Reason number one why BBC will not drop EastEnders:

Friday 30th November 2012 - Adults 16 to 34
BBC One
19:00 - The One Show: 475k (14.45%)
19:30 - Nigel Slater's Dish of the Day: 453k (13.0%)
20:00 - EastEnders: 1.37m (37.5%)
20:30 - Outnumbered: 540k (14.1%)
21:00 - Have I Got News For You: 495k (10.9%)
21:30 - John Bishop's Britain: 390k (8.4%)

ITV1 (inc +1)
19:00 - Emmerdale: 812k (24.6%)
19:30 - Coronation Street: 1.20m (34.6%)
20:00 - Island Hospital: 321k (8.8%)
20:30 - Coronation Street: 1.30m (34.2%)
21:00 - I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!: 1.96m (43.4%)

Channel 4 (inc +1)
21:00 - Lee Evans: 310k (6.8%)
22:15 - Alan Carr: Chatty Man: 314k (9.4%)

Despite being 2m behind overall, it still is 0.1m ahead of Coronation Street in the key demographic for advertisers.

the problem is not the ratings drop, its the fact no one has any real faith in the new EP, and no one believes the BBC has the money to invest in it, where needed.

The BBC 3 thing is something I find very odd, cant figure out why those 30 minutes have halved the ratings.


but that is when EastEnders gets its best ratings, and its best storylines, it may seem odd, that that is what works for the show. Obviously balance is needed, but getting rid of the misery in EE, is to take out its one constant, and the one thing that has made it successful over the years.

Anything for Neighbours at 7pm on Channel 5* ?

People said that last year with the Masood xmas (a much,much weakier storyline)

BUT

EastEnders came out 9.9m against Downton with 8.4m in the over nights and that was a sunday night at 9:00pm which is a normal slot for DA (obviously it was xmas day)

This Year

Christmas Eve's EastEnders airs at 9:00pm right after the final of Merlin against weak comp.

Downton and EastEnders hardly skew the same and even Xmas day this year it gets a better lead in

It's going to be fine and I haven't and haven't had any doubts at all.

the BBC being very interested in advertiser friendly demographics

Then Mr Kirkwoods name be no longer taken in vain then, Autumn was hellish, was Mr Kirkwood given the support of the production team/Yorke from the outset?

I can not understand how he failed at EE yet has the magic touch at HO,

Both are two different shows. He obviously knows Hollyoaks more than EastEnders

Kirkwood and Yorke 'Were' friends which is how he got the job.

EE is damaged, the recent ratings are reflecting that and even a good lead in from CTM will not make a difference, the BBC has lost faith in EE, the real battle for number one will be between DA and CTM. Even the Royle Family will struggle

As for the bib, its not going to be fine and i say that as a veteran viewer for all its, 27 yrs, I have sat through the highs/lows and according to Newman herself the cross over point has been passed so its her vision on screen yet ratings are in the bog. No excuses, i'm not happy seeing a show that is basically like an old friend die before my eyes because of an incompetent production team.

Actually wrong, he was appointed following a lengthy interview process involving candidates other than BK, after which he was appointed, if you don't believe me then submit a FoI request to the BBC,

Thats irrelevant as the BBC don't pander to advertisers.

Have I Got News For You has been dragged down by I'm A Celebrity as it is every year.

Call The Midwife is certain to be the BBC's big Christmas Day hit. EastEnders might benefit from it but it won't top the day this year. I actually think that are just another reason why viewers are losing faith with the show. Its becoming the same repetitive formula each Christmas now. They have overdone this too much in recent years. EastEnders have always done big Christmas/new year episodes but at least each year was different. Its been the same sort of thing now each year since 2005. People were always going to bore of it at some point.

No but the Beeb cannot be seen to be providing to just certain demographics, getting younger people to watch is just as important in a different way.

I didn't realise the ITV Lunchtime News was so low in the ratings. Would it not be a good idea to movie it back to 12.30, with Loose Women at 1pm?

