The last Christmas Day of the century saw ITV take the majority of peak-time television viewing as BBC1 lost the battle for the first time in fifteen years. The commercial network’s decision to broadcast three editions of the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? gameshow paid off, with two of the three programmes appearing in the top ten list for the day.
The BBC has traditionally come out comfortably on top in the battle for viewers on Christmas Day, but this year BBC1 only took 39.7% of peaktime viewing (6:00-10:30pm); ITV clocked a 46.0% audience share across this period, according to unofficial overnight figures. However, across the day as a whole, BBC1 retained the upper hand with a 40.7% share of viewing, compared to ITV’s 33.7%.
The top-rating programme of the day was ITV’s Coronation Street with an audience of 14.7 million. BBC 1’s The Vicar Of Dibley came in at second place with 12.4 million viewers. The 8:30pm edition of Chris Tarrant’s Who Wants To Be A Christmas Millionaire? notched up 12.0 million viewers, making it the third most popular programme of the day; the 10:30pm edition came in tenth with an audience of 11.0 million.
The two editions of EastEnders, at 5:30pm and 8:30pm, came in at seventh and sixth place respectively. The earlier episode of the BBC1 soap took an audience of 11.1 million whilst the evening edition pulled in 11.2 million viewers. In joint seventh place, also with 11.1 million viewers, were ITV’s Emmerdale and A Touch Of Frost.
The commercial decision by ITV to show three editions of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? follows a commitment from the Network’s chief executive, Richard Eyre, to take a 39% share of peaktime viewing across the whole of 1999. In the run-up to the Christmas and New Year period ITV was just short of this 39% peaktime target.
The viewing figures given here are unofficial overnights. The consolidated audience figures, which include the numbers of people who recorded programmes and watched them at a later time, will be released by BARB tomorrow. Details will be available on Newsline, along with further information on ITV’s 1999 peaktime targets, as available.
ITV Network Centre: 020 7843 8000 BBC Television Centre: 020 8743 8000
