It would take a brave or more likely mad person to axe The X Factor when it still gets sizeable audiences at the weekend for ITV. The panel is good at arguing but without Simon there's a lack of wit and charm there.

Emmerdale starting to settle more regularly as the 2nd soap, for what have been just bog standard episodes.

Awful awful share for EE.

EE was pretty anodyne stuff last night - when does DTC's first episode air, must be at the end of October.

Quite a drop in share from the first episode to second, I must say.

It'll be interesting to see how the big week turns out for it (and Emmerdale) - could an episode break 10m?

Nothing it hasn't gotten of late, though.

Very poor rating, especially share, for Eastenders. 28pct is about 7 shares down from what it ought to be getting.

In fairness EE is always the soap hurt most on Friday. Plus it's pretty much identical to what it had last Friday. Big drop for Corri second episode.

That's too low for EE. It's just lost all momentum this year. It will pick some up over the coming weeks but I expect more of the same to be honest. Next week could be diabolically due to the football.

Ken

They need to drop Friday's EE

EastEnders got 6.07m (27.9%) last night, as opposed to 6.07m (28.7%) last Friday.

Identical rating, worse share.

Does anyone think we should compose a book of TV ratings?

DTC's stuff won't get going properly until before Christmas. After Christmas it's all his doing.

Ken

C4 Press haven't tweeted about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. so presumably there was a fair drop, probably to ~2m/2.5m if I was to guess.

Awful for EastEnders. The next two weeks are going to be tough for them - England this Tuesday and Friday, then the week after the ITV soap onslaught.

Further ahead, it wouldn't surprise me if ITV scheduled I'm a Celebrity a bit more aggressively than usual, leaving BBC with no room for manoeuvre.

Itv's Pete Fincham two days ago said: "Corrie is averaging 9.4m (39%) in 2013, up 4% volume and 7% share YoY. Emmerdale averages 7.2m (34%), up 1% volume and 3% in share; our soaps are only getting bigger and better. The gap is widening between Coronation Street and EastEnders and our soaps are in a really strong position."

It will still be 2-3 months before his changes start to show on screen. They film several weeks in advance, but scripts are written well ahead of filming, and storylines are planned even further ahead.

I think we'll start to see his work around Christmas.

Yes. Read the synopsis and you will find out what it's about.

I don't recall you piping up about BBC1's 9pm offering Mayhem and Mishaps: Britain Caught on Camera which is probably the worst named documentary of the year.

Channel 5's show is going out at 8pm FYI which seems a more suitable slot for this kind of programme.

And one final point on the subject:

C5's Caught on Camera has an actual journalist presenting it.

BBC1's Mayhem and Mishaps used... Mark "Chappers" Chapman.

Yet it's the C5 show that is coming under attack from the ever balanced Bushmills.

EastEnders is damaged goods. The problem with failing year long soaps is that you can't take them off for several months like a series to fix what's wrong. And during this time it's turning off the viewers. It will need a big relaunch at Christmas.

Do you think EastEnders will be top soap on Christmas day this year? There is a chance it might not be for the first time in many years due to how poor it is doing atm.

Ah OK, so the letter to the Guardian talking about Corrie being up +7% and Emmerdale up +3% was referring to share, not volume, which is up +4% and +1% respectively. Changes the picture a bit, although of course any year-on-year rises in volume are welcome for a long-running series these days. And EastEnders' corresponding numbers are presumably bleak.

Incidentally, that means that the total TV audience in Corrie's slot is down about -3% year-on-year year-to-date, and -2% in Emmerdale's slot.

I fear the BBC left it too late to deal with EE.

After the baby swap Kirkwood should have been replaced instantly and the shows issues addressed then. They really have no one to blame but themselves. Action needed to be taken in 2011. They left it too long because of their own arrogance. Kirkwood just changed the show, changed the characters and changed the writing too much. Its taking even longer to fix the problems he created. I blame the shows current state on him, not Newman.

DTC needs to get a stable audience over Christmas and then try to keep it into next year. However if no increase happens or no increased viewership is carried over I worry about where things are heading. A 60 million yearly budget is a lot for a show not averaging over 7 million anymore.

Maybe EastEnders need to do a massive disaster storyline and trail it on the BBC [tv, radio, online] for weeks to get a casual audience watching it again. Something like Emmerdale's plane crash, hype it up massively and say there may be some noteable deaths. Bringing back old characters isnt working. Obviously the quality of scripts and storylines need to be improved but that alone wont be enough to get back an audience. They need something big to actually get a larger audience watching again for an episode and then hope they stick around if the quality is strong for that and other episodes around it.

Possible scenarios which could get a bigger audience for one episode and then lead to a long term ratings boost:

- Albert Square Fire
- Plane Crash disaster
- Hostage situation in the Queen Vic
- Terrorist bombing
- The Murder of Phil Mitchell
- Albert Square Tornado

Have a storyline like this, trail it for a month beforehand with specially filmed trailers, create a 'fake buzz' by getting people on other BBC shows talking about EastEnders like on BBC Breakfast, One Show, Strictly [viewers would then psychologically believe many people are talking about the show and more likely to tune in] and that way, the BBC would have a better chance of getting EE's ratings up.

The phrase "pride comes before a fall" comes to mind in his words. Emmerdale is doing good but I don't see Corrie holding up for long when you consider the muppet running the show at the moment...

Any other ratings reported for last night?

The two bolded things would never in a million years go hand in hand.

I don't think it will Christmas but I thought that last year and it managed it. Feels different this year though because of how poor it's been. Also I'm not sure there is a really compelling storyline to pay off at Christmas unlike last year.