EastEnders bosses hit back at 'rating crisis' claims

5 July 2019, 14:50

It was claimed the BBC soap is in 'crisis' after the lowest ratings in its 34-year history.

EastEnders has been forced to defend itself following reports the show is suffering the ‘lowest amount of viewers ever’.

The BBC soap has recently been faced with a string of scheduling changes due to the ongoing coverage of the Women’s World Cup.

Last week, it was revealed there would be a last minute change down to the quarter-final match between Norway and England which was shown on Thursday (June 27) at 7.30pm.

And while the next episode was originally set to be shown on Friday 28 June at 8.00pm, it was broadcast the day before at 7.00pm instead.

And due to the unscheduled change, the usually-popular soap got just 2.4million viewers and was even beaten by Question Time.

It’s the first time EastEnders has seen its audience slump below three million, with ITV rival Emmerdale raking in 4.9million when it was shown at the same time.

But after claims it’s popularity “had drooped”, a spokesperson for the soap hit back insisting they are “confident in their audience”.

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They said: “With the growing popularity of this year’s Women’s World Cup, it was decided that BBC One viewers should have the opportunity to watch as many of the matches as possible.

“Although this meant a late schedule change for EastEnders this week, we are confident that our audience know they can watch EastEnders on BBC iPlayer as we have already seen a significant number of viewers watching this week’s episodes.”

This comes after a source told The Sun: “The BBC has always prided itself on the enduring success of EastEnders but its popularity has slowly drooped over the past year.

“The ratings on Thursday were embarrassing, especially given in its heyday EastEnders would get over eight million.

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“The storylines aren’t resonating with fans and it doesn’t seem to have any of those exciting ‘doof doof’ moments it’s famed for.”

However, many fans of the show were left fuming when they accidentally missed it with one writing: “EastEnders Thank you for informing us EastEnders was on early today. I missed it #Gutted.”

Another blasted: “The slot changing for @bbceastenders from @BBCOne is terrible.”

While a third added: “All this chopping and changing is damaging the show further and it's quality is excellent #EastEnders”