Mrs Brown’s Boys dethrones Queen in Christmas Day TV ratings battle

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/02/tv-ratings-mrs-browns-boys-dethrones-queen

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The Queen has been toppled from the number one spot of the Christmas Day ratings by BBC1 sitcom Mrs Brown’s Boys in the consolidated viewing figures published on Friday.

Most of the top 10 shows were down on last year, BBC1’s Doctor Who suffering the most spectacular drop, down nearly 3 million viewers.

Mrs Brown’s Boys had a total audience of 9.7 million viewers, a 34.2% share of the audience, in the consolidated figures which include people who recorded the programme and watched it in the seven days after transmission.

But while the bawdy sitcom created by Brendan O’Carroll added another 2.1 million viewers when the so-called “timeshifted” audience is taken into account, only an estimated 200,000 viewers recorded the Queen’s annual message and watched it later.

So while Mrs Brown’s Boys leapfrogged the Queen into the top spot, reclaiming the number one position it had on Christmas Day 2013, the monarch, who had the biggest overnight audience, slipped to seventh place in the Christmas Day top 10.

Doctor Who suffered the biggest year on year decline to 8.3 million, its 2013 audience of 11.1 million boosted by anticipation around Matt Smith’s regeneration into Peter Capaldi as the doctor.

Mrs Brown’s Boys was down 1.8 million viewers on 2013, as was ITV’s Coronation Street, with Downton Abbey shedding 1.7 million viewers year on year.

But some shows added viewers, including BBC1’s Call the Midwife and Strictly Come Dancing, both up 200,000 viewers on 2013.

Reflecting the changing way in which we watch TV, three programmes boosted their audience by more than 2 million viewers in the seven days after the original broadcast – Mrs Brown’s Boys, Call The Midwife and Strictly Come Dancing, which both jumped ahead of EastEnders in the consolidated top 10.

Soaps proved less popular to watch after the original broadcast, with EastEnders watched by 1.2 million viewers in the subsequent seven days.

The BBC dominated the consolidated figures, taking the top six places.

With the Queen’s message, which was broadcast by both the BBC and ITV, in seventh place, the rest of the top 10 was made up by ITV shows Coronation Street, Downton Abbey and Emmerdale.

However, even the consolidated viewing figures do not give the complete figure, not including on-demand viewing on devices such as the BBC’s iPlayer, which is expected to publish festive viewing figures next week.

Christmas Day TV – the consolidated top 10

1. Mrs Brown’s Boys, BBC1, 9.7m

2. Call The Midwife, BBC1, 9.4m

3. Strictly Come Dancing, BBC1, 9m

4. Miranda, BBC1, 8.7m

5. EastEnders, BBC1, 8.6m

6. Doctor Who BBC1, 8.3m

7. Queen’s message, BBC1/ITV, 8.2m

8. Coronation Street, ITV, 8m

9. Downton Abbey, ITV, 7.7m

10. Emmerdale, ITV, 6.7m

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