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Eastenders 5 Nights A Week?


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Old 16-02-2007, 23:57
Joeboy
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Sorry to open a purely speculative thread, but I just had a look at the front page of tomorrow's Sun which claims that Eastenders is soon to go 5-nights-a-week.

Good idea?
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Old 16-02-2007, 23:59
PANNAL1
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No, it is on far too much already and think cutting it down to 2/3 episodes a week would raise the quality and bring it back to the great soap it once was.
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Old 17-02-2007, 00:03
Shak2005
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No five days is not a good idea for EE. Four episodes a week is fine as it is. Corrie and Emmerdale have far too much episodes as well so I wouldn't want EE to go the same way as them
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Old 17-02-2007, 00:07
Ethereal.
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EE's output is more or less 5 episodes a week as it is, because they film more than the other soaps as the others have commercial breaks and only run for just over 20 minutes whereas EastEnders is around 28 minutes long.
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Old 17-02-2007, 00:31
kyri
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Oh,no,no,no. 4 nights a week is enough (maybe abit to much). I would love to have it on 5 nights a week but it would start to lack it's quality.
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Old 17-02-2007, 00:37
001_ATLANTIS
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As much as I love Eastenders I just don't think 5 episodes a week is a good idea at all. It already struggles to sustain quality stories at the moment and I would prefer they actually cut back on one in order to improve production values.

5 episodes is also asking for an awful lot of committment from fans. Some of us do have a life outside watching soap!
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Old 17-02-2007, 00:39
Rysen
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As much as I love EE...I'm not sure it would cope with 5 episodes at the moment. It might be better to wait a while.
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Old 17-02-2007, 01:30
CHUTNEY
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Hopefully it will hasten its demise, after 22 years it really is dead in the water. :sleep:
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Old 17-02-2007, 01:37
Relugus
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It will be a case of quantity over quality if they go to 5 times.

Actors will be overworked, scripts will be rushed.
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Old 17-02-2007, 02:00
Dragons_Heartbeat
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This sounds like a bad plan the current amount of EE episodes is bad enough lately, I bet ITV will most probably tag along then and Emmerdale will be running 7 days a week or something.
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Old 17-02-2007, 08:34
Sunflower Seed
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If they launch 5 episodes a week I can't see EastEnders lasting longing than two more years.

For this to work they need have two Executive Producers in place and a much bigger production team. Not to mention the cast would need at least 10 new additions. EastEnders is on a fixed budget of 50 million a year it would need to be increased by at least 10 million for this to work.
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Old 17-02-2007, 09:07
ZoeMcCallister
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When will this extra episode air? If it's wednesday it will have to be at 8pm and that would clash with the bill. Same if it's sunday, it will clash with other itv dramas and top gear. SO it probably won't get good ratings-also as someone else said ee has no breaks so thay are getting 5 episodes worth of screen time already. It's as good as it is-just look at emmerdale lately-the quality is not as good.
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Old 17-02-2007, 09:20
5 a day
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http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2...070924,00.html
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Old 17-02-2007, 09:25
Ethereal.
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If they up output to 5 episodes a week, you can guarantee that the first to walk will be June Brown and John Bardon. They've made no secret that they do not agree with some of the storylines and filming schedules already.
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Old 17-02-2007, 09:42
robinsbatman
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I heard this last week from someone who has family working on the show. Apparently, the original plan was to take the show off air for about 6 months. However, that got leaked late last year, & would have affected the budgets (they'd have been paying the major cast members for time they weren't actually working with no guarantee of a resumed transmission date), plus would have found it very hard to stop them doing other work in those months. They then changed the plan to make the show 5 nights a week, presumably to get the most out of the cast for as little cost as possible & try to get viewers from other competing shows.

