You say this every time. Like most BBC programmes with a large older audience, they remain loyal.

EE could have 1hr of Ian Beale on the toilet and it would still hold 4m+.

EE is like TXF. Trying but failing.

Are you being serious? I can't quite tell.

Personally, the BIB is exactly what soaps need to move away from. Complex, convoluted sensationalism focusing on predictable twists, contrived reasons for secrets not being outed and characters being wrongly accused of a crime.

Ronnie and Roxy should've had a showdown on the hotel roof at the very start of the episode only to be talked down by Jack who had a shock revelation that he was, in fact, Roxy's father. Then, once that had died down and Ronnie and Jack married anyway, the sisters could've got in the Thelma and Louise car (or even better, the Routemaster bus - yes, let's go with the bus) and driven through the ornate glass windows of the hotel swimming pool, landing in the water. A frenzied struggle for survival would ensue with one character ending up in a coma in hospital for the next month, while the other survives. It is later revealed that Max had spiked Roxy with mind-altering drugs and implanted a microchip that he built from scraps of fabric and banana skins from the market and was controlling her thoughts and actions from a drone in Dot's living room leading her to drive the car into the pool. Sounds FAB-U-LOUS!

The power of the real episode that aired was that is was a simple human tragedy; an accident that could've happened to any one of us if the circumstances were dangerous enough. No revenge plots, whodunnit or stand off on the hotel roof - just a purely painful human tragedy, something which is very rare in soaps these days.

These figures only show the people watching as the programmes went out. I would imagine a lot of potential viewers were otherwise engaged on New Year's Day. Let's wait to see what's revealed after the 'catch-up' figures are added.

The days of judging a programme's success from the overnight figures alone are long past.

It's rare because people who write soaps usually know that there are no advantages to doing it. When you write a TV drama usually if you're killing off two major characters you do so in a way that's going to allow you to leverage the next big story line going forward.

This is why in Corrie, Phelan's comeuppance isn't going to be him being randomly hit by a bus for no reason. Or why in Emmerdale, Emma Barton's climax to the current story line isn't going to be her being electrocuted trying to rewire a plug next Tuesday.

Random acts of 'human tragedy' are fine if you're killing off a relatively minor character who's not been in it for long on a Thursday afternoon in mid August. But as the climax to your big new years day episode it's really, really poor.

Well i am shocked by this. Knocks my theory that it would see a ratings spike I was expecting around 7million before going back to the norm of 5-6 mil. Not very good for 2 iconic character exits.
Where will the ratings be in a few months time the way the show is going?

I agree H. They are essentially the same audience I think. What are the demos for both shows are they similar?

Age range I think - they access TV second to other things

EE's core audience of 40+ is smaller than Corrie's isn't it? So who does EE appeal to in the future teens and develop a strong fan base like with Aaron & Robert? They couldn't even get Snapchat right yesterday? More teen/young adult storylines? Bit hard as the cast has shruck so SOC needs to introduce a few 'dynamic' characters pretty sharpish.

In your opinion, of course.

You don't speak for everyone.

Personally I am sick to death (pun intended) of convoluted plots and needless contrivances; stupid 'twists' that are meant to shock but are wholly predictable. In my views, soaps have run out of energy to deliver decent drama with these kinds of plots, so any move away from that is something I will feel very positively about.

Since you use Emmerdale as an example, I'll use it in my rebuttal. Emma pushing James from the footbridge, only for him to fall onto the car of a neighbour from the same small village, causing a huge pile up to ensue that involves many other residents from the same small village. Seriously? To me this is contrived beyond belief with many suspensions of reality. Clearly you get enjoyment from this kind of drama, but for me and many others it is little more than superficial candy floss. Or, as bass55 so beautifully put it, "shock and lolz".

Giving a prominent accidental death to two of the show's main characters spells a new era for EastEnders and potentially for all soaps.

Looks like we've got another Kirkwood here who's going to essentially run EE into the ground.

NYD falling on a Sunday didn't help. Not trying to make excuses but I just think that episode should've aired tonight

And if the lead up to R&R's exit had been better, it would have been a very different story. It's a shame the show hasn't been in very good shape for a while.

Dear oh dear some of you really get upset don't you.

There is nothing wrong with the three main soaps.

They are what they are Soaps.

Sensational storylines and then a few weeks of nothing in particular.

There are floods, Storms, Helicopter crashes, Train crashes, Multi car pile ups,

Murders, Who done it's, Miraculous recoveries of drink or drug addicts.

They are soaps, and no particular actor is bigger than them.

Stop being so disgusted by some producer or scriptwriter.

Get over it and move on.

Phil - you've been taking those LogicPills again haven't you?

The difference is that EE had what was supposed to be a mega ep, which has been trailed heavily and covered endlessly in the media. Therefore you'd expect it to have strong ratings, but it didn't.

If you read a book where the climax death of the main character was that they fell down a hole by accident and died, you'd be entitled to think it was a bit anticlimactic. No matter how well written the chapter detailing the descent into the hole was.

Corrie's audience are more loyal and their everyday episodes are of better quality which is why viewers are more patient in my opinion.

EastEnders has been good lately but it picks and chooses far too much when it wants to be good, and it's catching up with them.

That rating can not even be excused. Dreadful! Last year got 8.3 million aswell! HUGE drop.

I also think soaps that feed and bow down to the social media ships need to take a look at the bigger picture.

Last year featured the Carters

EE was shocking over Christmas and afterwards. It was just lazy - people sitting in the pub which was playing Christmas music (surely that should be consigned back to hell where it belongs by Boxing Day) and not much going on apart from Lee which wasn't handled well. NYD being a Sunday and not an EE day maybe led to low ratings too. I forgot it was on until I spotted it on the Sky planner. People will be travelling back from breaks and all sorts and will catch up later.

It was also split. A format that tends to work for EE's big episodes.

It finished early too so the tape-checked rating will be 6m but if you look at the breakdown (see ratings thread) there was a visible drop from 7.45-8pm which is odd.

I don't see your point

People prefer the carters obviously

hahahha No joy at all..Well two sisters drowning is not suposed to be joyfull hahahahah

I didnt bother because I would have prefered NO forced by media spoilers

had it been non advertised I would have watched........

Happy new year to you all xxxxxxxxx

Don't bother..Have you ever realised politicians are really quite useless

They should be given tenure for only six months and voted off for yet another vain article
xx

Simply put EE is paying the price for SOC's boring vision of the show for the past 4 months.
You cannot ignore the criticism its getting all over FB and Twitter, also weeks of stupid bin storylines, Shakil and Bex, Kim's driving, Dot's vision/loneliness being dragged out every episode.

There have hardly been any storylines of substance other than the stuff with Lee which is the only one to have any real drama to it.

So last nights ratings are a climax of the build up and the show has been too lacking in drama. SOC has to change direction and be more in keeping with what casual viewers want if they want decent ratings. You can't just pander to the fans that want EE to resemble the old days, this is 2017, get with the times or get left behind.

Viewing figures for New Years Day should be taken with a pinch of salt. Most people go out and considering Eastenders has more of a younger fan base than Coronation Street it's figures would always suffer more. Expect to see huge numbers on catch up.

Yes both have younger audiences than their counterpart - EE to Corrie and TXF to SCD.

The younger skewing shows are the main shows seeing the biggest declines.

EE has I think, for example, take last nights rating, around 1.3/4m 16-34 year-olds while TXF has 1.5/6m. So similar.

Corrie around 800k-1m 16-34year olds similar to SCD.