Most watched UK soap opera?

[holeinmydonut]

michael grade moved eastenders from the 7pm slot because emmerdale farm was getting higher ratings. when eastenders moved to 7.30 it thrived.

the soaps have faired okish against the olympics. eastenders has perofrmed well on bbc2, emmerdale has had the lowest rating ep on fri. corrie has been the least damaged. but all soaps have recorded their lowest figures of the year. as for hollyoaks it only just registered.

[Englishboy]

It's a little surprising to hear that Corrie's figures haven't been dented by the Olympics coverage on the BBC.

I've only seen one episode of the Manchester based saga in the last two weeks

[holeinmydonut]

It's a little surprising to hear that Corrie's figures haven't been dented by the Olympics coverage on the BBC.

I've only seen one episode of the Manchester based saga in the last two weeks

i suppose the corrie audience is the most loyal and they watch more out of habit. ( i include myself in this.)

if the end of the world was about to happen us corrie viewers would say:

'well thats ok, but can you wait until 8 o clock till corrie has finished.'

[Emmerdalefan]

Shows that Corrie will outlive Emmie and Easties for years if ever the latter two finish which is doubtful for a long while.

Corrie will probably be celebrating its 100th in December 2060. Ken Barlow will be long gone by then and Dennis, Emily, Rita and Norris will also be long gone but I said before they should bring back the 2 girls who were playing and singing outside Elsie Lappin's shop aged 10 in 1960 as 110 year olds. And a 99 year old Paul Cheveski should be there.

We will probably see the grandchildren of Eyebrows and Gnashers there, a 66 year old Chesney and 78 year old Tyrone, who will probably be as wooden as he is now .

[Maria - Noele Gordon Fan]

Its all down to the time of night, had Crossroads been on at 7pm or 7.30pm as the rare occurrences when it was it peaked at over 18million viewers for just a regular episode so that was really down to it not being networked across ITV, and managed to still pull in ratings above 16million when all totted up despite some areas showing it at 5.15pm.

My region Granada regularly shown it at 5.15 p.m. Not their worst time though, that was 1.30 p.m.

[TonyUKsoapfan]

Interesting they moved General Hospital to prime time over Emmerdale first in 1975, yet ATV pulled its plug in 1979 rather than just tailor it to an update of the times.

Of course maybe they felt having tried that with Emergency Ward 10 (its final year is an entirely different show to the cosy show thats always shown in clips) it wasn't worth the money.

[holeinmydonut]

granada never liked crossroads, i suppose they had their nose's pushed out of joint when atv's crossroads reigned supreme in the early mid 70's. corrie was having a few problems with their cast, with deaths, illness and actors leaving, where as crossroads hated by the critics but loved by the viewers, was top of the ratings, especially with megs wedding to hugh.

corrie suffered when they went to colour. it didnt look quite right. corrie only really recovered under the reign of bill podmore.

[Emmerdalefan]

Emmerdale is not a lesser soap and will never be as it has almost as many viewers as the other Big 2. Corrie, EE and Emmie are the Big 3 and have always had much more viewers than lesser soaps like Brookside and Hollyoaks. Although Brookside and Hollyoaks have still had 5 to 6 million viewers and been well known soaps but not like the Big 3. I dont mind a bit of Hollyoaks even if I am not a regular viewer and always liked Brookside.

[holeinmydonut]

when brookside began in 1982 it gave the other soaps a good kick up the backside. in its early days it was a breath of fresh air.

[Maria - Noele Gordon Fan]

Yes it was. Very straight to the point and very gritty storylines.

[Emmerdalefan]

I am now stocking up on 1980s EastEnders episodes. I am watching them not to do an oral history like JFL's one but am taking notes of any mentions of characters ages and seeing if they tie in with later episodes. I have noticed a few minor inconsistencies with character backgrounds already. Enjoying them though. The history of all the Big 3 soaps is awe inspiring and a year ago it was Emmerdale but now the history of Corrie and Easties bug has bitten me.

I think at the end of the day the most watched soap is Corrie.

[Englishboy]

I know in its heydey Crossroads was the highest rated programme for 1976 & 77, top of the ratings. It beat all programmes of any sort.

The same thing happened in Australia with racy medical soap, The Young Doctors - the programme most often compared to Crossroads which is not all that surprising given that in Alan Coleman and Reg Watson it had the same production team.

It got prime time ratings despite being stripped in a 6pm (teatime) slot - ratings which were hitherto unheard of for a programme in that sort of timeslot at the time.

It was only eventually axed because the network kept moving it around in the schedules to make way for one day cricket events