I think EE under estimated the pull of a good "tragic" love story. I have loved the Donna/Ross storyline and thoroughly enjoyed the climax on Thursday (yes I did shed a little tear ). We've seen goodness knows how many "whodunnits" on soaps and let's be fair Lucy wasn't the most popular of characters. I was more intrigued by the Charlie storyline which seems to keep being put on the back boiler for (imo) weaker and less convincing plots.

The only thing that "ruined" ED this week was the return of Aaron. He seems to be a bit like Stacey in EE the producers love the characters but, regular viewers are pretty non-plused about them and resent them being unnecessarily shoehorned into major storylines.

I watch all three soaps and if I were to rate them at the moment it would be Corrie which I would rank as third. The library in the cafe, Peter in jail and the Lloyd love affair have become beyond tedious.

Well, I can't speak for everybody, but I am definitely enjoying it a lot more. But I am easily pleased. I've always loved this show as I've grown up with it. I've been watching solidly for 25 years now and I don't remember missing an episode for at least 20 years.

The ratings only bother me in the sense that the BBC might consider axing it. But I doubt they will as it's still their top rated show. The 30th anniversary will pull in the viewers, and hopefully convince them to keep on watching regularly.

Oh my apologies, I see your meaning that the show regained many viewers but has declined again? I think the promise of a new producer gained the show more fans but with the poor storyblocking and numerous filler weeks that follow one 'big' week, let's the show down. Like we had, Lucy's funeral, Mick and Shirley reveal which were brilliant and then a few weeks of Tina and Tosh which well....

Even so, I still think that EastEnders is actually better than Corrie and Emmerdale atm.

I don't rate DTC near as high as many people on here do. Yes, he is a better Executive Producer than Lorraine Newman and Bryan Kirkwood, but the majority of storylines that have taken place under him are just generic soap storylines which just seem to be lingering on. I can't name any standout storyline that have happened in the past eight months

The Lucy storyline is just a standard whodunit storyline and I never was once excited about it from the get-go. The only difference between it and other whodunit storylines that have taken place before, is this storyline is being strung out longer than necessary.

The Dot/Nick/Charlie storyline was interesting, but it has been on the backburner far too long and as a result it lost all momentum for me anyway.

The Carters have been overused to the point where I'm sick of them whenever they appear onscreen. I don't care what anyone says but they are the new Brannings, and judging by upcoming storylines they won't be getting a break anytime soon.

Charlie Brooks, Michael French and Patsy Palmer have all left under him. How long before Shane Richie and Jessie Wallace both call it a day on the show? Going by the way they have been treated this past year.

Its more shocking how Corrie is still No.1, its truly awful.
To be fair ED has had a big week, i don't think it will last EE will be back second soon, are they doing anything for their 42nd anniversary?

Far too much is made of Coronation Street being ahead. If it was a clear 4 million difference then there would be a point but its roughly a million. It just means that C/S has a marginally more loyal audience as it has had over the years give or take a few peaks and troughs. Also people forget that Coronation Street has the most stable scheduling, its very rare it is out of slot and that aids peoples routines in watching. Its also rare that it has any serious opposition-unlike EE which has Emmerdale pecking at it with too much regularity for comfort plus- having channel changes, BGT clashes, BBC3 repeat and omnibus schedule demotions. All in all it faces a bigger hill to climb than Coronation Street and I think that's reflected in the ongoing gaps.

I think we're making something out of nothing here.

Agreed.

Isn't the OP of this thread the same member who started a thread just last week celebrating the fact that EastEnders toppled Emmerdale in a clash? And also leapt to its defence earlier this week when someone posted a thread saying that Emmerdale beat EastEnders including the +1 figure? What a sudden turnaround.

This is what's wrong with EE.... (I'm going to write loads haha!)

