Good night for BBC1. Standout figure is Outnumbered even though it was a weak episode. Lapland did well, i didnt think the slot was too bad, 11:15pm on Christmas Eve isnt that late really. Eastenders was low, not sure how much that tells us about much as a lot of it's viewers will have been out getting wasted.

ITV1 was at least respectable for most of the evening, im sure they would taken 5m for The Cube and 4m for Text Santa yesterday.

Merry Christmas to Piers Morgan too, a lovely ratings gift on Christmas morning.

Channel 5 Programme Data (Xmas Eve)

11:25 Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads: 377k (4.0%)
13:35 Mrs. Miracle: 594k (4.9%)
15:25 Meet the Santas: 922k (6.0%)
17:05 Scrooge: 1.11m (5.4%)
19:00 Eddie Stobart's Christmas Delivery: 1.32m (5.7%)
20:00 The Gadget Show's Xmas Eve Special: 948k (3.7%)
21:00 Greatest Christmas TV Moments: 1.02m (5.3%)
*viewers dipped in and out throughout the evening, peaking at 1.41m at 10pm;
*audience share peaked at 9.5% at 11:50pm with 1.22m watching as Tim and Dawn finally getting it together in The Office was crowned number one.

all numbers including +1

great rating for Outnumbered!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Isn't it just! And even better that that's exactly what I predicted in the Prediction Game.

Interested to see how Gordon's Cookalong does. It's car crash TV but pretty watchable.

I groaned when the Dwarves appeared at the door. So very Channel 4!

It's very awkward in parts, can't see it rating well across the lengthy 4 hour slot but it might get a decent ish peak.

BBC2
Les Dawson & Eric & Ernie both got 2.8m

Christmas Eve 2011 Overnights
BBC One
17:50- The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe: 4.7m (21%)
* peak: 5.63m (23.9%)
20:00- Merlin: 6.38m (25.0%)
20:45- EastEnders: 7.84m (30.1%)
21:20- Outnumbered: 7.02m (28.1%)
22:00- Lapland: 5.90m (28.5%)

BBC Two
20:00- Morecambe and Wise: A Perfect Christmas: 2.82m (11.0%)
21:00- The Many Faces of Les Dawson: 2.84m (11.2%)
22:00- The Best of Les Dawson: 2.44m (10.7%)

ITV1
18:30- The Cube: 4.99m (22.0%) , +1: 252k (1.0%)
19:30- Text Santa: 4.02m (16.1%) , +1: 139k (0.6%)
22:00- Piers Morgan's Life Stories: 1.86m (8.7%) , +1: 147k

Channel 4
19:15- Hairspray: 1.39m (5.6%) , +1: 283k (1.1%)
21:20- Home for the Holidays: 670k (2.9%)

Channel 5
20:00- The Gadget Show's Christmas Eve Special: 862k (3.4%)
21:00- Greatest Christmas TV Moments: 986k (4.8%)
* peak: 1.2m (5.2%)

BBC Three
22:50- EastEnders: 687k (3.7%)

Primetime Shares
BBC One: 26.2%
ITV1: 15.1%
BBC Two: 9.8%
Channel 4: 4.6%
Channel 5: 4.0%

Ratings include HD and are full-slot averages

Source: DS

I guess EE did ok, but it should be doing better, I seem to remember it doing 10 million this time last year. Cant see EE being the big preformer today, my (chocolate) money is on either Doctor Who or Downton.

Is 4 million now counted as good for Ant & Dec? they will be doing a Panto in 2013 if this continues.

Good enough for a cracking episode of Merlin.

Seasons greetings.

Decent enough night for BBC1 without being spectacular. Text Santa's halfway decent showing put paid to that. EE a worry, but with the actual 9.15 finish it probably got 8m for the tapechecked slot, however with only c700k on BBC3 it is still below 9m. I don't think Xmas Eve has a history of big EE ratings, but nothing from EE in the past month has suggested it will get one of its biggest audiences of the year tonight. I suspect ITV's expectations for today may just have risen a touch.

Great for Outnumbered and Lapland (which also finished just past 11.10pm so conceivably could have a tapechecked 6m), but the Narnia repeat was the flop I expected it to be. Mystifying scheduling - they could have premiered Nativity in that slot rather than sticking it in a Friday 6.20pm BBC2 no mans land.

