Two out of four EE episodes this week were beaten by Emmerdale.

EE is simply not making enough ground.

Whats turning viewers off?

is the Lucy story boring people?

has Carter overload backfired?

is cringey Dean to blame?

is no one interested in Sharon taking down Philth?

The writing is better but for some reason EE isn't connecting with viewers and that has to be down to the characters not being relatable enough.

I think its going to take quite some time for EastEnders to regain the viewers it lost over the last year or so. The writing is better and the show overall is better but people just aren't tuning back in. I do recall that Roxy/Alfie's wedding, Shirley's return and the arrival of Stan all received over 8million viewers. The material is not consistantly good, we have had several filler weeks and I don't think that helps. I feel that viewers are much more critical of EastEnders now.

I think the Lucy storyline is ridiculous. What the hell is Rainie back for? Some returning characters are popular enough to engage viewer interest (Jane) and some aren't (Rainie). The ridiculous scenario surrounding Ian and the Prostitute is totally off putting. The Carter's are OK but they are acting as if they have been in the square for years. They haven't. I don't know, there's something about EE that is currently not resonating with viewers. Perhaps it's time to axe it.

The only problem with what you are saying is that EE did regain viewers. It has had the largest share increase out of the soaps. The only one to see an increase year on year but now thats stopped and its gone back into decline.

So my question is, what caused the viewers who returned to the show in the spring to turn back off again?

So have we given up pretending viewers have increased like loads of people say on here.

I am going to be a bit controversial but viewers were generally higher under the previous producer.

It's not hot anymore, no World Cup, commonwealth games etc anymore either

It's the summer holidays so ratings are usually low. Emmerdale rightfully gained a lot of viewers this week because of Donna's tragic death and she is a legacy character.

This summer in EE has been a bit boring. I'm sure autumn will get more viewers to watch the show.

Mick going all out for ian who he has know for 5 mins is just stupid.

Emmerdale had a big week running which was promoted/Had press a fair bit regarding The storyline and the Return of Aaron.
What do you expect?

Overall EastEnders will likely come out top when the officials are released. Where EastEnders loses it gains elsewhere (I.e. 1 million views on I player thats not included)

I am not at all bothered because EastEnders will be back above Emmerdale next week anyway.

EastEnders has shown the best year on year figure out of the big 3. It's still summer though and while not Hot people dont just cancell their Holidays.

As we know EastEnders has a younger demo than Corrie and Emmerdale which could affect it more. 1 million views on I Player EastEnders has been getting. Come September EastEnders ratings will turn around again.

Usually Dan I would agree with you but I'm also not so sure. I've been studying EE ratings since Jan and I'm noticing a trend.

I always thought EastEnders wouldn't see a real increase in its audience until October/November but its current ratings are going backwards not forwards. This isn't what I expected to see happening at this point.

I just hope the BBC don't panic again. Because if Emmerdale does keep edging ahead of EE in the over nights it might be curtains for DTC or they will order him to up the sensationalism. Both moves would be bad for the show.

From my own point of view. I must admit I have grown bored of the Carters in recent weeks and that thread on here seemed to suggest a lot of people felt the same. Perhaps they have been force fed to viewers and its turned people off.

Or maybe the fact its mid August & many EE fans are away??
Its not a traditionally good time of the year for ratings- this is a blip.

Excuses, excuses excuses.

So EE fans are the only ones who go on holiday?!

I bet if I looked in past ratings threads you guys made the same excuses for Kirkwood and Newman.

I do think there have been some tactical mistakes with the Lucy storyand the shunting around the schedules has probably stopped any advancement EE was making. Autumn/Winter is probably the big test.

Also the pacing of stories isn't quite right for me and yes maybe too many Carters spoil the broth, although Linda is really coming on as a landlady.

Of course it is hard to predict but i am very sure September/October will see a rise and will easily top last year.
I like the Carters and don't feel they are forced on us. Everyone seems to be getting a chance.

Personally I always thought killing Lucy off was a mistake not to mention a massive risk. Hope it doesn't turn out to be one and yeah I do have to question the BBCs decision to put the show onto BBC Two but I still wouldn't have thought that alone would have been enough to break viewer habits. If the show is no further forward by November then I have no idea what the BBC could do other than beg someone like Matthew Robinson to come back and work his old school magic.

