It is the worst performance for the BBC soap since November 1999, when 'EastEnders' attracted 27% of viewers against ITV's coverage of an England v Scotland football match in the same time slot.
The BBC One favourite usually garners between 40% and 50% of the viewing share and the five-year low will come as bad news to BBC bosses, who have just introduced Alfie Moon's wayward cousins in an attempt to revive the show's flagging fortunes.
In September last year, the show sunk to its all-time lowest audience figure of 6.2m but still managed a 30% audience share.
Shortly after this, executive producer Louise Berridge resigned and crisis talks were held at the BBC where many of the characters, including the Ferreiras and some of the Watts family, were marked for the axe.
'EastEnders', which debuted in 1985, used to be the most popular show on television but is now regularly beaten by commercial broadcasters' shows like the revived 'Coronation Street' and 'Emmerdale' on ITV.
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