This just feels like EastEnders bashing for the sake of EastEnders bashing. It has little to do with the current state of the show and the recent viewing figures - it's clearly going through a transitional phase from the sensationalism and twists and turns of Dominic Treadwell-Collins' tenure to the more grounded, quieter realism of Sean O'Connor's work. O'Connor is yet to prove himself and the show is clearly a work-in-progress currently under him.

When EastEnders has more community-focused, lighter moments, it's disregarded as "dull" and "boring". When EastEnders features darker, dramatic storylines, it's regarded as "depressing" and a chore to watch. It's nothing personal but I find such criticism typical of the tabloids whenever they need to reel off another dig at EastEnders. The reason why figures are modest at the moment is basically because it's very quiet with a lack of "big" storylines.

I don't know if it means anything for the ratings but Meet the Parents is, gulp, something of a Twitter hit. It's not only trending, but a quick read of the tweets suggests people are starting to like and even love the show.

The tweets suggest it's continuing to do really well with 18-30s and most seem to be women. It'll be interesting to see if it affects how ITV perceive the success of the programme.

X Factor must be desperate for people to vote - lines open before anybody has performed. Is that the first time that's happened?

No it happens every year, you're clutching at negativity straws.
Though I'm not sure why they didn't bother for the first two weeks.

No - it doesn't. It's been "lines open at the end of the show" for as long as I can remember.

Nope- look at the end of this clip for example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HzT...nnel=Arribaftv

Move along!

- http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...8&postcount=72
- http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...8&postcount=74
- http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...8&postcount=75

Yes, non-live viewing on the same channel up to 2am. Not a different one.


Not by everyone - it's only since DS stopped publishing reports that including +1 has become the default on here.

As I said, I don't want to get too into this but I feel compelled to reply.

Well those posts you've craftily chosen to fit your agenda don't mean anything, I disproved Aaron's claim with footage from the show.

Ahem:

2015 - http://youtu.be/AXC7rF5ua2M
2013 - http://youtu.be/bT3ZeXUebx8

Look at when the graphics come up: "Lines open when all contestants have performed"

Seems you don't know even know the show you religiously defend. Maybe get your facts right before going off on one!

Well maybe some series do it and others don't.
You're still not correct, my video still stands. It has 100% been done before.

Yeah it has, I even remember it

But for almost every series before 2014 it was at the end of Saturday's show. It must have changed in 2014, but it then it changed back in 2015 and has now suddenly changed again three weeks in to 2016.

Strange nonetheless.

What's the latest argument? Oh X Factor. Marvellous.

It is definitely the weekend....

"Your Saturday night X Factor arguing starts here!"

But +1 is essentially non-live viewing of the same programme before 2am. Therefore by definition it should be included. I fail to see how it can be viewed any differently.

Including +1 has been default for the majority here even when we had DS reports. This debate only starts when there's a close rating battle between BBC and ITV, and people allow their channel allegiance to take over.

The fact that we don't get excluding +1 ratings very often now would mean excluding it isn't even feasible. Therefore this whole debate is a waste of time.

Opening the voting at the start was done in a previous series (2014 I think) but it's always been consistent throughout a series. They've never changed it halfway through.

There. Something for everyone.

Clearly they'll be people intending to watch on +1 so to exclude them would be worse. In a 7 day consolidated rating you could argue that they should include everyone who watched a repeat and assume every viewer was unique.


Anywho, I just watched the crash and follow-up episodes of Emm. The crash was well done and surprised me. I actually wanted the guys to not drown though I'd rather have seen them escape.

To say I have no idea who anyone in it was, it grabbed me. It was comparable to an American drama and that's high praise from me.

No I won't watch next week but fair play to them. It reminded me of the EE episode when we found out who got Michelle pregnant.

Lower than last week for a below par show - no posts on this forum either which was surprsing.

Great ratings all round there, especially for Emmerdale which was a fantastic episode. I'm glad Corrie went up as well and it's so good to see them both above 7 million. Hopefully the momentum stays.


Great rating and it keeps increasing, hopefully above 3 million for final.


I agree with you, I'm an on/off viewer but I've been completely put off by the bore-fest of recent weeks. It's a slog to put yourself through half an hour of it, I now view on catch up and skip most scenes.


Sadly I don't think we'll get these unless Broadcast include ITV HD in their figures - does anyone know if they have plans to do this and why they don't at the moment?


Inc+1 is the norm for ITV programmes and I think it will stay that way.


Historically yes but assuming it should these days is complacent I feel, Emmerdale has earned its position in the top three through hard work and quality drama and it should be a wake-up call to Corrie that they're doing so well.


I saw this and it was disappointed, they need to build on this week of drama noy just expect the viewers to stay.

Don't most people vote by app now anyway? It's not going to be a moneymaker.

It's probably fairer and the old voting system massively favoured the later performers. It always amused me how the last performer normally won on BGT where there was only a few minutes of voting.

X factor has completely lost the plot tonight.

Aand the Ratings Thread X Factor police have arrived.

Nobody cares what we think of X Factor each week.

Something I noticed earlier this evening, just looking for somthing to watch at 7pm, there is literally nothing. Or nothing of note. Its all pretty bland, even on the multichannels.

Its not suprising SCD does so well in its timeslot - its got nothing to challenge it. Just hoover up many floating viewers.

Rpt's on BBC2, rpt's on Ch4, Ch5, ITV2, ITV3 E4 etc. Even ITV's Meet The Parents is offputting for, clearly a large number of viewers. It might be doing well in the young demographic, but its not attracting a good range of viewers.

I'm so certain something like Ninja Warrior UK would do 1-1.5m better than the paltry rating last week for MTP. I suspect the latter will be under 2m tonight.

Ratings tend to go back to normal quite quickly after event weeks anyway. Many of those extra/casual viewers would've been tuning in because they'd heard there was going to be a stunt. That's been aired now.

Plus, there was no 'shock' outcome at the end of Friday's episode. Only one person was killed off. A forgettable character whose death was reported in the press weeks ago.

Are we even sure there will be much of an aftermath? An episode or so after the helicopter crash last year and it was like the whole thing had never happened. This stunt was pretty similar in that it was an add-on to existing drama/stories that could easily have played out and still had significant moments (albeit less hype-able ones) without it. One gets the impression the pressure for the show to have these stunts more so comes from ITV.

James could have easily been killed by simply hitting the tarmac of the road, and the most powerful bit of Ashley's ep was the stuff at home and at the christening. It was these characters who had the strongest individual strands, more so thanks to Gillian Kearney in James and Emma's case. The less said about the first two eps of the week the better. If the stunt had to happen at all, I'd have still had it just involving James, Emma and Ashley. Paddy/Rhona/Pierce felt detached from everything else in the aftermath and it felt like 'Robron' were only involved as fan-pandering. Robert going back into the lake for the ring in last night's ep was a pukeworthy moment.