EastEnders is no more (in USA)

[trogdor]

BBC America, thinking they can make more money from yet another two and a half hours of Changing Rooms, House Invaders, or similiar tripe, has cancelled EastEnders, citing low ratings.

How low does a show's ratings have to go to be cancelled by BBC America? My wife and I must be the only people on this side of the Atlantic watching that show. The head of programming is supposed to be doing a live chat at bbcamerica.com at 1PM today; I think I will give him a rather large piece of my mind.

For one thing, this was the ONLY reason I was still paying for digital cable, what with the intermittent nature of The Sopranos and the fact that I have at least 30 movie channels, but no decent movies to watch. I shall make that point clear later this week when I turn in my digital box.

Anyway, if any of you are EastEnders fans, I urge you to flood the zone at 1PM today (Queen Elizabeth's birthday, BTW), and let your opinions be known.

[SiobhanClancy]

1. I tried posting this on saturday

but got no response...they really should try EE in a better time. It has many and loyal fans over here,but the time slot on Saturday afternoon was not the best. I've been an EE fan since the days of Dirty Den,and am seriously depressed about his:(

[demnan]

2. Link please on who to flood?

In my area they made sure the rating were low by showing the show at 11:00 or 12:00 on a Saturday night. I could tape it, but my Mother just missed her favorite show.

Personally, the show is not as good as it once was, but I still enjoyed it.

I stopped contributing to my local public television station when they moved the show to midnight.

[trogdor]

3. This wasn't the PBS version.

Those are so old they're almost quaint. 1999 in our area. I'm talking about the new ones you see on BBC America that you have to get digital cable or dish to watch. Anyway, here's the link.

http://www.bbcamerica.com/genre/drama_mysteries/eastenders/eastenders.jsp

Yes, they gave EE a really shitty time slot, and I plan to make the comparison between this and what NBC did with Star Trek in 1969. We would time-shift EE and FF through the insultingly inane commercials (I get more intelligent spam). If they wanted people to arrange their schedules around the show (and watch the stupid commericals), they'd put it on at a convenient hour.

[demnan]

4. Sorry, that's a little out of my league

but I hope it doesn't affect the PBS ones as I still like to watch them.

[trogdor]

5. Update

bbcamerica.com is currently running VERY SSSSLLLLLLOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW! My guess (optimistically) is that EastEnders fans are now giving the VP of Programming an earful.

If you got the message earlier and are now flooding the zone, thank you. For everybody else, here is the link - good luck getting in.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/communicate/communities/1064420120BBCAmericalive2.shtml

Edit: I just got a 503 error (Service Temporarily Unavailable - The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.) Yep, fans are pissed, and not from too many pints at the pub.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. I haven't watched East Enders but

they'd better not take off my mystery programs!

I agree that entirely too much of the schedule is filled with Changing Rooms and Ground Force. How can anyone stand to watch to watch those inane shows more than once, much less back to back for hours on end?

Their dramas and mysteries, when they find room in the Changing Rooms schedule to squeeze them in, are generally of very high quality.

[trogdor]

9. Does anyone paint their walls cranberry?

The UK must be one gray, dreary place if they think the color schemes used on Changing Rooms don't wear on one's nerves after about ten minutes looking at them. They have the nerve to call it "decorating."

[SiobhanClancy]

7. I got in..

but it is very unsatisfactory. Questions are sent to a moderator,who picks the questions,such as "What is the primary goal of BBCAmerica?"..it is very slow java chat,and you are unable to see what others are asking. I only got in near the end,but am not too happy with their format.

[SoCalDem]

8. East Ender fans need to watch this funny video

http://www.cartelcommunique.co.uk/films/films03/pnp.rm

[supernova]

10. I still watch EE on PBS

here. It comes on late night Sunday nights, and I wind up taping it. They've threatened to take it off the schedule many times for "lack of interest", but the EE supporters always come through at PBS drive time and save it. Heck, they've even had the local EE fan club in the studio answering the phones.