EastEnders ratings plummet to 2 million in worst ratings ever recorded

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BBC’s once popular soap EastEnders saw its lowest ratings ever last night when a mere 2 million viewers tuned into the episode.

All soaps have had huge upheaval in their regular scheduling slots to make way for the Euro matches and the effect can be seen on EastEnders recent viewing figures.

The show runs back to back episodes to keep up scheduling and last night only 2 million viewers tuned in live to watch the second episode of the soap which is the lowest figure recorded in the BBC’s soap’s 36-year history.

The first episode shown last night only grabbed a few more viewers with 2.4 million tuning in to watch it live.

In it’s hey-day, EastEnders could draw in around 20 million viewers to an episode but recent years have seen these numbers hugely decline and recently it commands somewhere between 3-4 million.

The “big three” soaps have been hit hard by the constant change in scheduling due to the Euros but it’s EastEnders television ratings that seem to have been hardest.

In an attempt to try and pick figures up, telly bosses have started airing the week’s episodes on BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub.

Last night there was no Euro game on but EastEnders still dropped to their lowest figures ever with ITV soap Emmerdale fairing slightly better with 3.32 million viewers tuning it, which is some of their lowest figures.

Although the Euros have an effect on viewing figures, many now watch what they want when they want on demand with iPlayer and ITV Hub rather than live when a show is aired.

Despite this, EastEnders is still one of the top performing shows on iPlayer showing viewers still watch the show as millions tune in to watch early episodes.

An EastEnders spokeswoman told The Sun: “Since the start of Euro 2020, EastEnders have been dropping all episodes on iPlayer for the first time ever on Monday’s giving the audience the choice to watch when and where they choose so it’s no surprise that the overnight audience is impacted.


“EastEnders has been streamed 13.4 million times in the past two weeks alone, making it one of iPlayer’s most popular shows.”

The fan-favourite has been on our screens since 1985. The highest rated episode of EastEnders came the following year for the Christmas Day 1986 episode, which attracted a combined 30.15 million viewers who tuned in to see Den Watts hand over divorce papers to his wife Angie.

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