Most Popular Character 2016

[CaptainTed84]

The early years episodes definitely play a part

[Skylover]

Just now, Slade said:

If you look at the polls for 2012 and 2014 in particular and compare them with 2010, Fisher, Bobby and Pippa have all done notably better.  That's no coincidence.

The Early Years started airing in 2009 so surely they would have had an effect on the 2010 poll??

ETA: They definitely do play a part to an extent, Jack got my number 1 vote but I wouldn't have known about him without the early years repeats. I still don't think the top 10 is affected that much though. Donald is an iconic character anyway.

[Slade]

22 minutes ago, Edward Skylover said:

The Early Years started airing in 2009 so surely they would have had an effect on the 2010 poll??

I don't know.  And I don't know how many people on this forum were watching it when they started showing it (bear in mind that technology has changed and it's a lot easier for people outside of Aus to watch the episodes now which could potentially increase the number of voters) but it's worth pointing out:

In 2010 Fisher, Bobby, Pippa were 32nd, 38th, 62nd place respectively.

In 2012 Fisher, Bobby, Pippa were 9th, 16th and 21st place respectively.

In 2014 Fisher, Bobby, Pippa were 3rd, 8th and 10th place respectively.

All improved from 2010.

[Skylover]

Seems odd to me that Fisher could rate as low as 32nd!

[CaptainTed84]

I'm unaware of exact dates as at that time of my life I cared more about playing with LEGO's over Home and Away and that was also 6 years before I even knew this website existed (another fun fact), but the 2010 poll was definitely released much earlier in the year than 2012, 2014 and 2016. I know that for a fact because they mention Tony's boxing storyline which occurred before he left. I also think it was earlier in the year because it also said something about voting being out before Aden's departure (something like that). Anyway if you're thinking what I am saying is completely irrelevant to the early years, well think again. The early years episodes seem to go from March-March in terms of airing seasons in Australia with there being plenty of interruptions of it (from what I understand that is, I gathered that from reading one article. Not an avid watcher of the older episodes) so because of them doing the poll earlier it would mean that by the time people could vote, only 1 year of the show had been re-aired (or possibly not even the entirety of 1988, like I said before I heard that the schedule is interrupted a fair bit). I'm unaware of really anything that occurred that year but it seems that viewers had a better indicator on the characters by the time the 2012 poll (came out technically 2 1/2 years later) was released as by then they would have been well into airing a lot of character's entire durations (people like Tom Fletcher), and a lot of the really good early years characters at their absolute prime, meaning that since viewers had seen a couple of years worth of characters it probably convinced them to vote for them and seemingly that is exactly what has happened.

I hope that made sense but I think that's why from 2012-Present the early years characters have been up the top. It would make a fairly handy impact having these character viewable in Australia again. I can almost guarantee that Shane and Angel won't receive as many votes by the time the next poll is released.

[Skylover]

12 minutes ago, CaptainTed84 said:

I can almost guarantee that Shane and Angel won't receive as many votes by the time the next poll is released.

Jack will still have at least 5 points by next time as he's my favourite character of all time 

[Slade]

21 minutes ago, CaptainTed84 said:

the 2010 poll was definitely released much earlier in the year than 2012, 2014 and 2016. I know that for a fact because they mention Tony's boxing storyline which occurred before he left.

I know for a fact the 2010 poll was released earlier purely because of this thread:

http://www.backtothebay.net/forum/topic/40371-most-popular-character-2010/
    
One thing I think that influenced the voting with the early years is the number of people who could actually watch the episodes.  I suspect earlier on it would have just been people from Aus but as I mentioned previously the technology has improved so presumably at lot of UK viewers are able to watch the early years.  There's no easy way to ascertain how many of the people who voted for the early years characters are from the UK and how many are from Aus.

 

[Dan F]

Yup we've been in no doubt that the Early Years have affected the vote, which is a good thing as it means a far more balanced poll considering we're looking for people's favourite characters from all eras of the show.

It did start out late in the year, then it varied with the following polls, but last year we decided to go back to opening the voting in October (which coincidentally ended up being 10 years to the day since the very first one), and then having the results revealed in the couple of weeks after the season finale to maintain a bit of interest during the break, which seemed to work quite nicely Obviously couldn't quite do that this year with the finale being so late!

[Skylover]

I wonder if people like Kelly Hobbs will appear next time.

[Dan F]

Just now, Edward Skylover said:

I wonder if people like Kelly Hobbs will appear next time.

Perhaps both her and Katrina Watson (sorry, couldn't resist)

She did actually appear in the second poll with 2 points but I don't think she made any of the others offhand. I actually quite liked the character, but as I'm sure RR1 would say, she also suffered the curse of being 'nice'.

There's a great interview with Katrina Hobbs that I posted a while back where she said she did find Kelly a bit too sensible and 'mumsy', and would have loved to just play her a little bitchy sometimes, or maybe have an affair or something.