TV Overnights: BBC One’s Christmas line-up steals the show
BBC One’s Christmas television schedule stole the show this year with several seasonal specials, film premieres and big story-lines.
The channel dominated the ratings throughout the whole Christmas period with popular programmes including Eastenders, The Royle Family and Gavin & Stacey, despite falling behind ITV1 in the months leading up to the end of the year.
ITV1 had been claiming the top ratings in the Autumn season with rating-winning shows such as The X Factor and I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, however, BBC One’s jam-packed Christmas line-up boosted the channel’s appeal.
On Christmas Eve, BBC One’s triple film run of The Chronicles of Narnia, Over the Hedge and Shrek 2 secured the top spot throughout the day, followed by Eastenders in the evening, which pulled in 8.7 million peak viewers.
Victoria Wood’s Midlife Christmas went on to claim the peak audience during the all-important 9pm to 10pm slot with 6.8 million viewers, as did the programmes following – QI, Live at the Apollo and The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson.
On Christmas Day, Top of the Pops Christmas special 2009, The Incredibles and The Gruffalo all did well for BBC One, although David Tennant’s much-publicised departure from Doctor Who caused the biggest stir with more than 10 million viewers.
BBC One’s hour-long Eastenders special also pulled in over 10 million viewers and even managed to hit a high of 11.5 million viewers in the final fifteen minutes with the build up to Archie’s long-awaited murder.
Later on in the evening, The Royle Family returned to the small screen for a one-off special, attracting more than 10.5 million peak viewers and a 42.4% share during the 9pm to 10pm peak-slot. The penultimate Gavin & Stacey and Catherine Tate: Nan’s Christmas Carol followed to finish off BBC One’s comedy run, cleverly placed against ITV1’s more serious Poirot.
Post-Christmas, BBC One still managed to take the lead with film premieres such as Flushed Away and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, new programmes such as Cranford, The Day of the Triffids and The Turn of the Screw as well as flagship shows Eastenders, Waterloo Road and Holby City.
However, ITV1 did manage to pull in the highest ratings for some programmes this Christmas. Coronation Street always managed to steal the peak audience away from BBC One’s schedule, even on Christmas day when it hit a high of 8.4 million peak viewers.
Ant & Dec’s Christmas Show also claimed the top spot on Boxing Day with more than 7.1 million peak viewers. Following that, the ratings were slightly more spread out between the two channels, although on the whole ITV1’s flagship soaps were the only programmes to win over and hold the peak audience for the duration against BBC One’s rival shows.
Aside from that, BBC Two was the only other terrestrial channel to get a real look in over the Christmas week. On Sunday 27, the channel’s Top Gear Bolivia Special peaked with more than 7.2 million viewers and a 26% average audience share between 7.45pm and 9pm.
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations.