[JMT1985]

Not sure about that. The 1% Club did well and The Masked Singer was ahead of both soaps as well (albeit only marginally ahead of Corrie). I’d say it did enough to get another spin next year and if anything Emmerdale did badly enough to be removed from Christmas Day entirely.

Given that entertainment did better than the soaps (and is cheaper than drama) it might make sense to double down next year and use something like Deal or No Deal in an early evening slot alongside Masked/1% Club.

I have to agree with you here - it seems ITV soaps knew of course the big story for Eastenders this Christmas, and so decided not to even bother to offer any big plot for the day and so two basic half hours was all we got.

Soaps were never a permanent slot on Christmas Day, that didn't happen until the 1990s - the 1993 Christmas, where ITV simply hurled movie premieres to their viewers (lack of, as most watched BBC 1) in prime time was where we saw that ITV didn't really care about putting soaps on Christmas night.