After such a crap build up what could anyone expect?

I agree. Viewing figures are taken way too seriously when it comes to deciding if a show is dong well or not. It's impossible to get an accurate reading.

People on here seem to take it incredibly seriously. I see threads getting made about viewing figures all of the time.

I don't care much either way. But after all the publicity, a viewing figure of 6.4m last night doesn't seem great to me.
Perhaps with all the post programme publicity, people will catch up and next week's figures will show a big increase ? The reviews of next week's episodes are impressive.

They haven't been the No.1 soap for over 50 years. EastEnders was trouncing it for years on end.... That's not me being bitter, but it's a proven fact i.e. Best Soap awards, ratings etc.

Emmerdale. It's a much nicer area.

BARB is the only system, (undoubtedly flawed for many reasons), of giving advertisers and commercial networks an approximate guide to what people watch and their only real relevance is to enable the the networks to set their advertising rates and enable advertisers to see their best bet for getting their products out to the greatest number of people.

Outside of DS, I suspect nobody else gives a toss about who watches what and when.

Thats a still a decent number yeah it could of been higher but times are changing I watch EE live on BBC iplayer do they count them in officials?

Its the quality that matters more then anything and last nights episode was brilliantly done.

Other than for the odd 'big' ep, do you have anything to substantiate that?

I'll ignore the 'Soap Awards' bit, since they mean bugger all in terms of.......well anything really.

This exactly. I think it's fair enough that when it comes down to the soap that is the biggest, the soap that's a great British institution then it's correct and more than fair enough to say that that soap is Corrie. To say that Coronation Street has spent all 50 years being at the top of the ratings pile is incorrect and wrong though, all soaps go through peaks and troughs and Coronation Street is no different.

So which was the number 1 soap between 1964 and 1985 ?

Bias.

And which was the biggest soap between 2002 and 2010. Let me save you some time, Caza :


(From DS Ratings Thread). So remind me again Caza - which 'years on end' did EE 'trounce' Corrie?

Corrie's viewers are dropping like flies, near 2 million difference on some episodes, if that isn't a sign that ITV need to take action, don't know what is.

The two sad thing about those EE yearly averages you have posted Oldnjaded is that from 2006 to 2009 EE was having to deal with weekly Emmerdale clashes which effected its overall average for the year. Had this not been the case EE might have been closer to Corrie during those years than the ratings suggest.

The second said thing is that EE really was in a position to overtake Corrie in 2010 but Bryan Kirkwood really ****ed the show over good.

I'm pleased you posted them though. Corrie has always been ahead of EE except for big occasions. This has never changed. This is why sometimes I don't know what people expect from EE.

Thanks. Fwiw, I'm not a 'soap wars' troublemaker, but I find it difficult to sit on my hands when personal opinions veer into blatant untruths territory.

A lot of people watch through iPlayer or demand. I do.

The hardcore Eastenders fans should release a book of excuses would be a best seller.

We should wait and see first if Eastenders gets 8 million on Monday. If it doesn't we can then say it was complete waste of time and money.

No worries. I'm the same. I've had to stop posting in the ratings thread as so many biased opinions make me want to bang my head off the keyboard.


Why are you making a prediction of 8 million when you know full well EE rarely gets near that thesedays? Even Corrie sometimes struggles to get over 8 million in the overnights. Not to mention the fact its bank holiday.

If however in the unlikely event EE did manage to hit 8 million on Monday will you be around to congratulate it?

Kidding yourself if you think above 7 million will be good enough for Monday's episode after all this promotion over the weekend.

To be honest I don't know what to expect as EEs ratings have been unpredictable. However given it rarely hits 8 million in the overnights and the fact its a bank holiday I think a 7.8 is most likely.

I would like to think it could go over 8 million but I see nothing in the EE ratings trends of late which suggest this is possible.

We'll see.

Not a complete waste as it does give you something to complain about regularly.

For me, even though Coronation Street and Eastenders are both soaps they are in fact completely different programs and appeal to different markets.

Eastenders is a gritty, kitchen sink drama and it's why the Lucy plot is such a good one in my opinion and makes Easties top of it's game. It's got a good old fashioned murder mystery and is also focusing hugely on the aftermath and how it affects it's other viewers.

Coronation Street is a more cosy soap, it's about Northern humour and a community spirit. In recent years it's tried to compete with the sort of storylines other soaps do, but it shouldn't. It is the one soap that should avoid sensationalism at all costs, it's not what the show is about.

For me, the shows that match Eastenders were The Bill, Bad Girls and to a lesser extent Casualty as they have the same style of grittiness.

Holby City and Waterloo Road are the most similar to Coronation Street, as is Emmerdale.

I think it's easy to want to compare Corrie and Easties as they are both soaps, but the way they do storytelling, the way they portray characters is completely different. And there are no winners to these arguments. And I find it laughable that people call for the axe of Eastenders just because it's got less viewers than corrie. Well it's not the only show to have less ratings that corrie. Easties needs to be viewed on it's own merits and not how it compares to another soap.

Well everyone knows you dislike Eastenders from how much you show your disdain for it, so you would say something witty like that.

This a long term storyline not just one week of episodes, not everything is about the ratings, they've remained consistent, we're not going to expect a surge overnight.

Last Request prasing EE again.... Oh no, my mistake.

I expected nothing less than the usual rubbish from last request. Who really gives a toss? These soap wars are pathetic.

Doesn't matter about rarely it must rate 8 million on Monday this promotion is huge posters all around London and the Eastenders team hyping up the storyline on Twitter.

Its not just a run of the mill campaign or episodes next week its costing BBC lot of money trying to get back the lost viewers.