania, Belarus and Romania not here.
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