EastEnders Crisis

The remedy for Eastenders is simple.. stop making it sensationalist!! Introduce characters the viewers care about.. and develop their characters with strong, long-running story lines which the viewer can get immersed in and wants to watch!!

Bianca and Ricky, Ian and Cindy, Barry and Natalie, Frank and Pat, then Peggy, Den and Angie, Carol and Alan, Grant and Sharon, Pauline and Arthur, Phil and Lisa, Roy and Pat, Gita and Sanjay - all characters we cared about, the stories were developed and it wasn't wam, bam, thank you mam. Then we have had the baddies, for instance Dan, the golden oldies, for instance Dot and other great characters such as Kathy, Pete, Michelle, Janine, little Mo and Sonia.

I do not think the recent additions are worthy of Eastenders.. they are all going to be quickly forgotten.. Juley, Gus, Kate, Alfie, Kelly, Charlie, Karina, Adi, Nana Moon, Spencer.. a large part of the cast are rubbish and they are clearing out the decent ones like Lynne and Paul.

Another problem has been the basic development of stories recently. Janine went from clever and devious to outright ridiculous and evil. Paul and Natalie's "love" story was terribly written and boring considering Natalie was a strong and long-term cast member and again it was rushed. And the point of the Ferreira's is???? (even though Ash and Tariq are ok).

Come on EE's, sort it out.. perhaps that Louise Berridge woman has to go because it does seem to have dramatically nose-dived since the departure of John Yorke. And I agree, the return of some old characters might work??

According to Digital Spy, Louise Berridge is staying! The thieving little b*tch! Get rid of her once and for all!

Maybe SOMETHING is being done:

Oh yes, and Louise Berridge is doing a "great job" according to Mal Young.

Right.. either she paid him to say that or he really thinks it; and if that is the case I think it's not just her job that needs reviewing.

Actually.. about those ratings comments. Eastenders is overall No.1 in the ratings. Corrie is actually No.2 and you can check this by looking in Heat's weekly ratings.

and of course, we all trust Heat

And of course we all trust the daily star.

By the way for that evening, EE may have lost 4 million viewers on its previous Tuesday, but while it was head to head with Emmerdale it had more viewers then Emmerdale. When two soaps go head to head, one soap will lose viewers, it may have been EE, but it was still ahead during the overlap.

I remember a couple of years ago when Corrie was in a crisis because of falling viewers. They brought in a serial killer storyline and hey presto!
Newspapers were constantly printing stories about the new revamped soap viewing figures rose. In a couple of years from now we'll be hearing the same thing again. EastEnders will be going strong with massive storylines and Corrie will be catch up. That is how the cycle works. as for Emmerdale, it is consistently on 8.5-10 million viewers max so even with these ridiculous unoriginal hour long episodes (really can't ITV put any other programme on) it isn't gaining any new viewer. People who watch it are just sticking with it. Also if EastEnders no longer had the Sunday omnibus, then Emmerdale would not be watched. People would turn over at 7.30 and watch EE. At present people think "Ah well, we can see it on Sunday" or if they are digital viewers, they can watch it at 10pm on BBC3.

It would be interesting to see if BBC3's vieweing figures are higher at 10pm on Tuseday. Does anyone know?

I actually don't think EastEnders is in a crisis. It is just going through an inevitable lull and very soon will be catapulted back up the backside by new, explosive storylines. In a few months from now this thread will be forgotten! It will instead be about "CORRIE IN CRISIS!".

I strongly disagree.

Corrie has been on top form for years now. Ever since 2002 and the Richard Hillman storyline. Since then we've had bigamy, abduction, prejudice, sexuality problems, and that's only a few. All these storylines where character driven and drew huge ratings at their climax. We have heaps of storylines to come including cancer, a love triangle, a funeral, a dramatic Christmas exit storyline, and more. Corrie got the top six in last weeks ratings for the revelation about Todd, and that's from BARB ratings. It had the highest ratings for the first quarter of 2004 AND the highest ratings in 2003.

EastEnders has had weak, messy and sensationalist storylines. These include a second rape, an unconvincing loanshark demanding sex as payment, a family no one cares about being evicted, a woman marrying her ex-fianceé's killer, a lesbian kiss that lead to nothing, and a singalong christmas pantomime. That's only a few.

Ratings have fallen to an all time low and at one point it WAS beaten by Emmerdale, which is being scheduled to clash with EastEnders.

EIGHTEEN cast members have left or are leaving, the list includes the soaps most credible actors:
Natalie, Barry, Laura, Janine, Paul, Mark, Lisa, Dan, Phil, Peggy, Little Mo, Shirley, Gavin, Robbie, Nita, Kelly, Sharon and Lynne.

ONE cast member has joined.
Chrissy Watts

I vehemently believe EastEnders is in a VERY big crisis that will need a bloody good producer to fix.

Im not a massive reader of British newspapers but I dont think any soap has taken the amount of abuse in the media that eastenders currently is taking.

Exactly

Firstly, phil, Peggy, little Mo are all coming back to the soap. gavin was brought in just to tell a "noisy neighbour" story and who the hell cared about Shirley? Sharon has left before and came back. Paul was a bit of an enigma. He came in as a bad guy's "tool" (Remember Goldie?) so was difficult to expand on his storylines especially as his brother left.
Janine had to leave as her storylines were become a bit of a fantasy and there was nowhere left for her to go. Lisa just cried all the time and got on everyones nerves and Lynne (Elaine Lordan) was so out of control with her drinking and rebellious behaviour off set that was dismissed after several warnings. So the characters you mention are not really that important. I agree with you that a new good producer is required though. Louise has made the show a little stale and the characters do look unconvincing at times.

As for Corrie. You say a storyline about cancer is coming up. What again? Another funeral? Another love triangle? Another Christmas exit?
That is my point! All these storylines have been done before. Several times. (With the exception of cancer). People WILL get bored and DO get bored with repetitive plotlines. I stand by my claim that in a year from now, the roles of the top soaps will be reversed. Also Corrie is on a thousand times a week. Emmerdale is on a million times a week.

I think it is about time that the British public (and myself included) actually did something with their lives instead of watching soaps hour after hour. It is a sad reflection of our society if that is all we can do or watch nowadays. For example, if we had something major happen (like a terrorist attack-heaven forbid), people would actually complain if the soaps were postponed or delayed. That is really sad. Fifteen years ago, people had much more variety to watch than they do now and I think we should revert back to soaps being on twice a week and more different styles of programme made.

So EastEnders is not in crisis. It will be on our screens for years to come. It is our society that is in crisis and our inability to care about TV shows anymore other than the bloody soaps. Life in soaps is not real. We should stop pretending that it is. Mind you I suppose there's that crappy Big Brother!