The fifth night signals the deathknell of the show for me. They haven't grasped that they need to improve the writing to bring in consistently bigger audience numbers. Storylines will be dragged out, the bigger cast members will either appear less or will have too much work to do, there'll be more bits before & after the show touting other programmes, etc. There'll be complaints from some of the cast (especially the older ones) about the extra work, less rehearsal time etc, & some of them will leave. I suspect the show will be off air permanently within 2 years anyway, as neither the writing nor the acting compare to the days when Angie, Den, Lou etc were in it. There are plenty of overseas sales of the earlier episodes to rake in the money for years to come.
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Old 17-02-2007, 09:44
pammi_i
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Originally Posted by PANNAL1
No, it is on far too much already and think cutting it down to 2/3 episodes a week would raise the quality and bring it back to the great soap it once was.
No more to add than that, and that applies to ALL the soaps. They all need pruning back.
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Old 17-02-2007, 09:46
jonparadise
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Good lord, who is in control of this show?

They're doing the exact opposite to what even the most ardent fans think is the right thing for the show.

This is a really risky move.

Plus, it means the networks are going to be even more saturated with soaps.
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Old 17-02-2007, 09:47
NorfolkBird
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Well the article does say that an "EE insider insisted the cast had NOT been told of plans for a fifth weekly episode". So if it does, I can't see it happening anytime in the near future.
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Old 17-02-2007, 09:48
Lucky Bamboo
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i dont think this is true the boss of bbc one said he didnt want ee to go five nights a few months ago so wha thas changed in that time?

sounds very fishy
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Old 17-02-2007, 09:53
robinsbatman
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Originally Posted by CambridgeBird
Well the article does say that an "EE insider insisted the cast had NOT been told of plans for a fifth weekly episode". So if it does, I can't see it happening anytime in the near future.
If it's going to happen at all, I think it will happen within the next 4-6 months. By then, many of the contracts will have been up for renewal & they'll know who they want to keep.
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Old 17-02-2007, 09:54
Sunflower Seed
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Originally Posted by robinsbatman
I heard this last week from someone who has family working on the show. Apparently, the original plan was to take the show off air for about 6 months. However, that got leaked late last year, & would have affected the budgets (they'd have been paying the major cast members for time they weren't actually working with no guarantee of a resumed transmission date), plus would have found it very hard to stop them doing other work in those months. They then changed the plan to make the show 5 nights a week, presumably to get the most out of the cast for as little cost as possible & try to get viewers from other competing shows.

The fifth night signals the deathknell of the show for me. They haven't grasped that they need to improve the writing to bring in consistently bigger audience numbers. Storylines will be dragged out, the bigger cast members will either appear less or will have too much work to do, there'll be more bits before & after the show touting other programmes, etc. There'll be complaints from some of the cast (especially the older ones) about the extra work, less rehearsal time etc, & some of them will leave. I suspect the show will be off air permanently within 2 years anyway, as neither the writing nor the acting compare to the days when Angie, Den, Lou etc were in it. There are plenty of overseas sales of the earlier episodes to rake in the money for years to come.

I would have believed this post up until
the plan was to take the show off air for about 6 months
Sorry but that would never have happened.

If they are going to make the production team bigger to cope with this demand it might just be a blessing in disguise.
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Old 17-02-2007, 09:57
Lucky Bamboo
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Originally Posted by Sunflower Seed
.

If they are going to make the production team bigger to cope with this demand it might just be a blessing in disguise.

when you put it like that you could be right.
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Old 17-02-2007, 10:03
paulsalter
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What would the BBC gain by doing this?

I can understand from a commercial channel point of view that having more episodes of a popular programme brings in more money, but how does this work for the BBC?

We also have the problem of where it goes, and the increase in time for the omnibus

If this is true (which I doubt), It looks just like BBC trying to get one over on ITV, I really cannot see any other reason for this

Unless fans do want more episodes, but thats not the impression I get
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Old 17-02-2007, 10:06
Sunflower Seed
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I don't believe its true. If you ask me The Sun have picked up on something and got the total wrong end of the stick.

It will be denied soon I'm sure of it.
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Old 17-02-2007, 10:44
michelle.g
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I love EE but, don't want it 5 nights a week, When it was on two then three times a week it was at its best, at four times a week its not as good as it was, storylines are either rushed through or dragged on and on getting more and more boring. If it went to five nights what would happen would all the characters become a Gus ie. no purpose in being in the show other than to cheer someone up in the Vic when they need a night out. NO to five nights a week!
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