BBC America Pulls Plug; EE Fans Revolt!


By Larry Jaffee


George Bernard Shaw once quipped that Britain and the U.S. were divided by a common language. Another difference between the two countries, if you were to ask BBC America, is an appreciation for EastEnders.

Simply put, we were blindsided by the sudden announcement on the BBC America website the evening of September 25 that two days later would be the last episode of EastEnders to air on BBC.

To be honest, I’m not all that surprised. We knew that the channel did hardly any on-air promotion for EastEnders, and by its own admission absolutely none since January and February when BBC America claims that it ran more than 500 30-second commercial spots that promoted EastEnders. Fans who watch more than just EastEnders on the network cannot recallEE commercials anywhere near that level. I challenge BBC America to produce the logs to support the claim.

The reason why EastEnders never achieved the level of ratings that BBC America wanted is simply because it did an extremely poor job promoting it. BBC America’s assertion that the audience fell 70 percent after a lead-in from its popular Ground Force does not address promotion; that is a scheduling issue.

Within a week of the cancellation more than 10,000 people signed an on-line petition calling for BBC America to reinstate the show. For several weeks following the announcement, the Bethesda, Maryland-based channel stopped answering its telephones because of the deluge of complaints. Press on both sides of the Atlantic have picked up on the cancellation story. Unfortunately, BBC America is not bowing to the pressure we’ve exerted.

Droves of fans are cancelling their subscriptions to satellite and digital cable TV services that carry BBC America (see pages 6-7).

And it’s not just us common folk who have our knickers in a twist over the cancellation. In support of the show’s American fans, Wendy Richard (Pauline Fowler) wrote to her BBC bosses, including Director-General Greg Dyke to complain (see page 2). Michelle Collins, who played EastEnders’ Cindy Beale, tells the Gazette: “I’m quite shocked and surprised really. It’s a bit of a shame, isn’t it?”

In addition, I received an e-mail of support from respected journalist James Wolcott, who’s a contributing editor to Vanity Fair magazine: “I'm really peeved about BBC America's decision because I just began getting the channel a couple of months ago, and besides, most of their programming is pure fluff—it seems like every time I turn it on it's either a gardening show or a house make-over show or a What Not to Wear. I'll be happy to put my name on any petition or write a brief note to the powers that be. It's particularly maddening with Dirty Den making his return!”

BBC America’s mission is supposedly to bring “the best of British television to the U.S.” Now in its 18th year, EastEnders is the longest-running, most popular series in BBC television history, typically attracting 15 million to 20 million U.K. viewers four times a week in prime time. It is the British equivalent of Friends or Everyone Loves Raymond in terms of viewer popularity. It’s a perennial winner of Best Soap Opera awards by various sponsoring organizations and publications, and in 1997 even won a BAFTA (the U.K. equivalent of the Emmy) as Best Drama. That sounds like “Best of British” to me.

BBC America’s failure to promote EastEnders in any kind of meaningful way suggests at best a management team that brought with it from the U.K. some sort of a prejudice against a programme that is often dismissed in Britain merely as a “soap,” and at worst a marketing department completely devoid of any creativity, at least when it comes to the goings-on at Albert Square.

Consider how it never crossed the minds of BBC America to mention to the press or viewers that Steve McFadden, who starred earlier this year in a segment of Murder in Mind, also is EastEnders’ Phil Mitchell. Or how two of the current castmembers appeared in this year’s hit movie Bend It Like Beckham.

In order to grow EastEnders’ audience—one would assume this to be the network’s goal—BBC America needed to pique the interest of viewers who tune into BBC America’s other drama and comedy programming. It had done this effectively with the upper-class rural contemporary drama Monarch of the Glen. But would-be EastEnders fans were never given a taste of the show’s rich tapestry of emotions and personalities that populate the fictional Walford.

Without promoting it regularly during its other shows, BBC America inexplicably was setting up EastEnders for failure. It didn’t always seem that way. For example, in a January 2000 press release commemorating the series’ 15th anniversary, BBC America president Paul Lee stated that “EastEnders has become a phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic. Who would have thought that a British soap opera—where no one has money or plastic surgery—would have captured the hearts of so many of our American viewers?”

What has transpired since then? Well for one thing, BBC America’s potential audience has grown significantly, as more local cable TV systems deployed digital infrastructures, thus creating larger channel capacities. An estimated 35 million households can now receive BBC America either through digital cable or satellite services like DirecTV. Many customers signed on for these new services expressly for EastEnders. Hence, even without on-air promotion, EastEnders’ audience was bound to grow.

When EastEnders made it to commercial television via BBC America, albeit a fledgling niche in a 500-channel universe, its fans thought that they would finally be rid of the incessant threats of cancellation if membership goals aren’t met. What EastEnders fans have learned is that advertising-dependent commercial cable television is as an uncertain environment—if not more so—as the constantly financially struggling, non-commercial PBS world. EastEnders on public television is going through significant trials and tribulations of its own lately, with cancellations this year in Philadelphia, San Jose, Dayton, OH, and Plattsburgh, NY.

Some history: First introduced to American viewers via public television stations in 1988, EastEnders was never picked up nationally by PBS, and subsequently only 50 stations carried it the first year. Today, 16 stations are left. The public TV stations broadcast EastEnders episodes that are three to four years behind the U.K. storyline, whereas BBC America’s episodes were two weeks behind the U.K.

EastEnders fans do have a track record of getting such decisions reconsidered. Last year, bowing to viewer complaints, BBC America within three weeks reversed a decision that would have left EastEnders only on Friday afternoons. On public television in the past decade, viewer complaints forced station executives in St. Paul, MN, San Jose, CA, Buffalo, NY, Denver, CO, and Raleigh, NC to reinstate the programme. Buffalo’s WNED ended up killing it two years ago after a year-long reprieve, while San Jose’s KTEH enjoyed a 10-year run after the first cancellation but again pulled the plug on EastEnders this past January.

BBC Americas CEO Mark Young, with whom I met on October 12 in London for over an hour (see pages 8-9), said that video on demand (VOD) was being considered to fill the void. BBC America announced a VOD service two years ago that was to have launched in tearly 2002, but it never materialised.

It wasn’t lost on EastEnders fans that the timing of the BBC America cancellation was particularly poor, two weeks before the character Den Watts was set to return to Albert Square after a 14-year absence, during which he was presumed dead. It was another example of how management failed to care about the EastEnders fan psyche. And the very last shot of EastEnders aired on BBC America, further adding insult to injury, was a glimpse of another character, Lisa, whose disappearance six months ago fuelled speculation of foul play at the hands of her former boyfriend Phil.

So the question remains, why can’t this British crown jewel find a home in the former colonies? After all, it’s available in some 50 countries, the latest being Ukraine.




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