EastEnders hasn't always been 'Number 1 at xmas' off the top of my head 2000,2003,2006 in 2000 Corrie topped EastEnders on xmas day.

I have been watching the show since 1990 and while I admit it's not at it's best for me it's not at it's worst either. 1997,2004(from summer) much of 2005 and the whole of 2006 was far worse.

As I said above EastEnders has not always been top show on xmas day and I don't even know where people got this from in the first place. So what if EastEnders isn't top show it's not like it will be the first time but I know EastEnders will see a rise during the festive season.

I think Thursday 27th December will be the highest rated episode that week with Christmas Eve being next.

Its strange how you list 2004 (from summer) and much of 2005 as bad years for EE Dan. I think the general consensus amongst EastEnders fans is that the final half of 2004 was much stronger than the first half which is where all the problems of that year were. EE had more or less recovered from the lull of 2003/2004 by October 2004.

2005 is also regarded as a good year and actually the year EastEnders won more awards than any other year for. There was some problems at the beginning of the year with storylines being scrapped by the caretaker producer but everything had sorted itself out by March.

2006 wasn't action packed but it was far stronger than anything we have seen in 2012. EastEnders is no where near the show it was and watching old episodes on Youtube highlights how far it has dropped its standards. Just the basic writing of the show now is crap compared to just two years ago.

Im just going by my personal opinion and not EastEnders or everyones opinions as a whole.

I would say it's the other way around, the show was riding high in the first half of 2004 thanks to Janine and the story of Barry's death, everything leading up to Janine's exit and the exit itself was top notch. There were bad episodes sure, usually involving the younger characters or the Ferreiras, but it was mostly good. Later in the year I remember it being really bad around the time the Millers joined, more pointless characters being foisted on to the canvas, the press had a field day and rightfully so. The only good thing about the latter half of 2004 was the climax to the half-arsed Martin stalker plot but that was only a couple of episodes.

2005 was not a bad year at all and they have Tracy-Ann Oberman to thank for that.

Obviously everyone's opinion is different, I'm surprised 2003 hasn't been mentioned here as I think it was really boring that year and on a par with 2012 for definite.

I appreciate EE is in a crisis right now but the discussion on here has now become hysterical.

Calm down! It pulled 8m on Monday. Not good enough I know but it's not going to be axed!

Ken

To be fair the press were laying into EastEnders all through 2004 and 2005. However the main EastEnders backlash was most certainly early 2004, reports of Jessie Wallace and Hannah Waterman fighting etc, The Ferreria's being slaughted by the critics day in day out and peaked with the Dirty Den webcam thing that May.

Well I was talking about the quality of the show rather than what the critics were saying. I guess if you liked Shannis then latter 2004 would've been exciting but I was never keen on them so only the Xmas Day episode stood out for me in that storyline and again that was thanks to TAO. EE really do owe a lot to her as she carried the following year completely.

Not worth much to the Beeb

But I agree they won't drop it (yet).

If people want to give LN a bit more time before judging and if they want to believe the show will get better in the future then let them. They are not harming you and it's better than wallowing in it and buying into the crisis.

I'm sure it's been stated before that Santer storylined up to Billie's death in October 2010 and that would tie in with Dominic Treadwell-Collins (former Storyliner) name leaving the credits at that time as they both left together to set up a new company. I don't think it's any coincidence that from November 2010 the show's problems started and they have just got progressively worse since then.


Yorke's comment reads like a generic PR soundbite.

What're you expecting him to say? He is not going to slag off the programme and talk about how long it's really going to take to sort things out. Ditto Newman's interview with DS; no producer or BBC boss is going to slag off the show whatever they think of its current output. That does not mean they haven't noticed the issues and aren't working to resolve them.

It wasn't that long ago that that was the average it would pull in this time of year.

Actually, the baby swap storyline was the last of Santer's hangovers.