Five nights for Eastenders?

BBC1's midweek audience has slumped so badly that there is speculation it might have to extend EastEnders to five nights.

A series of 'Black Wednesdays' has produced prime-time viewing figures lower than Channel 4's - with only one in seven viewers watching BBC1 at some points.

According to experts, the reason is that Wednesday is the only night lacking an episode of EastEnders, which draws in around 12million viewers.

The trouble began on February 18, when the channel launched a new line-up of what executives called ' charter renewal' programmes - current affairs and natural history shows which it hopes will convince the Government it should be allowed to keep the Royal Charter that lets it collect the licence fee.

The effect was disastrous on ratings and the average for the evening, excluding the 10pm news and the fiveminute lottery programme, was just 2.7million.

At 9pm the new drama Family Business, starring George Cole and Jamie

Foreman, attracted a paltry 2.2million viewers against 4.8million for Channel 4's house-building series Grand Designs.

By 9.30pm the channel was being watched by a tiny 6.6 per cent of viewers.

Even the satellite channel Sky Sports 2, which showed the England-Portugal friendly soccer match, managed to attract 17 per cent.

A similar pattern emerged in succeeding weeks.

This Wednesday a new series of the makeover show DIY SOS boosted ratings by winning 4.9million viewers, but again the overall average for the night struggled to reach 3million, excluding the 10pm news and the lottery show.

Experts said the problem is that on almost any other week night BBC1 prime time can expect to kick off with a 12million-plus audience for EastEnders.

Not only does the soap attract a massive number of viewers, but they often stay for programmes which follow-Pundits suggest that EastEnders five times a week is the only solution to the slump.