It's no longer an exciting or dangerous show, dtc came in and gave us many promises which he has turned back on! The problem with the show is the awful awful awful AWFUL storylines! Patricks stroke and Johnny's sexuality are 2 examples of this, they're too great things to cover, BUT are viewers really interested? Do we really want to put down our phones/books/whatever... Of a night to watch such storylines? I feel as though dtc ONLY cares about the shows history and the family side to the show, he's become so much involved with all this character development he seems to have forgotten how good EE should be at producing storylines... EE has by far the best cast out of any soap, if I was EP I would get rid of a few, being in a few, but there's so many cast members I would do stuff with!

Popular characters like max, Sonia, kat, alfie, roxy aren't being given enough meaty storylines! Their work has been woeful! The only storyline that is EastEnders style ATM is the nick cotton one, that's all I'm looking forward for! Sharons revenge isn't a success because they're dropping it every week to focus on more and more carter shit, I couldn't give a flying **** about who slept with rainie, the nation DOESNT CARE! They don't care because EE is a show that was coming up with storylines like ben and stella, mad May and dawn, max and stacey, re-introduction of the butchers, lucas, ronnie and roxy and sean/jack stuff, ronnie and danielle, staceys bipolar, who killed archie, syed and christian, janine vs stacey, phil on crack, the queen vic fire, re-introduction of kat and alfie, etc... Now they're coming up with this horrendous who killed lucy plot? The nation don't care who killed her 1) she was a low profile character 2) there's like not a single decent motive 3) the suspects are all part of her teenage gang (most anyway), who again no one likes to watch, because they aren't given no meaty storylines! Micks swimming, wtf?! Dean likes linda, but Lauren likes dean, but peter likes Lauren... WHO CARES OMG? The carters are no longer a successful family, no one likes them anymore because they're in it way too much, whilst characters like Masood, max, sharon, kat, alfie, roxy all have to share about 20% screen time... The show is a mess, dtc cleared up Lorraine newmans mess during his first 5 months, and planted some massive seeds for the show, things were looking up... This summer he's created his own mess... In summer 2011&2012 when KIRKWOOD, yes BRYAN KIRKWOOD (the man who is slated on ds loads) was there, the show got about 8 million an epsidoe, a 35%+ share, and a bbc3 figure of 800k-1.5 million easily every night! Even when there was nothing going on, that's only because of what santer did though, onto santer, he was wonderful, idek why they let him go! Even when there was nothing going on in EE, 10 million people tuned in to watch his clever work because we all knew we'd get good storylines!

It doesn't take a genius to fix the show, after the 30th anniversary, things need to seriously change! I would change so much! Rebecca fowler starts an affair with her teacher, and becomes pregnant, Sonia thinks she is pregnant by a boy from her school, stacey slater gets with a serial killer, whitney gets into an abusive relationship, which results in a murder, johnny gets a male rape storyline, one of kats children is diagnosed with a terminal illness, the Mitchell's get a gangster/gang storyline, these type of storylines would add so much excitement to the show! It's over to dtc, the bbc won't axe the show, they'll just change the producer, I think one day we'll eventually find the saviour of the show, but I'm starting to think dtc might not be that person (I've praised him in the past I know), it's not hard EE, look at emmerdale! If EE did something like that they'd get around 10M, EASILY! The current VF are attracious, and I'd be ashamed to say I worked at EE right now! The scenes between characters are too long aswell! EastEnders has always been the BBC's flagship show, this is no longer the case, EE need to wise up! Hopefully a good autumn will save them! But if I was dtc I'd axe half the carters, give jane and ian a storyline, and use ronnie, roxy, max, Sonia, stacey, kat, alfie etc.. To their full potential, it's over to you me dtc

This isn't to do with another soap though, I know I brought ED into it, but idc about emmerdale and corrie the way I do EastEnders, they don't excite me (or probably anyone for that matter) as much as what EastEnders does when it's on fire! It's also the younger viewers that are getting bored! First, the older figures tuned out, now the younger ones are starting to! They need to get a mix of the show right where older viewers are interested and so are younger viewers, EE should be advertised non stop aswell! They need a new slogan to win back viewers! Another thing id change is the vic! I'd reduce the amount of carters, and put Linda's mother Elaine in there to become co landlady, or I'd put ronnie, roxy, phil, billy, Lola, ben and jay in the vic (and try my hardest to get sam, peggy, and grant back), this would win viewers around:P

I have said for a while that it may have gained older viewers under the new producer, but I think it's lost a lot of its young viewers to be honest.

