There was no football last night to clash with Eastenders the excuses are running thin now. Blaming the ED clash just shows how far the show has fallen its now beaten by ED on regular basis and doesn't hold up well against it.

I completely agree.

For years now silly excuses have been made to explain away the decline in EE ratings. This has ranged from BBQs in mid January to Uni prom nights and even power cuts... EastEnders has seen its ratings fall at a steady rate since 2011. They should have taken action a long time ago so stop this but they didn't. Perhaps the BBC were making just as many excuses as those in this thread do.

Either way this has been a trend for 3 years. All at the Beeb became too complacent and ratings like last night are the end result. Its not an over night thing. Many of us predicted this would happen a very long time ago but yes you guessed it, excuses got made.

I don't envy DTC at all. Poor bloke really has his work cut out. I think he needs to put everything into keeping the usual Christmas booster audience for as long as he can. However I'm not even confident EE can have a decent rating Christmas this year because its not showing any signs of the likelihood of having possible increase. Ronnie, Peggy and David haven't done anything to bring in new viewers it seems. I think genuine questions have to be asked about what EE does next. Its lost audience are not coming back.

Spot on. Agree entirely.

Who mentioned football?

No character is going to bring viewers back. It is the storylines that would.
Even if people tune in for the actual date or week of one particular character returning they will switch off again if the storylines are not there.
DTC needs as much creative writers as he can get to come up with the storylines and interesting characters.
Kalfie’s reunion or kidney gate or Masood/David/Carol triangle are not going to cut it.
He really has his work cut out for him. I don't envy him.

Agree about the BIB. I think Kalfie has a touch more going for it (let's not forget it will be LN's story and script as it's too early for DTC to influence the story greatly) as the spoilers would suggest it's built around more incident - it's a wedding (everyone lovers a good soap wedding), it's a jilt, and it's got a chase in it (ooh exciting). That's not saying much of course but for LN's work it's about all we can expect

I'm most curious about xmas and how big the story around the sale of the Vic will be - if this is the Mitchell's hitting rock bottom then it starts to get interesting. If it's Aflie being made homeless, even better. I'm assuming post Roxy he's going to get some rough treatment from Phil.

Beyond that we (and the exits of a few more characters) we don't know what DTC has in store... I expect we'll get those plot details in November until then I think he'll just tease.

Ratings will plod this year... next year, well, we'll see...

I agree with you regarding Kalfie's reunion actually, because it is a storyline that although started by L.N, will be continued and finished by DTC, especially the Roxy/Ronnie/Mitchell part of it, which for me personally that is where the potential is.
There is no aftermath potential, not much or anything we haven’t seen before anyway, with their reunion.
The potential is with Roxy’s angle of the story.
I hope they will handle that well and make it interesting.

Would the BBC really axe a show which does 6-7m regularly, though occasionally dipping below?

Who said anything about axing???

They WILL axe a show that in 5 or 6 years time only rates 2-3/4m if the itv soaps are still hitting 6/7m. That's the point; in comparison to the itv soaps EE has never done so poorly so regularly. It is not a cheap show to make - there will come a day when the bbc may well decide that even if the replacement only gets 1/2-2/3 of EE viewers; if it costs 1/3 to make it will be worth it.

Agree very much; in fact both EE and Corrie were on 50%+ this time 2005 for a lot of days, like the example I posted a few pages back.

You are right. They will. But who says it won't be the other way round? 5 or 6 years is a long time. I'm sure EE can find a decent storyline or three in that time Who says emmerdale might suffer a total burn out lose half it's cast and never recover after a greedy ITV adds a 7th episode a week? I don't have a crystal ball and neither does anyone on DS but there are a handful of people who seem to think they can see the end - for me it just seems like wishful thinking. I mean it will end one day of course. But then they all will.

Trust me a dead EE would be disastrous for Corrie and Emmerdale.. with no real competition who would keep them on their toes? They'd be lazier and more complacent than ee has ever been.

Because EE is ALOT closer to that line in the sand than either itv soaps.

