There's a short trailer on Youtube. Still no word on exactly when it will air though despite shorter teasers running on air already. Maybe Five are waiting to see what happens with Line of Duty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JMiOOnAUAc

Thanks. I'll check it out.

You need to get the message out that the quality of EastEnders has improved by getting rid of a repeat screening of EastEnders? Makes perfect sense. I suggest that the BBC also completely abandon the omnibus and remove the show from iPlayer while they're at it.

Again I'll say this.

What are you replacing it with on BBC3? Its all well and good to say they should have no problem filling it but what you're actually saying there is that BBC3 will no have problems finding at least two additional hours of content every week of the year. Where are they getting that from exactly? Its a huge content deficit for BBC3 to try and make up with a pretty limited budget that's already incredibly stretched.

Secondly given that the BBC3 screening wasn't dragging down the BBC1 ratings a few years ago when both were pulling in substantially higher figures why is it a problem now? What evidence is there to suggest that the viewers who currently watch via BBC3 would migrate to the BBC1 screenings? Surely a primary reason they currently watch the BBC3 screening is because they can't or don't wish to watch the BBC1 screening. By pulling the BBC3 screening its entirely possible that you'll either drive more viewers to iPlayer or you'll drive them away from the show completely neither of which pulls in more viewers on BBC1. Even doing this as a two week experiment risks long term damage.

Once again there are no short term fixes to getting EastEnders ratings back up. Its time to accept that serious long term damage was done to the show over the past couple of years and that its going to take considerable time for the audience to come back. Removing a long standing way for audiences to catch-up on the show from the air is not a way to win that audience back. It is however a good way to further alienate that audience. Its for this reason that I think the BBC need to settle on a consistent slot (and channel) for the omnibus airing. You need to make it easier for viewers to catch-up and return to the show not harder. EastEnders fans and the BBC simply need to be patient and have faith that eventually the improvements on screen will translate to improvements in the numbers.

There was an issue of quality.

and not to be pedantic but DTC was never producer, he was a story producer under the then Exec Producer. This is his first stint as EP.

That said i think the poster meant the not that BBC aren't bothered about ratings but the channel they get those ratings from... As long as they're watching in whatever form is what matters is what's being suggested by the poster.

Agree 100%.

Interesting that in the first full week of January and despite much success with individual titles like Benefits Street, Channel 4 was still down year-on-year. And here we were praising them because they seemed to be on fire. They just can't get any momentum going at the moment. ITV though suffered an even worse blow in the first full week of the ratings year, enduring their worst start to a year on record, perhaps less surprising with their two big event shows struggling so far this month. In contrast, C5 had their best start since 2008 and BBC One produced their highest result in this week since 2007.

Week 1: This year v last year (2013 in brackets)
BBC One: 22.7% (20.9%)
ITV: 15.5% (16.4%) worst ever performance in this ratings week
Channel 4: 6.6% (6.8%)
BBC Two: 6.3% (6.0%)
Channel 5: 4.9% (4.6%)

Horror show for ITV if this is reflected in the monthly shares as well. Especially with ITV2 and ITV3 also down (0.4 points between them). ITV4 nudged up slightly to buck the trend.

The EastEnders ratings performance is down due to mistakes and fumbles for the last several years. O keep saying a programme needs a big hook to get the viewers in. Also trying to make the main showing the destination to go to. Why have people th st have stuck with EastEnders decided they watch at 10.30 instead of 7.30? They can't all be shift workers and they're not.

Taking it off for two weeks won't cause long term damage. The omnibus and iPlayer are still there. See if habits change and people record it more to watch on the night.

They don't need to find new content for two weeks repeat a comedy. BBC3 has had its budget reduced and shows lots of repeats. They are repeating Great Movie Mistakes and Winter Wipeout, they show Top Gear more than Dave, now they also repeat Motorway Cops from BBC1 as well as Lifeless At The Apollo. See what happens for two weeks, if it works make plans to make it permanent a few months down the line. If it doesn't return it.

What date periods are classed as week 1?

Post of the day for me and I completely agree with all of it.

It would certainly take longer than two weeks to see if the experiment worked. They could change the format of when its shown on BBC3 though. Perhaps showing Mondays and Tuesdays at 10pm on Wednesdays, and showing Thursdays and Fridays at 10pm on Saturdays. Just to raise the profile of the BBC1 showing and only for a trial period. The omnibus I would then put on every Sunday night on BBC1 after MOTD2. So roughly 11.30pm every Sunday on BBC1 every week.

Or why not do the b****y obvious and put it back on Sunday afternoon where the audience actually want it.

I know what the poster means and I all I will say is you'd be surprised.

Don't be so silly! Since when do BBC schedulers put programmes in slots that viewers find convenient. Besides they can't put it back on Sunday afternoons because they have a legal requirement to show repeats of Bargain Hunt, Homes Under The Hammer and (forgive me) ARGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! ESCAPE TO THE SODDING COUNTRY! ARGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! There's simply no room for EastEnders.

