'EastEnders', Corrie dented by football in Thursday ratings

EastEnders and Coronation Street both slipped below the 8m mark on Thursday (February 23) in a lacklustre evening for the soaps, overnight figures show.



EastEnders pulled in 7.59m (33.8%) at 7.30pm as Derek's hitman refused to cross the Mitchells. BBC Three's repeat screening secured 888k (4.5%) at 10pm.

Coronation Street, meanwhile, attracted 7.53m (30.3%) at 8.30pm and 171k (0.7%) on ITV1+1 as troubled Katy expressed her fears to Izzy.

Emmerdale interested 7.07m (33.0%) at 7pm as Zak did a disappearing act, while his eventual return home was seen by 6.98m (29.3%) at 8pm and 114k (0.5%) on timeshift.

The big three soaps all appear to have been slightly dented by coverage of the Manchester United vs. Ajax game on Channel 5, which averaged 3.35m (14.2%) from 7.30pm to 10.15pm.

Hollyoaks had 830k (4.2%) at 6.30pm as the McQueens ended up in A&E with Kathleen-Angel, while E4's first look grabbed 483k (2.3%) at 7pm.

Over on Channel 5, Neighbours managed 713k (10.4%) at 1.45pm and 1.01m (6.4%) at 5.30pm, while Home and Away mustered 688k (3.8%) at 6pm and 554k (2.8%) for 5*'s first look at 6.30pm.

Elsewhere, the latest episode of Doctors - titled 'Grey Matters' - appealed to 1.36m (20.1%) at 1.45pm on BBC One.