EastEnders

[Roger Darthwell]

For three weeks during the Euros, EastEnders will move to an online-first approach, with the entire week's episodes dropping on the iPlayer every Monday. The episodes will still be shown on BBC One, but broadcast times are likely to be heavily disrupted.

I lurk on an EE forum, and the fans there are spitting nails over this. They hate the idea (spoilers, and fragmenting the audience, I suppose) and think it's going to become permanent.

https://metro.co.uk/2021/05/30/eastender...e-14677399

My opinion is somewhere in the middle. I can see the logic of using iPlayer to offset disruption from the football, but I dislike the idea of the 'boxset drop' - I'm not mad-keen on the prospect of spoilers floating around several days in advance. If it were me, I'd release them one by one, at the times they would 'normally' air on linear TV.

It seems that for the Euros, EE is doing a BBC Three style online move

[Brekkie]

People have been saying for ages they should put the soaps on the iPlayer/Hub when they're displaced, and now they're doing it people moan.

Any news on when they'll get back up to full 30 minute episodes?

[IanJRedman]

People have been saying for ages they should put the soaps on the iPlayer/Hub when they're displaced, and now they're doing it people moan.

Any news on when they'll get back up to full 30 minute episodes?

Not yet - I assume that will happen once social distancing can be scrapped in the workplace, whenever that might be...

[onetrickypony]

I'm sure the die hard fans will watch on iplayer and I personally think it's a great idea. It is easy to avoid spoilers and EE haven't exactly got anything major happening at moment that warrants trying to avoid social media.

[JK1985]

I have noticed Coronation St, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks manage to produce and air their regular length editions. I have read that the BBC used the excuse that Corrie etc are commercial, so they have a running time of around 25 minutes, but that doesn't excuse Eastenders from airing really bad short editions. Mondays are always short, around 18 minutes.

I never understood why Eastenders are taking so long to return to a 30 minute format compared to their commercial rivals. We are well into 2021 now, production teams are now used to the new Covid safe rules, surely it would not be difficult to expand the programme.

[IanJRedman]

I have noticed Coronation St, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks manage to produce and air their regular length editions. I have read that the BBC used the excuse that Corrie etc are commercial, so they have a running time of around 25 minutes, but that doesn't excuse Eastenders from airing really bad short editions. Mondays are always short, around 18 minutes.

I never understood why Eastenders are taking so long to return to a 30 minute format compared to their commercial rivals. We are well into 2021 now, production teams are now used to the new Covid safe rules, surely it would not be difficult to expand the programme.

The main reason for the 20-minute episodes is that EastEnders are using more VFX shots and other techniques to disguise the social distancing, which takes more time and money. Obviously, the other soaps such as Corrie do this as well, but to a lesser extent per episode. The social distancing is often far more obvious on-screen in the ITV soaps. So I suppose it comes down to where the programme makers have chosen to compromise; Corrie with more obvious distancing but normal-length episodes, or EastEnders with more 'natural' scenes but less of them.

I assume things will go back to normal on EE once social distancing can be dropped in workplaces, but of course it will then be several more weeks before this is reflected on screen.

[UTVLifer]

I have noticed Coronation St, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks manage to produce and air their regular length editions. I have read that the BBC used the excuse that Corrie etc are commercial, so they have a running time of around 25 minutes, but that doesn't excuse Eastenders from airing really bad short editions. Mondays are always short, around 18 minutes.

I never understood why Eastenders are taking so long to return to a 30 minute format compared to their commercial rivals. We are well into 2021 now, production teams are now used to the new Covid safe rules, surely it would not be difficult to expand the programme.

The main reason for the 20-minute episodes is that EastEnders are using more VFX shots and other techniques to disguise the social distancing, which takes more time and money. Obviously, the other soaps such as Corrie do this as well, but to a lesser extent per episode. The social distancing is often far more obvious on-screen in the ITV soaps. So I suppose it comes down to where the programme makers have chosen to compromise; Corrie with more obvious distancing but normal-length episodes, or EastEnders with more 'natural' scenes but less of them.

I assume things will go back to normal on EE once social distancing can be dropped in workplaces, but of course it will then be several more weeks before this is reflected on screen.

The gap between filming and airing is currently at 8-9 weeks, so even if SD is dropped on the 21st of June, it won't appear on EE until late August/early September

[Brekkie]

I'd imagine their aim is probably September as it was for returning last year, but what we thought would be short-term (in terms of pandemic, not production) has turned out to be much longer than anticipated and in that regards you'd have expected them a few months on to evolve production methods further to make up that difference.

Personally I still think opting for 3 x 30 minute episodes would have made more sense if they couldn't deliver 4 episodes, but there are clearly reasons why they've not opted for that. Doctors is still only 4 days a week too, with Casualty and Holby still at 40 minutes. I do think Casualty actually benefits from the shorter run time.

[L1]

I wonder whether we will possibly see changes to the number of EastEnders episodes in the medium term. I would say it is less relevant than Corrie and even Emmerdale these days, so in time the Beeb might decide to reduce to 3 days a week.

[Brekkie]

I doubt it - they've got a new set costing tens of millions to justify.

[AllWillBeWell]

I doubt it - they've got a new set costing tens of millions to justify.

Apparently it has an overground station and a moving train.

[excel99]

Personally I still think opting for 3 x 30 minute episodes would have made more sense if they couldn't deliver 4 episodes, but there are clearly reasons why they've not opted for that.

I suspect if Eastenders had been off air on one of it's regular days for potentially over a year, the audience would never return on that day to the same extent - the habit would have been broken for more than just a few months. (It also at least works well on a Tuesday with Holby City only being 40 minutes)

[Ash101]

Following today’s Holby news, I was looking for info on the new EastEnders set. This article suggests the new set will make the show ‘HD Ready’.. does this mean EastEnders isn’t currently in HD, is it upscaled or has the article got it completely wrong?

[James2001]

It's been in HD since December 2010, hasn't it?

I presume they're going to weather it from what we see in those photos, look far too clean and new!

[VMPhil]

They might mean UHD ready.