Therefore it's static

Sorry but those are some awful ideas.

Yeah, am I an expert though? I'm just thinking of some ideas that seem interesting, not exactly going to happen is it? Idc what you say though, every single storyline I suggested up there is much better than what were currently getting don't even try and deny it lool

I think the pacing of the storylines in EastEnders has been too slow. For months we've been slowly building to a number of plots, whereas they should have had some resolved quickly and others more slowly to create constant interest.

That said I think September/October/November will EastEnders really hit form and regain quite a few viewers. The backlogging of storylines means soon all of the following will come out all very quickly meaning every episode show bee really interesting:

Slater fire
Ben's return
The Masood's secret
Phil/Sharon wedding
Stacey's permanent return
Dean/Shirley coming to some sort of climax
More Lucy Beale stuff
Ronnie's return
Aunt Babe/Sylvie
Shirley/Mick
Jane's return

spot on dan. it's all to do with demographics. many ee and to a certain extent cs viewers watch the soaps on different platforms, ie iplayer and catch up. in the official ratings you will find ee will nudge ahead of emmerdale and not far behind cs.

a recent survey was done on the demographics of the soaps and it found the average age for the emmerdale audience was 103. only joking i believe it was over 60. emmerdale tends to perform well when the episode is aired but doesn't gain as much ground on catch up.

also many on here have selective gold fish memories. for a good 6 months emmerdale at best has been mediocre. at present it is brilliant.

as much as this will stick in the throats on many on here, the fact is ee has vastly improved since dominic has taken over the realms. look at the show now compared to say a year ago. i do agree ee has lost many viewers since the kirkwood and newman era, but ee is in recovery and a good place to regain some of these viewers.

if eastenders was a patient in the nhs, it could be described as entering the hospital and going into intensive care, improving and moving to the high dependency unit and has now moved to ward 6 and is making steady progress much to the dismay of many eastender critics.

Haha amen^ if he's not careful he'll just be left with his precious carters *yawn*

Johnny gets raped is the only one that even close to sounding interesting, HO are currently dong this badly though.

Stacey slater getting with a serial killer wouldn't be interesting? Come on where's your excitement?

I don't want to sound horrible, but you could be wrong! LN's era got higher figures which is a mystery I know haha! But dtc should try and get the quality and cast pre 2010, I don't think he's trying to, he's creating a new show and it doesn't feel like EE much anymore which is a real shame, I was watching a 2010 episode, the actors and characters were a lot better, and the Mitchell's behind the bar was also better! The carters are very wooden

Stacey doesnt excite me in the slightest, i can stand her, really annoyed she came back.

It lacks consistency that's their main problem, and characters and plots aren't as good as pre 2010, it's slowly getting there, but they need to think faster!

omg I love her!!! A mitchell storyline is needed, peggy grant and sam would pull in viewers for sure, especially if it was advertised... That's another problem, too many new characters doing nothing!

Yes I don't get this either there is no increase we have had what 32 weeks of 2014 and go onto barb and for each of those corresponding weeks last year the majority were higher last year

http://www.tv-ratings.free-satellite...ngs-180813.htm

There we go corresponding week last year over 7 million for a Monday last year,.

For me, DTC is wank compared to old producers like santer, santer and his team had a clear thinking frame, and came up with some really good storylines, most of DTC's team come up with silly little social issues, and family problems,
Oh and not forgetting that like every character now has a secret...

If the viewers don't pick up autumn to Christmas I think they will be looking for another producer

It's definitely becoming more and more unbelievable again.