More than 9 million viewers watched EastEnders go live on Tuesday, when fans may – or may not – have found out who killed Lucy Beale.
The BBC1 soap had a 39.8% share of the audience from 7.30pm, 1.5 million more than watched Tuesday night’s episode last week.
The episode featured live inserts as part of EastEnders’ 30th birthday celebrations, which will culminate in an all-live episode on Friday.
But there was some confusion over what Jake Wood’s character Max Branning said to his daughter Abi during the episode’s live segment: did he say “Lauren knows you killed Lucy”, or “Lauren knows who killed Lucy”?
Wood tweeted to help clear up the confusion.
There was further drama on the EastEnders set at Elstree studios, Hertfordshire, when a small fire broke out due to a suspected firework on Tuesday night, after rehearsals had finished. Fire crews managed to put out the blaze, in the first floor and roof of one of the buildings, and no one was harmed.
It was EastEnders biggest audience for two years, since 9.2 million (34.2%) tuned in on 21 January 2013.
Last night’s show was also nearly 3 million viewers up on the 2014 average for the soap’s Tuesday night 7.30pm slot, watched by an average of 6.1 million viewers last year.
It beat last year’s Christmas special, with 7.4 million viewers, and the 2013 festive edition, with 7.7 million.
Tuesday’s EastEnders was up against ITV’s coverage of Chelsea’s 1-1 UEFA Champions League draw with Paris St Germain. It was BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Mark Pougatch’s first turn in the presenter’s chair following the exit of Adrian Chiles.
ITV had 4.3 million viewers, a 19.3% share, across two and a half hours of live coverage from 7.30pm.