Is it really?? it does look that way you are right. But take a step back and I'd say ee and emmerdale are neck and neck... when you account for total viewers across all formats including catch up services i bet they're pretty much identical ee might even pull ahead slightly. If ee is close then why isn't emmerdale? Yes ee used to be much farther ahead but if emmerdale can survive with this audience why can't ee?

EE has taken the more obvious decline i agree. IT seems to have stemmed it for now... and as long as DTC can get it together it shouldn't get any worse... yet.

I'd also argue that the non-commercial-income reliant channel can keep more faith in a low rating show than the one that relies on ad income.

After all would luther have got a second series on ITV? It limped to a really low rating for the end of the first series but the bbc knew they were on to something and it grew in popularity from there.

I agree. I like both Eastenders and Emmerdale, but I find it unfair on Emmerdale when people seem to find an excuse for Emmerdale getting decent ratings, (eg, Football helping Emmerdale get the ratings.) Maybe Emmerdale is doing well at the moment, because it has some good storylines at the moment, nothing to do with Football.

I think when Emmerdale gets decent ratings, there always seems to be an excuse (like Football helping the soap) and doesn't seem to get the praise, like Coronation Street and Eastenders do when these two get decent ratings.

Eastenders will get better and the ratings will rise when Dominic's work arrives, so Eastenders fans have nothing to worry about.

I do not think Emmerdale will ever get 9 million again, but it could get 8 million next week. We shall see.

Strong ratings for both Emmerdale and Eastenders last night Well done to both.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/ne...y-ratings.html

Because emmerdale can rate 1m and so long as it makes a profit with advertising it will stay. The bbc has to JUSTIFY making its programmes according to its charter, and given that ee increasingly entertains less people but for roughly the same cost it had when it entertained much more, it's production has to be increasingly questioned by tptb. ESP as it no longer really qualifies as informing the community on social issues (EE hasn't done a social issue realistically in years); there is no other justification for it.

So I would argue the opposite. EE is expensive to make - the day may come, as I said, when even if the bbc replaces a programme that only rates 1/2 as well; if it costs 1/3 as much it may well bite the bullet. IMO it will depend on how advertising revenue shapes up for shows around the 4m mark (to see if the itv soaps survive, em in particular) - but I do not believe the bbc can justify the expense of EE if it drops too much further.

Luther is not a flagship show - it does not attract the same attention and certainly does not cost as much. It's justification is easier to make.

Well then isn't emmerdale expensive to make too? So surely at 1 million viewers it couldn't possibly make enough revenue for itv.

We don't know - hence my comment about revenue at the 4m mark.

But, as I said, IF em still makes a profit at 1m it will continue to be made; whereas the bbc have to justify their expense.

Well it makes sense if something is profitable keep making it. But to keep making emmerdale with the revenue returns they'd get below 4 million would mean they'd have to reduce the budget dramatically. Couldn't the BBC just do the same with EE and justify it that way? They are responsible for providing entertainment providing a soap fits that audience requirement I'm not sure they'd have to justify it much more beyond that.

Eastenders could get its worst rating tonight up against England's critical World cup qualifier.

It will go low but not as low as it's worst. There's not so much audience cross-over. Plus i suspect a lot of people will watch this down the pub leaving the non footie fans controls of the telly for the night! The lack of a second corrie episode should also help as people want their soap fix.

Also ee is coming of a pretty damn good cliffhanger last night.

But in reality what does it prove? Even a top-notch EE would take a hit against an important england game. Corrie would also take a hit. And so would Emmerdale. They all have done in the past and it means nothing to the overall success of any of them.

Still I'll await all the "ee is going to get axed" threads when it gets 5 million viewers. Funny how when the figures drop there's a million comments and threads about it but when they go straight back up again there's virtually nothing... ummmmmm....

No doubt this is what will be said when viewing figures are in tomorrow.

I predict six million, which will still be good.

It got 6million last week with no competition. I think 5.5/5.8million is more likely.