Ok so we are in the summer when quite a few people are sunning themselves somewhere hot, but the ratings on the soaps are a few million short of where they used to be.

Soaps don't seem to have the same buzz about them now they did a few years back when even the PM wanted Deirdre freed from prison.

So how exactly can the soaps get themselves back to the top of their game?

Perhaps there was a grain of truth in what Russell T Davies recently said although he may have been wrong on the precise timescale?

I think viewers invest less in these shows because the viewers treat the personalities of characters as so malleable as to be unrelatable at times.

I think that is very true to be honest, especially with the younger characters. A lot of them do nasty things so you struggle to relate to them.

I mean we had punk Mary in the 80s in Eastenders, but there are no goths or rockers in the show. Tamar being a bit of a geek and very dry makes him probably the character I am closest too (in reality it's probably Dot) personality wise yet Tamwars lack of charm alienates him from viewers. And he needs other characters he can bounce off, his friendship with Fatboy is not realistic.

I do think when it comes to new characters the soaps need to be bolder and not use the same repetitive templates.

I don't mind too much what character templates they use - I will either like them or dislike them - but for me, what they all need to do is STICK to whatever template they pick.

I have less and less interest in characters nowadays because I know that eventually they will all have total personality transplants and behave in ways their characters never would in order to fit in with whatever half assed sl the writers come up with for them, and their histories are either retconned or ignored altogether.

Some of the character changes these days are the equivalent of having Ena Sharples rob a bank with a sawn off shotgun.

Absolutely!

That is very true actually, in Eastenders a character who comes in with a positive outlook on life will develop an addiction to tic tacs, will reveal their pet spaniel sexually abused them as a child and will have tried to kill themselves did times.

Characterisation was thrown out of soap land a long time ago.

Too many episodes a week, lots of bad acting and bad writing, and in some cases, a loss of that show's roots.

I think the answer is to cut back the amount of episodes per week.

They should all only have three episodes per week.

EE, lost loads of viewers thanks to bad management. The key is to treat Executive producers like football managers, as soon as they aren't getting the results (losing viewers) then sack them, don't leave it so long. EE imo is the best its been for years. Its going to take time for DTC to win back the viewers that LN and BK lost.

I actually meant to say the writers treat the characters so malleably not the viewers!!

As soon as they arent getting results viewer wise sack them or after a limited number of months?

I think a simple explanation is that they are on so frequently they are less of an event

I do think the character changes have something to do with it, as there's little character consistency any more (at least in Hollyoaks).

H&A would need to get rid of like half it's cast for me to wanna watch again. There's so much deadwood at the moment.

I think thats a major factor but I think the commercial channels in particular would be loathe to reverse this and Im not sure that cutting the number of episodes would now boost ratings.

I think it would alienate people more if that happened. People don't like change.

Soaps tend to drag out storylines to breaking point and that tends to make people turn off. . Maybe soaps are on too much nowadays and that is also causing a drip drip away from the soaps. Though after saying that we are in the summer and there are more channels to choose from. Just saying

I don't agree. It could be a gradual thing as well. Maybe knock an episode off and have that for a year, then knock another episode off and keep it at three or four episodes. No soap needs to be on five or six times a week, it's complete overkill and this is surely a factor in why people have switched off.

A bigger square to circle though is how to attract former soap viewers who no longer watch any soap. Can you really re-find a lost audience?

Given on DS,Twitter,Facebook ect have them all the 'Hot' characters strip off and run around the place naked.

You're squiffy again, aren't you Dan?

More character driven stories would be good. Soaps do rely too much on some big special effects disaster that only has to be done bigger and better next time. I watch all the soaps and have noticed that some younger characters are unlikable and two-a-penny. I'm not saying that we should go back to the days of teapots in Emmerdale or endless chats in the corner shop about nothing in Corrie or some depressing story in Eastenders where someones jumped off a towerblock on Christmas day, but I wish they would flesh out characters more, so you can get to know them more.

Sorry, just rabbiting on and on now....

Nope

Not at all, you're absolutely spot on.

Decent writing- end of

But decent writing is impossible with so may episodes a week to produce.

I don't understand why they just won't admit defeat and cut all the soaps down to three episodes per week. The ratings and budget just isn't there anymore to justify a soap being on five/six times a week.