Hi °C | Lo °C Evil Derek Branning's last gasp helped EastEnders retain its traditional spot at the top of the Christmas Day ratings as the BBC dominated festive viewing once again.
The main channels' period ratings hits Call The Midwife and Downton Abbey tied with an average audience of 7.3m viewers, although ITV1's Downton was 1.3m down on the previous year.
Overnight figures show EastEnders pulled in an average 9.4m viewers for the climactic episode on Christmas night in which Branning, played by Jamie Foreman, keeled over and died from a heart attack after he scuppered his brother Max’s wedding to Tanya. ITV's Coronation Street was runner-up with a wedding drama which saw Nick Tilsey cancelling his nuptials with Leanne Barlow. It drew in 8.8m viewers.
Many had expected the period blockbusters — which have performed well on Sunday evenings — to lead the field, but soaps were still the strongest force. However viewing figures were down for many shows, with EastEnders slipping half-a-million on 2011, and the show's ratings were thought to be the lowest for Christmas Day for a decade.
Call The Midwife drew its smallest audience since launching earlier this year, and Doctor Who, with 7.6m viewers, also had an average audience 1.3m fewer than in 2011.
However the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special was up 300,000 year on year to 7.8m viewers.
The Queen's Christmas message was seen by 36,000 people in 3D on the BBC's HD channel — the first time it has been broadcast in that format — although 6.3m saw it on BBC1 and 2.2m saw it on ITV1.
BBC1 had seven of the top 10 programmes, while ITV1 (which includes viewers for its +1 catch-up channel) accounted for the other three.
And BBC1 took 31.7% of the audience from 6pm to 10.30pm — when many of the biggest shows are broadcast — with ITV1 landing 26.9%.
However, when “consolidated” figures are totted up — taking account of time-shift viewing — they often tell a very different story.
Last year Downton Abbey drew 8.6m on the day but including catch-up viewing, the figures shot up. One of the main success stories over the festive period was Irish comedy show Mrs Brown’s Boys.
Channel 4’s The Snowman And The Snowdog peaked at 5.8m viewers on Christmas Eve, with an average of 4.8m.
Tv’s top 10
1 EastEnders, BBC1, 9.4m
2 Coronation Street, ITV1, 8.8m
3 Strictly Come Dancing, BBC1, 7.8m
4 The Royle Family, BBC1, 7.7m
5 Dr Who, BBC1, 7.6m
6= Downton Abbey, ITV1, 7.3m
6= Call The Midwife, BBC1, 7.3m
8 The Queen, BBC1, 6.3m
9 Emmerdale, ITV1, 6.2m
10 BBC News, BBC1, 6.1m
