Originally Posted by
James J:
“#1. Coronation Street: 8.82m (37.3%), +1: 272k (1.1%)
#2. Emmerdale 7.17m (31.4%), +1: 181k (0.8%)
#3. EastEnders: 6.91m (27.9%), BBC3: 602k (4.0%)
EastEnders suffering out of its normal slot as people thought. I genuinely did think it would be at around 8 million last night especially before Mrs Brown's Boys (which got nearly 9 million last night). I really hope EE can rise for the New Year's episodes as there's a murder going on. I'm sure it will manage 8-9m?
Brilliant for Emmerdale which I gather is playing a good story about the Home Farm fire. The show always stands tall in the face of the two big guns and is a great underdog; October's storm and siege and last year's anniversary (spearheaded by the supposedly dreadful Stuart Blackburn) showed Emmerdale can pull off incredible episodes, and it deserves its place in the UK TV schedules as a brilliant daily drama.
And 9.1m for Corrie's brilliant hour-special last night is just fabulous. The show is riding high and I think a lot of the people up in arms about Tina/Peter are just disgusted at the characters for reverting to form (Peter's cheating on his 5th wife now and Tina's using her beauty to ensnare men - both as bad as each other). I think as the story develops beyond the affair we will be seeing some absolutely phenomenal drama in 2014. Obviously people will beg to differ now but I think it'll be just like Molvin, criticised at the time, but the fallout and explanations and repercussions will make it make sense, and justice served!
I think Stuart Blackburn is far more visionary and ahead of his time than a lot of people give him credit for. He is an architect, and has overseen 3 set moves for soaps now; he also laid all the groundwork for Kate Oates as well as doing the anniversary and pushing the Killer Cam story up ten notches. Yes some of his decisions were controversial but hey, that's life!
I think he'll end up being one of the highest regarded Corrie producers, just like Collinson. (Though not everyone will like anyone!)
”
The problem with EastEnders is that I think perhaps it has a 'floating' audience of about a million viewers AKA an audience that will only watch EE if it is up to scratch. Last night's episode was poor so the floating audience probably didn't bother. It was on half-an-hour after the ITV soaps finished, which is inexplicable. It should have competed with Quantum of Solace and it would have done better. Nevertheless it got 6.9m viewers and then 0.6m caught the repeat, totalling 7.5m viewers which is actually more than Emmerdale's sub-total.
In my view, the Home Farm story is a very nasty story, spearheaded by nasty characters. Emmerdale may be able to do 'incredible' episodes now and again, but most day-to-day episodes are pants.
Corrie's one-hour special last night was absolutely dire in my view, with some of the cringiest dialogue I've ever heard. I'm not personally disgusted by Peter/Tina, I'm disgusted by the storyline because it is unrealistic, sensationalist drivel that isn't remotely believable or plausible.
Stuart Blackburn should be commended for his work on the soaps' set moves, Emmerdale's visual revamp and the live episode, which was absolutely brilliant. However when it comes to stories and characterisation, the man flounders. Emmerdale was absolutely dreadful under his tenure. We had the Aaron/Jackson mercy killing which is the worst soap plot in history, closely followed by Maurel which is the second worst. He pursued characters like Aaron and Amy, two of the most unpleasant soap characters ever. He turned Debbie, Declan, Megan, Charity, Lisa and others into one-dimensional characters with no substance, and he killed off Carl King, one of the show's most popular characters played by an actor who wanted to stay there for many years. But he backed Carl into a corner. Sorry, Blackburn was awful at Emmerdale.
I can confidently say he will NOT be highly regarded as a Corrie producer!