Priceless. The whole thing was hypocritical, boring dross.

The News and Sport comparison is also laughable.

I seem to remember you're an ITV fanboy. For reference I still like The X Factor - well, its VT packages on occasion.

I thought the Downton Abbey minisode was actually quite funny. Indeed it parodied itself so well that it was better than most real episodes.

Of all the recent Text Santa and Children in Need sketches this one worked and was amusing if you understood the pomposity of the show. Which the cast and the writer (as he was in it sending up his own writing) apparently do.

Loved the ending to Text Santa. Not seen the rest yet (Along with EastEnders) as was working. Seems be a lot of talk on Twitter though.

Sorry, I do apologise, Downton was a notable exception, for the reasons you outline. It's almost as if I had seperated it from the rest of the show in my head :O Mind you I had most of it on in the background (I was listening to it all, sadly) and only sat down for that.

Not sure what a bit of banter about the football has got to do with anything, really ? I know that generally speaking this is the most hostile community on the internet, but despite that there's one or two guys in here that I'm friendly with. It was meant to be light hearted.

As for betting, we always discuss the Christmas Ratings market. It's the only day of the year in which we can use the knowledge we've accrued about ratings to potentially make a bit of money. Gamble responsibly and only what you can afford to lose, of course. But EastEnders won't win on the 25th based on all available evidence and at the current odds is worth laying. If you disagree, fine, put up the case for EE, or something worth backing in the market as opposed to laying. But trying to undermine me and discredit my contributions every 5 minutes is not a worthwhile contribution and the sooner the mods get to the bottom of your behaviour the better, for everyone.

Nice to see the usual Xmas spirit on the thread !!!

I don't think any individual soap is in crisis to be fair, EastEnders might have been first to feel the effects but I think the genre generally is just on the decline and there's not much the writers can do about that.

If you missed Norton tonight, well worth watching on iPlayer for the reaction of the mostly American guests as Danny Dyer discussed some of the EastEnders storylines. Classic!

The Downton Abbey sketch was fantastic on Text Santa. Its good when a programme like this can mock itself. Well worth watching even if you don't watch DA.

Is it true ITV hasn't even let members of the press watch the Xmas episode yet ?

O'Sullivan wasn't too happy about it on the Wright Stuff this morning. Sounds highly counter productive and and a bit too spoiler conscious.

Considering the amount of promotion EastEnders is getting you'd think ITV would like to counter it. Maybe they don't rate Downton's effort themselves! Or there's a twist they don't want to leak... maybe the death of Lady Violet or something of that ilk.

Something like that is always more effective when you're least expecting it.

But would something like that really get out if ITV specifically requested that it be kept under wraps pre-broadcast ?

You wouldn't have thought so as it would affect the relationship with the channel - though it works both ways and ITV will want a lot of promotion from the press for the likes of Broadchurch, Stars in Their Eyes and, looking ahead, Jekyl & Hyde and Beowulf.

I think I'm right in saying shows sometimes film fake scenes to place in the press screening so they see a different edit to what is actually broadcast. I'm sure EastEnders have done that before. Or actually tell the press that something has been cut from their edit to get the speculation going. Not showing anything at all is very odd.

Maybe it's like the Only Fools and Horses episode A Royal Flush with Julian Fellowes being unhappy so he's editing it to the final minute? Downton certainly took a knock over the autumn.

A TV reviewer on This Morning said that he's watched the Xmas special, because he was able to talk about the content (partly - in that there are no deaths) and when Xmas arrives on screen during the ep.

So what was this secrecy O'Sullivan was talking about then ?

If they made an exception for This Morning who seemingly gave quite specific details about the episode's content it can't be that hush hush.

The details were not specific, just that its set at Xmas half way through the 2hr ep and that there are no deaths in this years episode.

DA is generally, like Broadcurch kept back from the TV critics in case of spoilers. Its stuff like this that the soaps should take note.

The soap spoilers are ridiculously in depth. Literally no point watching if you read those. But people do!!

One show that kept people guessing to the very end and even beyond was The Missing but on Gogglebox tonight there was a lot of dissatisfaction with the way it ended. I know it's not necessarily representative of the wider public, but if it were to be, I wonder if that might impact on how the second series performs?

This is what annoys me about soaps, Everything is revealed before the episode airs (bar EE sometimes) and its ridiculous. Bu 1st the soap needs to be good before its worth keeping stuff back. At the moment Corrie is not.

BIB I've got the impression from The Missing thread, newspapers online, Radio Times etc that that is the majority opinion. I think the ending (if indeed finite) has not gone down as well as it could have been if properly concluded, particuarly since it was 7-8 hours of build up only for it to be left on a cliffhanger. I don't think it will have much impact on the 2nd series at all. Viewers will forget and tune in regardless.

Its going to be a new case and cast so it's hard to say.

Its quite interesting how these sorts of series have become popular, American Horror Story and True Detective are the best example along with The Missing

EastEnders in 2015 seems to be focusing on the long running Characters
Ian,Phil,Dot,Sharon,Kat,Alfie all get big storylines in the run up to the 30th Birthday (and rightly so)

Peggy is back for 1 episode during LIVE week and the rumoured return of

DTC has released some teasers for 2015

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s2...oYWNOtecLtsw9y

That's exactly what we will be doing as we still have the family around, Christ on a moped some don't even take the hint and leave until nearly 30 minutes after the meal.😛

I'm not coming on DS on Boxing day so I won't see the hysterical reaction to the soaps all rating badly.

Can I just say if Text Satan and every other piece of junk filler thrown opposite EE can dent it's ratings then I expect Downton Abbey to be slightly ahead on seven million with its ratings dropping back to five million as it gets slaughtered by Mrs Browns Boys.

Today's TV critics are lazy and spoon-fed, in the good old days they would have had to watch the programmes ''live'' and phone in their copy by 10 pm to make the later editions.Have you noticed how they never review truly live programmes any more ?

... and Fargo.

I know people have been discussinh EE's likely Christmas Day performance, but I've got a feeling it'll do much better on New Year's Day. I know it's got competition from BOAF on ITV, but that's the kind of thing that I think people would tape and watch later minus the ads.

Pointless: 3.78m (24.7%)
BBC News at Six: 4.96m (28.2%)
BBC Regional News: 5.29m (28.5%)
The One Show: 3.71m (19.0%)
The Two Ronnies Sketchbook: 3.57m (17.9%)
EastEnders: 5.54m (26.2%)
Citizen Khan: 2.92m (14.2%)
Have I Got News For You: 3.83m (17.7%)
Not Going Out: 3.00m (14.4%)
BBC News at Ten: 3.56m (18.8%)
BBC Regional News: 3.53m (19.8%)
The Graham Norton Show: 2.67m (19.1%)

That's a great rating for The Two Ronnies