All 3 soaps are down on where they could or should be. It's just EastEnders had more of a younger demo whom might choose to do other things with their summer holidays. Hence I player getting over 1 million for most episodes *Which of course is not included in the ratings at present*

Someone posted in the TV ratings thread last week that EE and Corrie share the exact same demos these days. Its only Hollyoaks that has a larger under 25s audience.

EastEnders targeted the wrong demographic for too long. Thats why its lost viewers and cannot get them back. Its nothing to do with holidays.

I admire you trying to defend EE but the stats speak for themselves

The two main things that have stopped me from returning regularly to Eastenders are the boring Lucy/Ian storyline, and the Carters arrival and domination of the square. To a lesser extent, the Carol/Bianca storyline doesn't interest me or the ridiculous way that Stacey has been brought back (why, oh why)!

I thought that once the annoying (well they annoy me) characters such as Lucy and Tanya had gone that I would enjoy the programme more, but no, a whole bunch of even more annoying characters have turned up to replace them.

The show has gone off the boil with too many average episodes.

I don't think the Lucy Beale murder story has been as interesting as it was hyped to be. They're throwing far too many people into the mix and the Mick/Raine addition is plain stupid.

Phil getting taken to the cleaners again was all very predictable.

The Carters are being dragged down by Tosh/Tina and Dean...he's been a massive disappointment. The rest of them are still good but are being poorly used.

I'm still enjoying it more than I did last year but I expected it to be in a better than this after we got off to a good start this year. Instead it's slipping backwards. Still we've got some great characters and some good writers so there's no reason why it shouldn't get back on track.

It was a risk but the new EP needed to make some bold gutsy decisions and fair play to him, he has. I just wish they hadn't signposted that the story would end in Feb 15 as it means the audience are always one step ahead of the various twists and turns, and I wish they hadn't pre announced the murder and just sprung it on us. The episode itself may not have rated well but the WTF effect would have been huge.

The viewer loyalty question is a fascinating one; previous EPs drove me away from the show. This one has brought me back (and yes fair play Lorraine Newman put in the ground work for him) and I am now a fairly regular viewer but I would say probably still a fickle one. I would say we can't give him a fair hearing til his stories have played out.

IMO it's because they've got way too much going on and none of it seems to be moving anywhere
There's just way too many SLs that don't seem to be developing and are just plodding along

With the Carters, for a new family they should have started smaller and had their storylines radially develop but they've introduced so many of them with so many different SLs at once

Lucy's murder has been a bit of a flop. DTC made a HUGE mistake letting the viewers know when it would conclude as now we know that everything is going to be a red herring. As her murder was so out of the blue I also thought we'd discover more about her during the investigation but it's been 4 months and we've basically discovered that Billy had an argument over chips and Jay is on the CCTV. This wouldn't have been so bad but it was so pointless waiting 4 months for us to find this out as nothing else really happened in between then, and we know Bily/Jay are red herrings now

The handling of new characters/returnees hasn't been brilliant. They seem to be taking one of three options. The first option is they come in, have a weeks worth of episodes dedicated to them then bugger off again and come back when nobody cares. Or they sit around doing nothing for ages, or they're shoved down our throats.

And I hate the new sets and stuff. We only ever really see the Vic, Cindy's, Scarlett's and the Albert. Scarlett's and the Albert are so pointless. He made a big mistake axing the salon IMO, and we rarely see much else.

I think he started off well but it's becoming a bit messy.

Some great replies already guys. Thanks for not going on the defensive ''everything is ok'' route and listing all your concerns and worries in a mature manner.

I agree with the first bit. I mentioned this a few weeks back on twitter. Prime example is the whole Dot/Charlie/Nick thing.

I also think something huge Needs to happen to lure the viewers in. Something like a stint or siege. A massive talking point.

Oh i don't know. Been out of the loop for a few months. By any chance do you have a link? (Saves me going through pages and pages lol )

Just because EE is getting low ratings doesn't mean they're doing anything wrong. It just means the other soaps are more to people's tastes