As I said earlier, the problem is that EE has lost its identity. Its all panto characters and unlikeable youngsters. During the last few years it has slowly turned in to a cockney Hollyoaks.

I used to be a viewer till about 2010. I think I went off it after Babs exit. After that it seemed to be all about the newer younger members and the Brannings. It all justr became a bit to predictable.

The BBC has a much stronger line up of possible programmes for Christmas Day.

Had the EE ratings slump taken place last year then Christmas Day 2011 could have been one of the BBC's weakest in many years.

As I said earlier this year, the problem is that if the show ends this year down 25% then the chances are that next year starts down 25% unless they do something major. For the record, a 25% drop for the premiere would be 6.5m.

For the first few weeks it was fair enough to think that the big fall was just a continuation of last year where a large number were lost after the auditions. And the year on year comparisons were improving coming into the live shows but in the past couple of weeks they have grown massively again. It's now at the stage where there was a 20% decline between 2010 and 2011 and now, on top of that, there's an additional 20% fall.

You make some very good points but all productions have saw budgets cut, Holby has been hit the hardest in recent years in the continuing drama slate and even the mega money spinner Doctor Who has its budget reduced.

and fair enough, I just dont think that MORE budget cuts is what EastEnders needs at the moment.

People do say on here when the soaps were on three times a week the scripts were better. Also 6.8 million is worrying. However, it may be that people are sick of EE and the soaps in general haven't come back to life after the summer of sport.

I'm not advocating a further budget cut, that would be suicidal,

Just thinking of potential Christmas Day schedules without the soaps...

BBC One
18.00 Doctor Who
19.00 Call The Midwife
20.00 Strictly Come Dancing
21.00 The Royle Family
22.00 Mrs. Brown's Boys

ITV1
17.30 Surprise, Surprise
18.30 Dancing On Ice Special
20.00 Downton Abbey
22.00 The Jonathan Ross Christmas Show

I think Emmerdale and Coronation Street are needed by ITV more than EastEnders is needed by BBC One.

I agree entirely with this post. BBC don't need EastEnders on at all.

whilst I agree that having less time to fill, should mean quality improves, there is no reason to think a poor writing team lead by a poor exec producer will do any better. It might help the producer a bit, but it wont magically make the writers any better.

Poor storylines, will still feel like a drag and it certainly wont make the wooden actors any better.


and fair enough, but do you really think the BBC will be able to justify paying the same for 3 episode as they did for 4?

the BBC also needs to fill the empty 30 minutes, which will be a problem in primetime BBC 1, BBC 3 will cope better, as well the shunted to the late night omnibus slot, where the exact length does not matter so much.

As far as Christmas goes, ive said it before, having two episodes, a Doctor Who Christmas special, and seemingly a Strictly Come Dancing special as a Christmas Day tradition, does not leave alot of room for variety in the schedule from year to year.

I hated The Chase when it first aired - and out of the two pilot series they did back to back thought The Fuse was the better format, but just had an awful host (Austin Healy). The show though has really grown over the years and the characterisation of the Chasers and introductions of additional chaser has meant it still feels quite fresh. I think it also helps that it is difficult, but not impossible, to win - so you get enough winners to get some pay off, but not enough to feel like you've seen it all before.


I think BGT will benefit from their being no change to the judging line up next year - it was a panel that worked last year and I think people tire of the constant rumoured changes in line up with the judges. The only worry is that David Walliams and the "my Simon" act was quite refreshing this year - just hope it doesn't become tiresome next year and like with Little Britain all the things viewers liked about him one year end up being the things that annoy the next.

The X Factor undoubtedly will go through the judges rumour mill next year (indeed the rumours for next year have been running since before the live shows this year). They won't make the change that really needs making and sack Louis, while Simon returning isn't going to happen unless FOX do a U-turn on recommissioning the US series. I'd actually be tempted now to do a Kate Thornton on Dermot and give the main gig to Caroline and Olly as I don't think the judges are the problem - it's more the way the show is put together and how it flows, and though Dermot can run the show like clockwork it's all a bit too serious.

This is what happened to the soaps in America in the nineties. A period of overkill and some awful storylines saw many killed off or moved into daytime.

The show's too serious and yet they should get rid of the jester? Maybe Louis could present?

moving EE to Daytime, would be the single worst thing the BBC could do, no way it could keep its budget.

