Slump threatens EastEnders

For years, EastEnders was the undisputed king of TV.

More than 30 million tuned in to see Dirty Den serve Angie with divorce papers on Christmas Day 1986.

But following a series of dire storylines and scandals over its stars’
private lives it has slumped to its lowest ratings in its 19-year history.

The BBC soap pulled in just 6.2million viewers on Tuesday night and was
trounced by ITV rival Emmerdale, which had 8.1million.

It came on the same day as executive producer Louise Berridge quit after a
barrage of criticism about storylines.

She introduced the Ferreiras, arguably the most irritating and dull
family ever to grace Albert Square.

Their absurd and painfully drawnout kidney swap saga proved a turn-off
for even diehard fans.

The show’s on-set problems were compounded by a string of embarrassing headlines about its actors.

In May, it emerged Leslie Grantham — Dirty Den — had taken part in an
Internet sex session with a 23-year-old blonde from his BBC dressing room.

In his e-mails, he branded half the cast w***ers and called Jessie
Wallace, who plays Kat Slater, a ‘vile dog’.

And then, of course, there were the well-publicised drink problems of
Elaine Lordan (Lynne Hobbs).

Steven Murphy, editor of Inside Soap magazine, believes there may be other
factors behind the decline.

‘They’ve had a lot of troubles this year with people written out because of
pregnancy and other reasons,’ he said.

At the TV Quick awards this month, Coronation Street won all the major
prizes, including best soap.

An EastEnders spokesman blamed the record low audience on the head-tohead with Emmerdale. ‘It’s tough when the soap audience is split,’ he said.