Soaps at Christmas

SOAPS SHOULD BE BURNT AT CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!!!!!

I've said quite often soaps should be stopped for Christmas and major sporting events.

For example, last year during Euro 2004 and the Olympics Coronation Street and EastEnders were shunted about the schedules to accomodate them - airing anytime between 7pm and 10.30pm.

Also during the Olympics one night the BBC switched coverage of the games between BBC1 and BBC2 five times just to accomodate EastEnders. Ridiculous!

I don't think a long break over Christmas is neccessary - just from Christmas Eve till New Year. I'd have no problem with the Christmas Day specials continuing - they would be a special if the soaps were off air a few days before and the week or so after.

I also think they should go on Bank Holidays and over Easter etc... - but although it's all very well saying this, what would replace them?

This is a pointless thread really. Why on earth should soaps stop over Christmas? What's so special about Christmas for soaps to stop?

What else would they put on in their place? Yet another murder mystery?

Soaps are continuing drama serials, the whole point is that they continue!

I think there are too many hours of soap on TV in general, however I only watch Corrie and I think it should be cut back to 4 or even 3 episodes a week, but soaps are part of the mixture of programmes on the many, many channels that people have access to these days, so why stop them just because it's Christmas?

So I ask; quiz shows - should they stop for Christmas?

I don't see why they should stop for sport either, I'm happy for Corrie, for example, to be shifted to a later slot to make way for live sport. I only get angry with this one when they bring the programme forward so that you miss it, or they've delayed the start because the sports presenters and "experts" are still droaning on about something that was over half an hour before.

The problem is there are far too many episodes of the soaps on all year round and people are already getting sick of them so its no surprise people want a break.

I think a break for 2 weeks over Christmas with just an episode on Christmas Day would work, most people have other things to do over Christmas other than watch soaps. A break in the Summer when there are sporting events would also be logical.

As for what they would replace them with, well they would probabaly shove any old rubbish on for 2 weeks.

The idea about the soaps just having an episode on Christmas Day, but a break no more across the christmas period would be a great idea. They should also take a break every three months, ending with a cliffhanger. This could give the chance for ITV to comission some great dramas more often.

What at 7.30pm?
If there were no soaps it'd probably be repeats of Open All Hours on BBC1 and repeats of Airline on ITV1 filling the slots

Well at Christmas time they could take the opportunity to show more films in the evening slots if the soaps were out of the way.

The idea of breaking for major sports events is plain stupid. I personally dislike watching sport, however I accept that is has a place on television, but why should other things stop just for that event?

I find it unacceptable that for the last 2 major football events (European and World cups) BBC1 cut the main 6pm news and local news programmes down in length - why it's only a bloody game. I wouldn't have minded if they'd put the news hour on BBC2 instead, but they were just showing repeats of the Simpsons and Fresh Prince.

Why not stop all hour-long drama serials for a fortnight? Stop the news and factual programmes? Stop all comedies? Why single out stopping soaps, particularly when they are generally the highest rating and most popular programmes.

There are often plenty of films on at Christmas, and many of the good ones are often repeats so they'd only be able to fill it with some crappy churned-out Hollywood rubbish instead I imagine.

I agree that there are generally too many hours of soap on already though, and I find things like Holby City, Casualty and The Bill completely block up the shedule because they are on for an hour or so, these series may be better suited to some sort of "break" than your Corries, or Eastenders perhaps?

I think its acceptable to move or drop episodes of the soaps when its a live sporting event - I know a lot of people didnt like it but personally I used to like watching Corrie at 9.45pm when they used to show live football on Wednesday's. It was a change from having it at 7.30pm. These days there are so many episodes of the soaps we barely get a chance to look forward to seeing them as they are on almost every day.

I agree with you - there are too many episodes (I think we've been through this on the Corrie thread lots of times!!) and also I wouln't mind dropping or shifting for a specific one-night live sporting event, but I totally disagree with the idea of a blanket removal of soaps for the duration of the Olympics or World Cup.

Yeah but it works fine in Australia though. Seven took off Home & Away for the 2004 Olympics, allowing them to have a huge mid-season cliffhanger (which aired in the UK over Easter) bringing about one of the show's biggest-ever moments.

I'm thinking that periodical breaks would actually allow the soaps to run proper cliffhangers.