LOL absolute class! Spot on analysis Bassy.

If a storyline has been promoted heavily, then the ratings will go up. It has been like this for many years.

I'm looking forward to Honey's return that week because Billy needs more material and I have a soft spot for Honey.

I see what you mean.

I do think that the viewing figures are fine tbh. It's when they would slip below 5 million thar would be slightly worrying.

Me, the other J-B, the missus, and the cat won't be watching these terrible sounding episodes, so that's at least 8 viewers they can count on losing.

F Sake Sounds dire

Mick and Shirley building bridges. we haven't seen that before

Kim and Vincent. zzzzzzzzzz

Ronnie and Dean - Roxy should just bump them both off. Why she didn't just run of with Charlie I don't know.

Me too. I love Billy, and Honey was so good for him. And maybe we'll get to see more of Janet.

The Beales have featured more than the Mitchells so if you think the Mitchells are to blame for lack of ratings, surely the Beales are to blame too? Lots of people are sick of the Bobby storyline and they are fed up of it dragging on. Yeah the Mitchells are dominating but they dominated from July onwards. The Carters dominated from December 2013-May 2015 and I don't think they increased the ratings.

Great post. Agreed.

BIB I like Vincent and his mum. But it was a big mistake saddling him with Kim and a baby.

Little bit of an exaggeration there. There were several other stories playing out/devloping alongside the Carters stories during that time, including 'who killed Lucy' which is arguably the story that defined that time period.

Honey is obviously back.

Mick and Elaine coming to blows

This is the truth!! I've lost count of the number of times Sharon's leaving Phil, Kim's leaving Vincent, Roxys done with Ronnie! And that's without the never ending Lucy saga!

Sounds an OK week to me albeit scenes we have seen before but hopefully things will heat up.

The Mitchell's rule EE!

The cat is the only real one and it's a cat so doesn't count in the ratings

DTC obviously prefers Kim to Denise which baffles me!

And Cora stuck in that bloody shed!

Ronnie/ Roxy and Dean will be good look forward to Mick and Shirley. Honey back. Yay

You not feeling these spoilers Bass?

Does anyone think Mick will tell Dean to "get aaaaaaht the boozer before I chuck ya aaaaht"? It would be really original.

Can totally see it with Ronnie shouting "she's my sistaaaa"

And Roxy telling her that she's "just like dad".

Really groundbreaking, original stuff there EastEnders.

I don't know Willster, might be a bit of a rehash of scenes we've seen already. And DTC doesn't recycle scenes or storylines. He said so. In an interview. He doesn't ever lie, ever.

Oh I have missed Shirley!

It's difficult to judge an episode off 2-3 lines of spoiler text, especially when there's an increase in stuff not being spoilt

See what the cast lists have in before deciding

Not surprised the Mitchells/Beales drop out, I know Phil had a break but the rest have been in constantly for a while

Me too. I think LH must have taken a longer break because Shirley has been mostly quiet since June. It's good to see Billy getting some material too, he is sorely underused.