And your big hook is to abolish a repeat showing on BBC3?


Any of infinite reasons which is among the many reasons I can see no reason to get rid of the BBC3 screening.

Surely the key here is that these are viewers that are watching the show. Whether they're watching at 7:30 on BBC1 or 10:30 on BBC3 they're watching the show. The BBC response to this shouldn't be to get rid of the method these viewers have chosen to watch EastEnders that simply makes no sense and poses an enormous risk of alienating these viewers and driving them away from the show.


Firstly the idea that abolishing the BBC3 repeat is done to drive viewers to BBC1 loses a huge amount of momentum and credibility if you don't also get rid of it from iPlayer and ditch the omnibus. Secondly of course taking the BBC3 repeat off the air for a couple of weeks can cause long term damage. You're pulling two weeks of episodes from the schedule. There's also the issue that two weeks probably isn't going to tell us a whole lot of anything.


And what about the other 50 weeks of the year? You're not suggesting a one-off two week period of no BBC3 repeats.

You're also quite right to say that the BBC3 schedule is already flooded with repeats of stuff like Live at the Apollo and their comedy out put so do you really thinking another two hours of it a week is the answer? You also have the question of how those replacements rate. Presumably it won't be as well as EastEnders and it certainly won't be as well as EastEnders can when its at its best. That's going to potentially damage BBC3's share.

Also we still haven't overcome the issue that a few years ago when both the BBC1 and BBC3 screenings were rating much better there was no sense that the BBC3 screening was dragging down the numbers of the BBC1 airing. Why is this a concern now? If the two screenings could co-exist quite happily before why can't they now?

But wasn't it originally pulled from that slot because it kept getting pushed out of the way by sport? With the return of the FA Cup to BBC One Sunday afternoons now only ten months away, I can't see the BBC changing their minds on that situation now of all times.
Last edited by Zac Quinn : 21-01-2014 at 18:53

Plenty of room for both I would have thought and if it needed to be moved its easy to do.

On ITV Corrie is down in millions from last year, Mr Selfridge from the 7m+start last year, Splash, Monday night drama. Over on ITV2 the US comedies have all failed to even reach over 500k, a list that includes Mom, Two and a Half Men, the returning series such as the Magaluf Weekender has also flopped, Fake Reaction. Everything on ITV is down. ITV2 usually does well, but its share has started to slip, obviously someone has made a big error in buying the US comedies - none of the rate well.

I hope when The Job Lot, Plebs, The Big Reunion return they do well, otherwise with Celebrity Juice also down it could bve looking like a difficult year for ITV2.

The Job Lot must be starting in a few weeks as I watched the start of a rerun of series 1 last night on ITV2. It reminded me that i actually quite liked it.

The raw, unofficial overnight figures would've only managed 13 million at the very most. They haven't been comfortably in the teens since the mid-nineties.

Anyway, wasn't expecting much higher for Corrie last night considering the state of the show, and that's been reflected in the ratings. The 41% share for 7.30's edition is pretty solid.

Benefits Street continuing to do very well, especially for channel 4.

BARB week 1 was 30 December - 5 January. The consolidated shares that week were:

BBC One: 21.4% [+0.9 points on 2013: 31 December 2012 - 6 January 2013]
BBC Two: 7.6% [+0.8]
ITV: 14.2% (inc +1) [-0.7]
Channel 4: 5.8% (inc +1) [-1.0]
Channel 5: 4.4% (inc +1) [-0.1]

Dancc was giving us the figures for the first full week in January, i.e. week 2 (6-12 January).

So in both weeks, BBC One and Two were up and ITV down. And in the second week, we are now comparing like with like when it comes to the daytime changes on BBC One/Two which came into effect in early 2013.

Does anyone know what Dispatches (C4, 8pm) and Robson's Extreme Fishing Challenge (C5, 8pm) got last night?

Many thanks!

Exactly!

It's a completely insane idea which thankfully isn't on the cards.

Quandery of the week: Will Death in Paradise maintain its rating from last week? Will it go up or will it go down?

I'm going to make a bold decision and predict that it will actually go up slightly. Or down.

That's right, it's all fair and comparable now, gains are now true gains (If you know what I mean).

Great start for the two BBC Channels. The only thing BBC One are weaker with this year is probably 3 programs No Miranda, MBB and Africa. They do have the Voice and The Musketeers and did have shirlock which are all comfortably up on their slot bearers from last year.

Again as Dancc said it very easy from this thread to believe that C4 is having a cracking start to the year but it still looks worrying to me.

All I can add to the EE talk is that what do you expect after 3 awful years and 8 previous inconsistent one's. It's steady at the moment but not outstanding, it just need's to keep holding up until the next big episodes come along which will be stacey. that won't be a big boost but it will gain some promotion.

Anything but down would be very surprising in my opinion.

6.6-6.9 I reckon. And that would still be impressive.