EastEnders

Viewership

Based on market research by BBC commissioning in 2003, EastEnders is most watched by 16 - 24 year olds, closely followed by 25 - 34 year olds. An average EastEnders episode attracts a total audience share between 45% and 50%.

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Aside from that, the 10pm repeat showing on BBC Three attracts an average of 500,000 viewers, whilst the Sunday omnibus attracts a further 3 million.

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Ever since EastEnders began on the mainstream BBC One, it has achieved some of the highest audiences in British television history.

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The launch show attracted 17 million viewers in the 1980s, this was perhaps helped by the amount of press attention it received, something which continues today.

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In 1986, just under two years since it had been on air, EastEnders attracted 30.15 million viewers, for the Christmas episode in which Den handed a divorce letter to wife Angie. A figure that would be its largest audience ever, as well as the largest amount of viewers for a soap episode and the 4th largest audience for a British television channel ever and the highest television audience for a single channel of the 1980s.

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In comparison, the smallest amount for an EastEnders episode was around 6.2 million in 2004, somewhat more than the lowest of its rivals Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

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Despite a decade and a half of high viewership, it was most popular in the early 2000s. Attracting an average of 15 million for most episodes and peaks of upto 25 million for the climaxes of popular storylines. Sonia's shock birth in 2000 was watched by 19.3 million viewers and in 2001, Mel's marriage to Steve Owen was watched by 22.5 million viewers. EastEnders was perhaps at its least popular in the year 2004, its least ever audience share was 28% in early 2005.

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Scheduling

For the past 20 years, EastEnders has remained at the center of BBC One's primetime schedule. There are currently four episodes per week (five including the omnibus) on British television. These are the following dates and times: Monday at 8:00 PM, Tuesday at 7:30 PM, Thursday at 7:30 PM, Friday at 8:00 PM and the omnibus on Sunday at 1:30 PM.

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Originally EastEnders was shown twice weekly, this then increased to thrice after Coronation Street added an extra episode - in response to competition from EastEnders. EastEnders then added its fourth episode (shown on Friday's) on August 10th 2001. This caused some controversy as it clashed with Coronation Street, which at the time, was moved to 8.00PM to make way for an hour long episode of rural soap Emmerdale at 7.00PM. The move immediately provoked an angry response from ITV insiders, who argued that the BBC's last-minute move - only revealed at 3.30pm on the day - broke an unwritten scheduling rule that the two flagship soaps would not be put directly against each other.

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In this first head-to-head battle, EastEnders claimed victory over its rival.

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In 1998, EastEnders Revealed was launched on BBC Choice (now BBC3), the show takes a look behind the scenes of the show and investigates particular places, characters or families within EastEnders. EastEnders Revealed is the only BBC Choice programme to last the entire life of the channel and is still running on BBC3. An episode of EastEnders Revealed which was commissioned for BBC Three attracted 611,000 viewers.

Related Topics:
EastEnders Revealed - BBC Choice - BBC3

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In early 2003 - viewers could watch episodes of EastEnders on digital channel BBC3 before they were broadcast on BBC One. This was to coincide with the relaunch of the channel and helped BBC3 break the one million viewers for the first time with 1,030,000 million who watched to see Mark Fowler's departure.

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EastEnders is usually repeated on BBC Three at 10:00 PM and old reruns can often be seen on UKTV Gold (As of August 2005, UKTV Gold are showing episodes originally aired in May 2002).

Related Topics:
Reruns - UKTV Gold

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As part of the BBC's digital push, EastEnders Xtra was introduced in 2005. The show is presented by Angelica Bell and available to digital viewers by pressing the red button at 8.30PM on Monday nights. The series goes behind the scenes of the show and talks to some of the cast members. The current series has now finished.

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International screenings

EastEnders is aired around the world in many English-speaking countries, including New Zealand and Canada. The series aired in the United States until BBC America ceased broadcasts of the serial in 2003, amidst fan protests. It is still shown on BBC Prime in Europe and Africa, and BBC Canada in Canada.

Related Topics:
English-speaking - New Zealand - Canada - United States - BBC America - 2003 - BBC Prime - Europe - Africa - BBC Canada

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In June, 2004, the Dish Satellite Network picked up EastEnders, airing episodes starting at the point where BBC America had ceased broadcasting them, offering the serial as a Pay-per-View item. Dish first broadcast two weeks' worth of shows each week to get caught up. In approximately February, 2005, the programming reached the point of being one month behind the new shows being aired in the UK. At that point, Dish stopped its double-helping schedule, and now maintains the schedule of airing the new programmes consistently one month behind the UK schedule. Episodes from prior years are still shown on various PBS stations in the US.

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The series was screened in Australia by the ABC from 1987 until the early 1990s. Currently the series is seen in Australia only on pay-TV channel UK.TV. In New Zealand, it was shown by TVNZ on TV One, but is now on Prime. In Ireland, it is shown on RTÉ One at the same time as BBC One, which is also widely received in the country.

Related Topics:
Australia - ABC - UK.TV - New Zealand - TVNZ - Prime - Ireland - RTÉ One - BBC One

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Critique

EastEnders has received both praise and criticism for most of its storylines which have dealt with difficult themes, such as violence, rape and murder.

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The incestual rape storyline, between Kat and her uncle Harry, saw calls to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) go up by 60%. The chief executive of the NSPCC praised the storyline, for covering the subject in a direct and sensitive way, coming to the conclusion that people were more likely to report any issues relating to child protection because of it.

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EastEnders is often criticised for being too violent, most notably during a Domestic violence storyline between Little Mo and husband Trevor. As EastEnders is shown pre-watershed, there were worries that scenes of this storyline were too graphic for its audience. Complaints against a scene in which Little Mo's faced was shoved in gravy on Christmas day, were upheld by the Broadcasting Standards Council. However at the same time, a helpline after this episode attracted over 2000 calls. The complaints from viewers saw the scenes - including a headbutt and Trevor being hit with a iron - as "tasteless".

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Erin Pizzey, who became internationally famous for having started one of the first Women's Refuges, said that EastEnders had done more to raise the issue of violence against women in one story than she had done in twenty-five years.

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In 2003, Shaun Williamson who played Barry Evans, said that the programme has became much grittier over the past 10 to 15 years, and found it "frightening" that parents let their young children watch.

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