It would end up like a d2DVD sequel of EE.

think American Pie: Beta House compared to American Pie.

5 or 6 years ago I never thought The Bill would be axed after almost 30 years. It rapidly declined due to producers changing its direction.

Well Full English on C4 is showing how Twitter can hurt ratings as much as help them. Based on the pretty much unanimous tweets which got the show trending I don't think anybody will be thinking of seeing it for themselves.

Forget EastEnders,they could just move Hebburn to a daily daytime soap after Doctors(since one of them used to be in Crossroads), make it like their own Neighbours and besides the mundane stuff have some new storylines like jewels turning people into mummies, witches with bald heads,characters being possessed by Satan, Terror Island and a earthquake/tidal wave plot.

Joke aside, EE would no doubt have to slash it's budget- when Brookie moved to a single Saturday showing, it's budget was cut, and we lost Brookside Parade as a result.

I'd all be for losing EastEnders if it meant money could be invested in a more varied primetime line up of drama, but I suspect rather than axing it outright EastEnders would at first at least be reformatted into a weekly hour-long show which would effectively be one of the shows that replaced itself.

Back to Brookie and I still think it would at least have been worth a shot reformatting it as a weekly one-hour show and sticking it in a 9pm slot.

Yes.

Wright:
Accidental slip of the tongue.

Schofield:
Trawled the net.
Compiled a list.
Took it to work.
Took it into the studio.
Let the camera see it.
Handed it to the PM.

I'm not advocating an episode reduction either, i'd advocate a budget increase as long as it was not wasted on cast salaries, bring in new writers with a track record to write for the show, another EP with experience of running a four times a week mainstream soap would ensure that Newman had a guiding hand.

And they should stop the inclusion of scripts written by amateurs such as Marshall/Kenny, a professional production needs tried and tested writers.

I was gutted when it was axed, a poor producer named Marquesss took a ratings banker and proceeded to wreck it, Kirkwood did exactly the same.

Its not too late to halt the ratings/quality decline of EE,

EE fully merits a Christmas Day slot on the flagship channel. Even if individual first run episodes are dipping now and then, I would be surprised if its overall reach is in decline, and it remains one of the country's most iconic and popular shows. Moreover, given the captive Christmas Day audience, it's a chance to use a big storyline to hook lapsed viewers back in.

It would be nice too see 30 minutes only on the big day though, and ditto for Coro and Em Fm too.

oh yeah I was going to watch that.

Not being a twitterer, (is that the right word?, is it even a word?) I will +1 it in a few minutes.


the idea of a soap going 1 hour a week is an interesting one, after all it seems to work for shows like Desperate Housewives and Dallas. It would also allow you to have a much tighter focus on your key actors.

As far as the rest of the schedule goes the problem with soaps is that they produce 4, 30 minute episodes of drama, with the same, cast, crew, set and story arc, week in week out, that is a very cost effective way of doing it. You could not replace EE with 4, 30 minute dramas with no connection to each other, as they would all need to be cast, crewed, developed, etc (as far as commissioning) separately.

whilst I know what you mean by that, that is not 100% fair, whilst it wont be best spent increasing the salary of current actor, some extra money for better actors for new characters (to replace dud actors/characters) would not be a bad thing.

As I said EastEnders currently suffers from using younger and cheaper actors, often it is more than clear to viewers, which actors those are.

Perhaps it would be revealing to look at it from the opposite angle: not "Christmas Day needs EastEnders"; but "EastEnders needs Christmas Day". It's the soap's big, annual showcase that brings in press attention and viewers - a great big shop window for the rest of the year.

Put yourself in the shoes of an EE producer and you're likely already feeling unsupported given the bumping of the BBC3 repeat and the burying of the omnibus. If they take your Christmas shop window away, it's going to feel like yet another setback in your difficult battle to win back viewers. Well you might say "Who cares? Serves them right" - but it still feels like a pretty shoddy 12 months of treatment for a show that, lets face it, single-handedly props up the BBC's entire pre-watershed schedule, 4 nights a week, 52 weeks a year, and has done for several decades.

I'm not saying this from any position of great love for EE - indeed, I used to watch a fair bit around the time of the 25th Anniversary, and have now kicked the habit - but these are the managerial decisions you'd have to think about if you are Danny Cohen. Regardless of a disappointing year, it hardly seems the clever thing to do to kick the show when it's down.