I think it's unfair to blame Kate Oates. Most fans are enjoying Emmerdale right now last time I checked, I'm not sure why ratings are floundering.

Remember though that a 37% share on Tuesday gave EastEnders 8m. If the share stays at this level then ratings will be strong. That's why Coronation Street's ratings are good, 35-40% shares consistently.

Masterchef is going good damage to EmFarm's ratings, denting its 8pm share by about 5%. BBC need to think about airing more MasterChef episodes throughout the year, another spin-off like MasterChef The Professionals moviong to BBC One would be a good idea. Extending the normal run of MasterChef by another 3 or so weeks would be a good move too.

Emmerdale's ratings must be a bit concerning for ITV, as unlike Corrie, it does have a few major storylines playing out at the moment. Charity, Declan and the baby. Donna's illness and Marlon getting used to April. Val coping with HIV. The question of Adam Barton's parentage. Belle being on trial.

Its certainly not for a lack of story ideas, but the new Barton's are largely unlikeable esp James who is highly unlikeable yet isn't a villain either. The Belle story has just been going round and round in circles for weeks. These have particularly been the main stories for the last couple of weeks and they are both tedious

When will iplayer be added to the officials? have BARB set a date yet?

Its not as long ago as you think. It did it a few times in January 2013 and March 2013 and was not far off doing it in January 2014 a few times either.

Yes a little unfair on Kate Oates, I have enjoyed Emmerdale and their are plenty of storylines but for some reason the ratings just won't go up.

While the EastEnders share is great I'm a little disappointed it dropped almost 1m viewers since Tuesday, should be enough to beat Corrie tonight though and EE still up 1m week on week which is good.

Terrible night for ITV with 2.1m at 9pm, Parking Mad should have done better with such poor competition.

They already are if watched through the TV. Must be getting more the norm now. We have four different versions of iPlayer on our TV: Sky, smart TV, blu-ray and Chromecast.

Masterchef must be hurting Emmerdale at 8pm. The 8pm Emmerdale has had a share around 27% for the last few weeks opposite Masterchef.

Surely there won't be any space with the 16 week run of 'Pound shop wars' that you've planned

Wonder if Gogglebox has put a bit of Jamaica Inn on the showreel this week? Be fun to see their reactions to not hearing what's going on.

You would have thought Jamaica Inn and EE would be certainties.

It turns out that the 27-28% share for the 2nd ED goes back to at least February. Then it was worth 6.2-6.4m but now obviously much less.

Here's how EastEnders rated yesterday in previous years, if anyone's interested:

2005: 9.66m (48.0%)
2006: 8.96m (43.1%)
2007: 7.20m (39.0%)
2008: 8.90m (44.0%)
2009: 7.99m (40.2%)
2010: 8.14m (40.0%)
2011: 7.32m (39.2%)

Good rating for Posh Pawn. I'm loving it. Very entertaining

Shame it dropped but then again the share is great for it. Had it been Tus it would have been 8mil again. ED I have no idea what's going on there.

But the +1 at 9pm was only 167k, lower than I would have expected given the competition.

You're right. Emmerdale should really be over 30% for both Thursday outings.

What did Posh Pawn get?

I wish EastEnders was getting these shares back in the Autumn. It does show that people have been interested in the programme. Emmerdale is a strange one. Can't workout what is happening with on Thursday.

ED's problem is that it can never compete with CS and EE for publicity, but it is capable of pulling in viewers with a big story. Big stories need to be well told, however ...

I can only claim to be a casual viewer but those ratings don't surprise me. Every time I've seen it, I've had a sense of stories being dragged out way beyond their natural life and characters floating around aimlessly. ITV has every reason to be concerned - but given that everything on-screen must have signed off by Jane Hudson, who oversees both CS and ED, that would rather indicate that she's either unable to influence what's getting on-screen or she's in denial about how weak it is. Put it against an apparently resurgent EE, and it looks even weaker.

Bearing in mind how strong it was only six months ago, this is not good ... emergency surgery required soon if it carries on like this - but by whom?

On Channel 4, Posh Pawn continued with 1.5m (6.9%) at 8pm (230k/1.1%), followed by Kevin's Supersized Salvage with 1.3m (6.3%) at 9pm (281k/2.0%)


Channel 4: (inc+1)

Posh Pawn 1.73 Mill
Kevin's Supersized Salvage 1.58 Mill

The 8pm ep of ED has been struggling for a fair length of time now - even when it was up against Waterloo Road - I wouldn't say it's "just" down to going against Masterchef.

Personally I think ITV would be better hiring some of the soap fans on here who actually know their soap inside out and know which storylines would work and ones that wouldn't.

If EeastEnders beats Corrie tonight (which is very likely) and again next week, I can see that becoming a trend. Both Corrie and Emmerdale are rating poorly and should be doing better. If they were EE's rating wouldn't be looking so impressive.

Btw did BBC1 promote Parking Mad? Its only that ITV had no promotion for Wanted: A Family of My Own and got 2.3m for it. I imagine the viewers of Masterchef just had the control quantum locked on BBC1. When ITV has a weak programme (Ade at Sea) preceding a new programme, its seem less people are inclined to turn over and instead stay on BBC1.

If people are wondering why "share" for the soaps is high it's because the total numbers of people watching TV is quite low.

e.g.

7.5m viewers when total audience is 30m = 25% share
7.5m viewers when total audience is 15m = 50% share

The soaps tend to hang onto audiences better than TV as a whole does.