Special Report: Has Corrie Thursday Move Backfired?

A report in yesterday’s edition of The Mirror claimed that ITV’s moving of Coronation Street to Thursday evenings, to make way for football on Wednesdays evenings, has backfired with the soap losing ratings. The article also claimed the 9pm move for The Bill also hasn’t paid off with the police drama losing over a million viewers. But do the ratings facts confirm or deny The Mirror story? Read on to find out.

The article reveals that Coronation Street has dropped, on average, a million viewers since the move in July. On Wednesdays evenings the Manchester based soap attracted, on average, 9.3 million viewers according to The Mirror. Now in its new 8.30 Thursday evening slot the soap averages 8.3 million viewers. However, a spokesperson for ITV told The Mirror that Coronation Street was nearly always a million ahead of its BBC rival, EastEnders. A quick look at the ratings figures however, reveals this isn’t actually the case – especially on a Thursday evening. 

For example last night’s edition of EastEnders was seen by 8.7 million viewers while 7.9 million tuned into Coronation Street – placing EastEnders as the victor last night. If only this was the first time EastEnders has beaten Coronation Street in the ratings on a Thursday evening – then ITV’s argument might hold water – simple fact is it’s not. In fact last night was the sixth Thursday in a row that the London soap had beaten its Manchester rival. It’s not just Thursdays that the gap between the two soaps is nothing like a million viewers. Last Monday’s edition of EastEnders, in which Owen returned to Albert Square, was seen by 9.1 million viewers. Coronation Street was only marginally ahead with 9.2 million viewers for both of its episodes that evening. On Friday evening the first episode of Coronation Street rated 7.8 million viewers while EastEnders rated 8 million viewers. Only the second episode of Corrie managed to pull ahead of its BBC rival with 8.7 million viewers. So just glancing back at last week’s figures reveal that the gap between EastEnders and Coronation Street is very close indeed. 

As for The Bill the ratings for the new 9pm version of the series are up and down like a yoyo. For the few weeks after the move they declined rapidly to fewer than 4 million viewers before climbing back somewhat to just over the four million mark – but once again they are all over the place. They haven’t, as yet, broken the five million mark and even ITV itself has admitted the ratings are somewhat disappointing. But then again what do they expect when they yank the drama out of its normal slot, axe several characters, ditch the theme tune and show a total lack of regard for long-term fans of the series?