EE Most Popular Soap Throughout Holidays

[Lane Kent]

MediaGuardian reports

EastEnders thrashes competition

Jason Deans
Tuesday January 3, 2006



EastEnders got its best rating with an episode that saw Dennis beating up Johnny and then being fatally stabbed

EastEnders served up its usual cheery festive fare, including a fatal stabbing and another character in a coma after a vicious beating, but came out on top in the end of year soap ratings battle.

The BBC1 soap proved more popular than ITV1's Coronation Street on four of the five nights that the two shows were both on air between Christmas Day and January 2 - the exception being last Wednesday.

EastEnders rounded off its rip-roaring Christmas and new year holiday run last night with a catatonic Sharon grieving for stabbing victim Dennis.

There was also a soap staple - a bedside hospital vigil - with Walford's resident gangster, Johnny Allen, comatose and watched over by daughter Ruby.

The soap attracted 12 million viewers and a 46% audience share between 8pm and 8.30pm.

Last night's double helping of Coronation Street on ITV1 drew 11.3 million viewers from 7.30pm and then 10 million at 8.30pm.

EastEnders' best ratings of the holiday period came on Friday December 30, when 12.3 million viewers - half the available TV audience - watched the 8pm episode which culminated with Dennis beating up Johnny and then being fatally stabbed.

On the same evening, Coronation Street attracted 10 million viewers and a 42% audience share between 7.30pm and 8pm.

But two days earlier the ITV1 soap had a comfortable ratings victory, attracting 10.6 million viewers and a 43% audience share between 7.30pm and 8pm.

On a rare Wednesday night outing, EastEnders had to settle for 8.4 million viewers and a 34% audience share from 8pm.

[Lane Kent]

BBC's happy Christmas continues

Claire Cozens
Wednesday December 28, 2005


BBC1's dominance of the Christmas ratings continued last night as a double whammy of EastEnders and Casualty kept viewers tuned.
More than 11 million people watched EastEnders at 7.30pm, making it easily the most-watched programme of the day.

The soap has enjoyed strong ratings this week, beating Coronation Street in the battle of the soaps on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Last night's episode peaked at 11.4 million and averaged 10.7 million in the ratings, according to unofficial overnight figures.

This was more than three times as many viewers as ITV's After They Were Famous, which managed just 3.3 million and was beaten by a 30-year-old repeat of Dad's Army on BBC2.

BBC1 hung on to its lead at 8pm, when the second half of a Casualty @ Holby City special was watched by nearly 9 million viewers.

ITV's ratings picked up at 9pm when the English Harem, a drama starring Martine McCutcheon and Art Malik, won a respectable 5 million viewers.

But it was still beaten by the French and Saunders Celebrity Christmas Special on BBC1, averaging 6.5 million in the ratings.

Earlier in the evening BBC1's feature-length adaptation of My Family and Other Animals averaged 5.3 million viewers between 6pm and 7.30pm.

It was beaten by ITV's news with 6.5 million and Emmerdale with 8.3 million viewers.

It was a strong night for BBC2, which attracted an impressive 4.4 million viewers for the final episode of Top Gear, featuring Little Britain's David Walliams. This beat Builders from Hell on ITV1, with just 3.9 million.

The terrestrial television premiere of The Quiet American on BBC2 immediately afterwards averaged a respectable 2.4 million viewers.

[Lane Kent]

BBC takes Xmas ratings crown

Julia Day
Thursday December 29, 2005


BBC1 has fought back in the battle for the December ratings crown, overtaking ITV1 thanks to the success of shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, Little Britain and Doctor Who.
Up to and including Boxing Day, BBC1 attracted an audience share of 22.8%, narrowly beating ITV1 which has recorded a share of 22.5%.

A push over the Christmas holiday period has helped BBC1 reverse the situation it was in a week before, when ITV1 had made an early bid for the Christmas audience. Across the three weeks to December 18, ITV1 had enjoyed a 24.2% share compared to BBC1's 22.2% share during the same period.

BBC1 has been boosted by the popularity of Strictly Come Dancing whose Christmas Eve special took 9 million viewers, a 39% share of the audience, against ITV1's Ant and Dec's Christmas Takeaway which attracted 5.9 million viewers, a 26% share.

On Christmas Day, BBC1's all-time share was 31.9% against ITV1's 19.8% with the biggest BBC1 audience of the day going to EastEnders - 10.1 million viewers, a 44% share - while Doctor Who attracted 9.4 million viewers, a 43% share.

Last year, BBC1 was also just 0.3% ahead for the month of December up to and including Boxing Day with a 23.6% share compared to ITV's 23.3%.

The last time ITV1 won the December ratings battle was in 2000 when Who Wants to be a Millionaire? was still attracting audiences of more than 10 million.

But with such a tiny gap separating the two channels, the final few days of the Christmas period will prove crucial in the battle to become overall victor in the ratings across the whole month.

BBC1 has another sudden departure to come on EastEnders, the celebrity edition of Generation Game and movies including Chicken Run and Insomnia while ITV1 has the outing of a secret on Coronation Street, Titanic: Birth of a Legend and Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire?.

[RitaLittlewood]

Woo-hoo! ;D

Patsy

[pearly queen]

I find statistics of this nature very boring.
A programme was good if I/we/my family enjoyed it - doesn't matter a damn if the rest of the country were watching at the same time or not. Programme-schedulers and advertisers don't seem to live on the same planet as the rest of us, so their facts and figures don't matter too much.