I just think a few people have got a bit bored with soaps this year. It has not really been a good year for any of the soaps.

I can understand all the soaps being 'down' (Eastenders/Emmerdale) but Corrie seems to have collapsed in the space of 1 week.

One to watch that.
[I do think all the soaps have been as bad as one another]

I just think there is a gradual cultural shift from turning on tv automatically which is hitting soaps particularly hard. For so many for so long they just became part of the the fabric of life. Particularly so when they were fixed in the schedule. It gave structure to their viewing. Add on top of course the digital age / internet particuarly for younger viewers & the world is changing. TV is now slowly becoming much more about making what you watch fit your life rather than fitting your life around the TV schedule.

I don't think that is the case. The soaps have been mostly boring for well over a year and simply, people are voting with their remotes. If/when the quality improves, so will the ratings.

The decline in the soaps ratings raises several questions for me.

Most obviously, Is this a blip or the beginning of a significant change in our television viewing habits?

Then, if its more than a blip is the fall due enitrely to digital switchover and more people having more choice?

Or, a little bit more left-field perhaps, has the Olympic Games had a longer-term effect on viewing habits that has resulted in regular viewers breaking their soap habit and deciding that there are better alternatives available?

It's just bizarre. Monday they did okay but Friday is surprisingly low. Makes me wonder how everything else did on Friday.

Especially the original from 1968 with Faye Dunaway playing chess

http://vimeo.com/36728613

Die, you depressing dogs! Die!

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!



We keep talking about Channel 4 killing off their ratings hits by screening too many episodes,so....

Eastenders - 4 episodes every week
Coronation Street - 5 episodes every week
Emmerdale - 6 episodes every week.

Overkill. Why should we be surprised if audiences slip?

No chance of ITV cutting back on their soap as they're a commercial channel devoid of any ideas for an alternative. But BBC1 has less interest in ratings. If the BBC is really about DQF where Q stands for QUALITY and not quantity, they should realise that cutting Eastenders back down to 2 episodes a week might help their overstretched production team improve the quality of the soap and thus boost ratings. Maybe.

This week Eastenders' first showing averaged about 7.2m (32%), compared with 7.3m (34%) last week. In the same week last year, it achieved 8.1m (36%). The BBC3 showing at 10.30pm averaged 0.5m between Monday and Thursday this week, about the same as last week; in 2011, at 10pm, it was 0.8m.

Using the figures posted today, Emmerdale has averaged 6.1m (inc +1) this week (unless there will be a tape-checking adjustment?), down from 6.4m last week and 6.9m this time last year. Its share of about 29% (exc +1) is down about 2 points on last week and 3 points lower than in 2011.

Coronation Street averaged about 7.6m (inc +1) this week, after adjusting today's figures for likely tape-checking as noted by DMN. That compares with 8.2m last week and 8.3m a year ago (whether or not you include the special Wednesday 7.30pm episode in 2011 - this was the time of the Carla/Frank rape storyline) The shares for first showings averaged 33% this week, 3 points down on both last week and last year.

So agree! After a solid few years of saturation of the serial drama it has finally began to crumble away. Two episodes is enough for the production teams to handle and they used to be fairly watchable. Itv may send coronation street to an early demise the way they manhandle it and stretch like a piece of string. The workhorses of the schedule need a good rest to recover. Chop all episodes to two a week. Put some imaginative drama into primetime again spoend the money elsewhere. I hope the audiences decline further and they do something about the standard of this drivel as for eastenders figures it will be interesting to see the time shifts. It did not get over the 8 million barrier last week in the final barb ratings.

