TV Overnights: Christmas round-up
Eastenders, Sherlock and the new Great Expectations adaptation pushed BBC One’s Christmas line-up to the top of the ratings charts this year.
The festive period would not have been complete without a drama-filled Christmas in Albert Square. This year saw the Yusef, Masood and Zainab storyline come to an explosive end, while Pat Butcher finally left the soap in a dramatic send off after 25 years.
Eastenders peaked with more than 10.1 million viewers on Christmas day, beating ITV1’s one-off Downton Abbey special to the all-important peak-hour live ratings.
The soap attracted a consistently high audience throughout the Christmas week, though its ratings reached a high of 10.4 million viewers yesterday and 10.3 million viewers on New Year’s Day as Pam St Clement waved goodbye.
Sherlock also proved to be a popular choice among viewers on 1 January. The first of the new three part series, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, started on a high of more than nine million viewers at 8.10pm and secured a 30.9% average audience share during the 90-minute slot.
A new series of Absolutely Fabulous also returned to BBC One this Christmas. The first episode of the Eddie and Patsy comedy pulled in over 7.8 million peak viewers on 25 December, while the second picked up 7.1 million viewers on New Year’s Day.
However, BBC One’s gem seemed to be the new three part Dickens adaptation, Great Expectations. The drama, which saw Gillian Anderson play Miss Havisham, started on a high of more than 6.7 million peak viewers on Tuesday 27 December. The second and third episodes, meanwhile, both banked 6.1 million viewers on the following two evenings.
BBC One’s day-time schedule was a popular choice over the Christmas period too, with films such as The Santa Clause 2, The Chronicles of Narnia, Monsters vs Aliens, Shrek 2 and Bedknobs and Broomsticks making the line-up.
ITV1 did get a small look-in despite BBC One’s bumper ratings week. Coronation Street remained a must-see for soap fans – reaching a peak audience of more than 9.1 million viewers on Christmas day as Becky set fire to her flat.
The channel’s Downton Abbey Christmas day special also secured over 8.6 million viewers during the live 9pm prime time slot on ITV1 and ITV1 HD. This figure is around three million higher when you take into account the consolidated figures, pipping BBC One’s Eastenders by 200,000 viewers.
Other programmes such as Benidorm, Emmerdale and Endeavour also managed to bank the peak ratings for ITV1 during the week.
*BARB’s consolidated viewing figures are now available for last week.
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.