With the soaps choking the life out of itv and clogging up the schedules on both of the main channels, do they have a place on prime time TV in the UK?

I think they are on too often and it means mid evening and primetime on both BBC One and itv are quite stale with these continuing drama's. What does British TV have to offer, CS, EE, ED, Holby City, Cuffs. It isn't good is it?

I would love to have a decent middle of the road funny sitcom, game shows, variety, different types of comedy drama. I am getting bored of British TV. They used to say it is the best in the world. Can you say that now? I tend to watch less of BBC One and itv (hardly ever itv) and watch more on BBC Two, C4 , C5 and channels on Sky like Gold and Drama. itv's best channel is itv3. God how I miss Thames TV. That was the demise and downfall of itv replacing Thames with the awful Carlton. itv has never recovered. Granada and Carlton running itv was the worst thing that ever happened to the network.

Yes they do still have a place. They have enduring appeal despite inevitably going through peaks and troughs in quality.

They pull decent audiences 52 weeks of the year all through the week before the watershed.

There are plenty of 9pm slots and weekend slots for other programming not to mention the 8pm slot Wednesday, and so on.

I do think the schedules should change though, I'd put Corrie back on Sunday night at 7.30pm opening Friday at 8.30pm for comedy/90 minute drama on BBC or ITV. I would also abolish the double Emmerdale episodes so it is simply Mon-Fri 7pm, freeing up 8pm on Thursday for the other sort of programming you suggest.

No, they don't - they clogg up the schedules

On a Friday - its Emmerdale, then Corrie, then another programme then Corrie again. Its too much

The people at ITV have no imagination

Well it's been working for years now so i would say yes they do still have a place.

I don't watch much tv anyway and if it wasn't for soaps it would be even lower, so i'm happy with how things are.

Well, the programmemakers would have to use their imagination. And they don't have it in them...

I reckon they'll eventually move to daytime. The race to the bottom just means they will eventually lose any cache they once had as prime time drama.

Lol Corrie at teatime would actually work well, if The Chase ever ends. And Emmerdale would be going back to it's daytime roots.

Perhaps the best of both worlds would be to cut back the amount of episodes, just having them twice weekly Corrie Mon & Weds 7.30pm, EastEnders Tues & Thurs 7.30pm and Emmerdale Tues & Thurs 7.pm. The viewers who still want soap can have their cake and eat it and for others who despise the soaps, will have more chance of something else being screened in those empty slots. By doing this the channels will be helping the soaps to survive longer.

It's a lovely idea, but it won't happen while they pull the numbers they do.

The problem is the double episodes of ED and CS with the exception of the Monday 8.30pm edition of Coronation Street. It's why I favour them ditching the Friday double in favour of reinstating a Sunday edition.

For ITV it would offer ~7m to Sunday nights every week, and it would make Friday's less of a slog for fans of both.

The double Emmerdale on Thursday is superfluous and could probably be dropped but that's the most ITV would entertain, and even that is doubtful.

I still think the answer is in the scheduling. One time slot for each stripped across the five day week.

But yes, there's plenty of room for the soaps. They try new game shows and comedies all the time and if they've flopped, generally it isn't because of the time slot but because they are almost always dreadful these days.

I completely disagree. First of all I love my soaps and I think they are probably ITV's most important programmes after X Factor. I cannot stand "comedy" sitcoms which never ever make me laugh. I find them unbearable. I don't particularly enjoy game shows either apart from Deal Or No Deal. I always watch EE, ED, Corrie and Hollyoaks and hate it when I miss them. I think Holby City could go though. I don't mind missing Holby. My other favourite TV is Film 4. I don't have SKY as it's too expensive and when I've looked in the TV guide at SKY I see I'm not missing out that much. What's Cuffs?

I don't want less soaps thank you very much. If Eastenders was on Wednesday I would be happy. I love my daily Emmerdale and love it when Corrie is also screened on Sundays and Thursdays.

My ideal schedule is

Coronation Street
Sunday 7.30, Monday 7.30 & 8.30, Wednesday 7.30, Friday 7.30

EastEnders
Monday 8.00, Tuesday 7.30, Thursday 7.30, Friday 8.00

Emmerdale
Monday - Friday 7.00

There isnt the budget in british tv to replace all the soap slots 52 weeks of the year. The schedules would be full of cheap tat. American tv coped with soaps leavinh primetime because they can support 4 main channels that produce a couple of dramss and couple of sitcoms each night on each channel. Our channels cant do this. Thats why soaps are importamt here, they are the only way we can get regular british drama all year round.

If they didn't have a place in primetime they wouldn't be in primetime. Scheduling could be better and I'd much rather they were in a consistent slot no more than 5 times a week - but from ITV's point of view even if they cut an episode of Emmerdale it's still better to have them dominate the schedules with cheap filler around them rather than strip them at 7pm and 7.30pm, which although that would leave 8-9pm completely soap free it would be costly to commission the shows that would pull in an audience. As much as I'd love 8-10pm to be as varied as the US networks sadly much of it would likely be cheap factual.