Top TV over Christmas
There were plenty of Christmas specials to choose from over the festive period, but who won the fight for viewers?
The clear winner was the Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special.
With a whopping 49.2% share of viewers, 11.6 million people tuned in live to watch the comeback episode, and an additional 5.5 million watched in on catch-up in the week after broadcast.
That brings the total viewers to 17.1 million, making it the UK’s most-watched scripted TV programme of the decade and the most watched programme on Christmas Day 2019.
It rounded off a great performance for the BBC over Christmas, they delivered the top seven shows across Christmas Day, and eight out of the top ten overall most popular shows.
The BBC also proved popular with the younger audience this year as they increased their share with 16-34 year olds. The BBC said there had been 4.4 million requests for the programme on iPlayer, including 1.4 million from viewers aged 16-34.
Christmas Day Ratings 2019 – top 10 programmes
Rank | Programme | Channel | Millions |
1 | Gavin & Stacey | BBC One | 11.6 |
2 | The Queen’s Christmas Broadcast | BBC One | 6.4 |
3 | Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special | BBC One | 5.5 |
4 | EastEnders | BBC One | 5.5 |
5 | Michael McIntyre’s Big Christmas Show | BBC One | 5.2 |
6 | Call The Midwife Christmas Special | BBC One | 5.2 |
7 | Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas special | BBC One | 4.6 |
8 | Coronation Street | ITV | 4.5 |
9 | Emmerdale | ITV (inc +1) | 4.1 |
10 | Finding Dory | BBC One | 4 |
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-50975665, https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2019/christmas-ratings