Ooops.

Yes Seven is a main channel and eleven the multi channel.

The Melbourne - Sydney thing is sometimes mentioned in TV ratings. I think however it would be very rare for a Sydney made hit to not also be popular in Melbourne. (I can't imagine the Melbourne based H&A demographic caring about such things.)

In the past some of the greyer and less flashy Melbourne made dramas (that had OK but not blockbuster Melbourne ratings) might have struggled in Sydney.

Even if H&A's popularity did drop in Australia, (which is unlikely seeing as it's still in the top ten 26 years later) it still has a huge international market. Ireland has the highest H&A audience per capita of anywhere in the world I saw on a documentary about the shows popularity there last year (Vogue Does Home and Away). Isn't it the most successful television show in Australian history and Seven's biggest export?

So what? The BBC spends double that on The Voice and it's still an unmitigated disaster. Ratings go up and down for all soaps but unlike other soaps, EastEnders has lost its foothold on the nation's heartstrings. Britain has fallen out of love with EE and it's never going to win Britain back. Whilst I wouldn't guarantee EE won't be on TV in ten years, I'm pretty sure it won't be.

I think Pobol Y Cwm's days might be numbered as well, certainly not in the immediate future but in ten years time? I don't know. The Welsh language is dying and whilst the Welsh government's endless fight to save it is admirable, it is also futile. And the £1m budget cut for PYC, however much S4C try to dress it up, is hardly a ringing endorsement. Hollyoaks has been struggling for years, whilst Neighbours is tired and stale and should've ended ages ago, in my opinion.

As for Doctors? That's definitely a grey area soap.

Yeah I just dont get how anyone can be so sure they say ANY tv show will still be here in 15 _20 years?

Soaps are a main staple of the tv industrys "business plan" but that doesnt mean their future is beyond doubt it just means if they continue to decline as a genre-and theyve had a good run,then it would be quite bad for the tv industry.

The interesting thing is, ratings for soaps are falling, but audience share is largely static. Which could be argued two ways:

(1) The majority of people watching TV between 7 and 9 are watching soaps OR
(2) Most people don't watch TV between 7 and 9 because they don't like soaps

Bit of a catch 22, there!

if anything coronation street would be the first to go because it's been nearly running for 54 years and it's outdated

I doubt Hollyoaks will be

TV and media are changing so much that I think to be precise and certain too far ahead is madness!
I think as time goes by and traditional tv struggles more I think we will see lots more catch 22 situations occuring!Times are a changing and soaps I suspect will become more niche viewing.That in turn could lead to their budgets being cut.

I think it's hard to predict these things, I bet all those yrs ago noone would have predicted EE would have got to it's 30th or Corrie to it's 50th or HO to it's 18th.
One thing I can say is all three have kept me a hooked at some point, they have given us great sls and I will miss them if either one of them got axed.

What about casualty and Holby City? Are we classing these as soaps?

Well a lot of people would call them 'continuing dramas' rather than soaps, mostly because they have a mixture of continuing and self-contained stories, whereas soaps generally have 100% continuing stories only.

Does anyone think they would still be around in say 10 years or so? I'd like casualty to still be on air, Holby though I'm not so sure.

In regards to the soaps I think the big three will stil be around, hollyoaks could go either way.

yet doctors is officially the 4th most popular soap after emmerdale.

All UK soaps with possible exception of HO
None of the Aussie soaps with possible exception of H&A
None of the US soaps with possible exception of B&B

love it or loathe it (and i speak as an eastenders fan) i think you will find corrie will out last all the soaps and will be the last one standing, nothing so certain!

i don't think the nation has ever been in love with eastenders (and i say this as a life long fan of the show) it is not the nations darling like corrie.

i think eastenders will be around in 15 to 20 years time. aunty would not be spending vasts amount of money on the new set at elstree if it felt it wasn't going to be here long term.

if eastenders was a patient i would say she has come off life support, moved out of intensive care and is now on ward 3 where she is making steady progress and by early 2015 will be discharged and fighting fit.
Last edited by sally_bowles : 14-04-2014 at 00:04

Some posters really do like to exaggerate things. I literally can't take this post seriously.

Which point is exagerated?

well its just a bit of harmless fun isn't it?

I don't think Doctors will be around much longer I watched some of Fridays episode and had never been so bored in my whole life. Do people still even watch it?

yeap they do. it beats hollyoaks on first showings every day and is the 4th soap. i don't watch very often so cannnot comment on whether it is good or bad.

I'm literally made up for you.

Ratings include all repeats and catch ups, Hollyoaks is the 4th largest soap and gets more ratings and more awards than Doctors

hopefully they will all still be airing

EastEnders, Corrie and Emmerdale for sure.

The others are less certain.