What the hell?

What did EastEnders face?

2.18m (11.0%)

Everything about Victoria Derbyshire has been a farce and they are probably only saving face by not axing it. It seems to be an untouchable pet project of someone high up at the BBC.

Conceived by James Harding, Director, BBC News, sacked by Murdoch as editor of The Times, no broadcasting experience (this seems to be the norm now in the BBC) so he is unlikely to axe his own creation terrible though it is with an audience lower than any regional news programme.

EastEnders has had a sudden gear-change recently, which seems to have really divided opinion. Some people are finding it very slow/boring with not much happening, others think it's great that they're focusing on everyday things like parking problems instead of big sensational plots.

Two out of three aint bad - Well done!

BBC News (10pm): 3.87m (23.2%)
Gardeners' World: 1.98m (10.0%)
Mastermind: 1.93m (10.1%)
Travel Man: 48 Hours in Helsinki: 0.97m (4.8%)
Jamie's Super Food: 0.90m (4.7%)
The Cars That Made Britain Great: 0.67m (3.4%)
Carry On Caravanning: 0.67m (3.4%)
Hollyoaks (E4): 0.47m (2.7%)
World's Tallest Towers (R): 0.46m (2.5%)
Top of the Pops 1982 (R): 0.26m (1.4%)
The Good Old Days (R): 0.26m (1.4%)
Hooten and the Lady: 0.19m (0.9%)
Hip Hop World News: 0.12m (0.6%)

Bad storylines

It's difficult to judge the EE rating until we see how the ITV soaps did (first showings only in the interests of fairness). Lately all 3 have been quite close to each other.

That is low for EE indeed - yet I'm liking the new slow and subtle approach with character driven storylines. Thing is if ED/CS do it, nobody bats an eyelid and will finish first and second regardless of the quality.

As for Victoria Derbyshire - I still don't get the hate. What has she done? I do worry if these people have threatened her do carry out their threats

My estimates for the ITV soaps including HD and +1 would be:
Coronation Street: Around 5.9m-6m (7.30pm), 5.7m-5.8m (8.30pm)
Emmerdale: Around 5.6m-5.7m

Makes Eastenders rating look even more disappointing

Well...yeah. But we need to see what the other soaps had for context.

Brilliant Ray!

The thing with EastEnders is that nothing much seems to be happening. You need a bit of incident alongside the ordinary.

Mastermind, Countrywise, Jamie's Super Food and The Cars that make Britain great.

...Land of the Giants

But what about the inflated boost Pointless recives following BBC News which is always over 4m. And the adverts decreasing the ITV average?

The fact is, they are both popular, but it used to be Pointless ahead of TC even inc+1.

Andy23 do you still maintain that ITV were right to have shown three similar crime dramas over 3 days? Given The Level has launched with less than The Secret did back is Summer.

My predictions were not far off. But all three look pretty poor to me.

I wouldn't read too much into one rating on a day EE isn't known for its strong performance anyway. The rest of the week did alright (by current standards). Wasn't Monday their highest rating in a few weeks?

I'm surprised how low last night was though. Not necessarily the figure as it's not too far down on Thursday's but the share is low even for a Friday.

I suspect excluding +1 that the ITV soaps weren't too far ahead though. In fact if ED weren't running a big storyline about the unexpected death of a character they would probably have been on par with EE.

Everything peaks then starts to tail off. Pointless is still doing well for what it is and the job its there to do.

Emmerdale still maintaining its Best Soap crown. In my opinion the soap deserves to be top soap.

Its share last night must be higher than Corrie and EE.

Tipping Point gives The Chase a boost. When Pointless was ahead it was usually because ITV had Tipping Point at 3pm, meaning Antiques Road Trip was closer to 2m leading into Pointless.

ITV's autumn is becoming increasingly mediocre - only one show touching the 7m mark which will surely be down tonight, Cold Feet bleeding overnight viewers week by week, Tuesday maintaining flop zone status and Wednesday to Friday just a sea of repetiveness. Airing three crime dramas back to back is silly and just gives the impression that ITV are short of ideas. Victoria is about the only thing holding up overnights wise though I guess The Level will too, albeit lower, depending how of copes with the return of Have I Got News For You.

It's funny because BBC One's autumn is hardly much better except... The Great British Bake Off and Strictly Come Dancing are leading the way by a healthy margin and they're not putting in as much effort as ITV in terms of drama so would expect less reward.

....Ryder Cup and Friday Night Football.

Decimate is still low in that post Doctors slot. BBC1 can't find a quiz that really works there. When you consider Father Brown can get 2m there it shows there is a potentially bigger audience for that time on BBC1 and ITV.