The battle of the soaps began this week.
The battle of the soaps commenced this week, as ITV and BBC introduced schedule changes for their respective continuing dramas. And after Monday night’s instalments the results are in.
Emmerdale has beaten EastEnders on their first clash, with both soaps airing at the new times of 7:30pm. While Emmerdale continues to air nightly, EastEnders has moved to consecutive showings through Monday to Thursday.
Last night’s Emmerdale saw Manpreet Sharma (Rebecca Sarker) visit her serial killer sister Meena Jutla (Paige Sandhu). A tormented Manpreet was relentlessly goaded by Meena to the point where she slapped her incarcerated relative, before Meena went on to lie to the police that Manpreet was the one to kill Andrea Tate.
Meanwhile, EastEnders began an explosive week with its own resident murderer Gray Atkins (Toby-Alexander-Smith) as Whitney Dean realised he had killed Tina Carter (Luisa Bradshaw-White). It was also the first instalment of the BBC soap featuring the brand new set.
But while EastEnders earned an impressive 2.7 million viewers – which crept up to 2.8 at its peak – it was Emmerdale that came out on top. The ITV soap debuted in its new slot at a huge 4.3 million viewers, with a peak of 4.5 million.
However, it was actually Coronation Street that topped the overall soap ratings for Monday night in its new hour-long timeslot of 8pm. Corrie won over audiences with a whopping 4.4 million viewers – which rose to 4.8 million at its peak.
It was Abi Webster’s (Sally Carman) shocking baby twist that dominated the latest episode of Britain’s longest-running serial drama, and fans were clearly gripped by the story. With both Corrie and Emmerdale excelling, it’s a victory for ITV. But as plots continue throughout the week there’s still plenty of time for things to change.
EastEnders has already teased what’s ahead as Gray heads towards more than one huge showdown, while Abi’s plight gets worse in Weatherfield and Meena continues to menace in the Dales.
It’s also worth noting the BBC has been known to do well with EastEnders streams on iPlayer, so it remains to be seen how this could impact ratings by the end of the week.
Read more:
- Coronation Street’s Abi abandons baby after shock birth
- EastEnders Gray busted after confession from Whitney
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