Soaps Friday 21st September

BBC1
13:45 Doctors - 1.22m (17.9%)
20:00 Eastenders - 7.02m (31.8%)

ITV1
19:00 Emmerdale - 5.53m (28.7%)
* +1 - 161k (0.7%)
19:30 Coronation Street - 6.66m (31.8%)
* +1 - 174k (0.8%)
20:30 Coronation Street - 6.58m (28.8%)
* +1 - 248k (1.2%)

Channel 4
18:30 Hollyoaks - 968k (5.3%)

Channel 5
13:45 Neighbours - 671k (9.8%)
17:30 Neighbours - 840k (5.8%)
18:00 Home & Away - 696k (4.3%)

BBC3
22:30 Eastenders - 354k (2.3%)

E4
19:00 Hollyoaks - 501k (2.6%)
22:00 Hollyoaks Later - 442k (2.6%)
* +1 - 162k (0.6%)

5*
18:30 Home & Away - 453k (2.5%)

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s2...on-street.html



As already discussed, poor for the soaps all round. Another very poor rating for the BBC3 repeat of Eastenders also. Hollyoaks has seen a small boost this week due to the attention from Hollyoaks later, but still it certainly can't be described as good when it is below 1million at this time.

And what will they be replaced by? Extended One shows, daytime shows like RIP off Britain or cheap factual shows like Traffic Cops/Cash Britain. I seem to remember you constantly complaining about these shows and Masterchef being in primetime.
The alternative to cheap soap like EE and Waterloo rd is cheap factual. That is the reality of pre watershed budgets.

I think these are good points. Are we seeing a blip with the soaps or are people moving away from soaps? Are we still recovering from the Olympic hangover with some shows not appealing to us like they did last year? The last one I think has merit but is probably having a small affect rather than a big one.

Was something wrong with the DS site? It kept crashing but seems OK now.

Now we have the tape-checked soap ratings from Paul Millar, here are the averages for this week against last week and last year:


All quite alarming yr-on-yr drops, particularly for ED and EE, both down about 4 share points and 10-13% lower in raw figures. Corrie not quite so bad but still down 8-9% in viewership and 2.6 share points.

Soap ratings are to an extent storyline-dependent, so perhaps monthly averages or even longer timescales are needed for proper comparison.

Digital Spy is the worst site on my favourites list right now. I did have the same problem.

As for the soaps, yes Corrie does not look good, and I agree its Autumn ratings should be picking up, EastEnders is not so bad however.

Hollyoaks, yeah a little higher but I continue to worry abut the future of the show.

Latest promos which are being trailed:

- Merlin [BBC]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBeXGcu6oQY
- Cuckoo [BBC3]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReDoXTW41fk
- Emmerdale 40th [Itv]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Nkz0jzRf4
- Homefront [Itv]: http://mip.itvstudios.com/programmes.../908/homefront
- Switch [Itv2]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buxEjvDqKvo
- Baggage [C4]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi7PCR1upXE
- Hotel GB [C4]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6PepGur6fI
- Drugs Live [C4]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T29KwytE0hE
- Channel5 Autumn: http://www.channel5.com/articles/wha...-5-this-autumn

unlike Bad Education, Cuckoo does look good.

As an Eastenders fan, what do you think of the look of Lacey Turners new Itv2 show?

she is the highlight of the trailer, but my god it looks dreadful.

just looks like lots of lots of bitchy girls, which ive no interest in.

Should those 4 girls, not be using there magic, to defeat black magic, or at the very least by being likeable like Sabrina.

It all looks ok until Hex, after that it falls apart.

Role on Merlin.

Emmerdale trailer looks really cheasy, they dont even say there's a live episode that week. Homefront looks depressing. Baggage promo makes it look good fun, but its shown at 8 oclock so I dont think its ratings will be good. I see Nigel Marven is back on terrestrial TV at last for Channel5, been a few years since I last saw him.

A bit of a cheek for C5 to expect us to sit through 90 secs of ads to watch a trailer!

Ever get the feeling people are becoming fed up with soaps? 15 episodes a week for the three main ones is too much. 6.8 million is poor for CS, but maybe the overkill with episodes, pontless omnibuses and predictable plots are turning people away.

I think the BBC certainly needs to be looking at moving EE back to 10pm on BBC 3.

What ratings did the repeat of Mrs Browns Boys get?

Bloody awful for all the soaps last night. It really is hard to pin point whats happened this week with regards to them all. They all should be doing much better. Even in the Summer they were rating better than this. It's probably just a blip I imagine.

So in conclusion. The reason nothing is rating well now is cos of the Olympics?!