SAGA VOICES
This month we talk… soaps
Each month our insight team conducts an in-depth poll of Saga customers to find out what you’re thinking. This month: do you watch soaps?
by RACHEL CARLYLE
Unbelievable as it may seem now, a massive 30 million people watched Dirty Den serve his wife Angie with divorce papers in the Christmas Day episode of EastEnders in 1986 – over half the population. Yet this Christmas, when six-times married Gail (Helen Worth) finally left Coronation Street after 50 years – in yet another bridal car – the audience didn’t hit 2.5 million.
Soaps have been steadily losing viewers since those 1980s glory days, and it’s no different among Saga customers. According to our survey of 2,697, aged from 50 to 100, 30% watch or listen to soaps (35% of women, 24% of men). However, 47% used to tune in but no longer do – and the younger you are, the more likely to switch off.