I had a sneaky feeling M&W and Les would do good business for BBC2. Watched both up to Outnumbered, and looking forward to finishing off the rest of what looked like an excellent Dawson documentary later.

It was a strange timeslot for EE so I think it did ok under the circumstances. And there's the underrun of 5 minutes to take into consideration.

Impressive figures for Merlin (without SCD) and Outnumbered. The second Text Santa show was much better than the drivel that was the preview show but I think it was too little, too late.

I think tomorrow has a big chance to be. 9:00pm slot right after corrie and it continues right from where tonight leaves us

BBC 3 repeat may have been higher if it was in the usual 10:00pm slot

The Gadget Show did ok, given it was a Saturday. Solid performance for BBC 2.

What did The John Craven Years get?

Merry Christmas everyone on my favourite Digital Spy thread.

Thanks to ronant starting it all of those years ago and all of the other contributors for the ratings and chat.

I'd like to echo this sentiment.




To me the standout figure last night is for Lapland (nearly 2m more than I predicted the DS Ratings Prediction Game). Very good for its late slot although it did have the crappiest competition that any programme is going to get from ITV1 this Christmas.

Merry Christmas to the Ratings Thread.


I really don't think Nativity would have done any better there. It wasn't exactly a huge film and the name alone would be enough to put plenty off. Perhaps an animated premiere would have done better, but there's nothing much wrong with Narnia's figure.

BBC One has every reason to be pleased with Merlin, Outnumbered and Lapland which all contributed to a very solid evening. Good to see Merlin hold up in an unusual Saturday schedule and Outnumbered benefit from the lead-in. Though I think Lapland is perhaps the most impressive because of how late it finished. Should clearly have had a better slot. EE didn't do great again and the main Xmas Day storyline seems like a sideshow compared to New Year this time round. It doesn't bode all too well for tonight. I think it could be very close with Downton - and I won't exactly be picking my jaw up off the floor if ITV registers a win.

Text Santa did OK. Enough to spare ITV's blushes, anyway. I think the telethon format is rather well suited to Christmas Eve viewing, actually.

I think the ratings for Morecambe and Wise and Les Dawson shows the value of repeats when used correctly. BBC One had an excellent night with Merlin, Outnumbered and Lapland. Will be interesting how Ab Fab, Royal Bodyguard and Mrs Browns Boy do in the coming days,

Even though George S (and ITV come to that) would be unbearable tomorrow if Downton won tonight, (), I'd still lke to see it to beat Eastenders. Last year Dr Who trounched Emmerdale and Strictly got the better of Corrie. I'd like to see a full house of soap defeats tonight to send a message to TV bosses. (Particularly embarrassing for Emmerdale if they were to lose to a kids' cartoon tonight - a distinct possibility given the Gruffalo's performance two years ago)

The tediously long Masood storyline brings to mind Harry Hill's one-liner: "Eastenders - this first series is dragging on a bit". Whilst over in Corrie, Steve McDonald is suddenly believing everything evil Tracy Barlow is telling him just to contrive their Christmas Day storyline.:yawn::yawn: That's about as realistic as...oh, let's see.... a soap opera storyline.

Lets hope EE can win the battle tonight, I know the Masood story has dragged on for to long but you cant fault the acting and EE is always great on Christmas Day even if we have to watch weeks of filler and tedium to get there. Christmas Day Eastenders is as traditional as The Queen & Christmas Pudding and no doubt it will be better than Downtown Abbey even if that has got more hype.

I'm going to put it in right now that Aladdin outrates TOTP and Kung Fu Panda

I can see why they couldn't bring TOTP back as a weekly show. These are the best songs of the year?!!!!! Do you get a prize if you spot a tune you'll still be able to remember five minutes after it's been played.


(I claim my prize. Jessie J just started singing Price Tag, the only one of her songs with a tune.)

ive been watching some of TOTP, that highilght of the year was unimperssive, and ive heard that Olly Murrs song done alot better.

anyways how comes ITV is now poaching Channel 5 shows? saw a promo for Fort Boyard airing on ITV apparently. That said if ITV wants to pick up Murder Prevention it would make my year.

Can't see it happening although I'd quite like it to, as TOTP was weak this year. Aladdin is a great film and should probably have got the 3:10pm slot over Happy Feet. Happy Feet may be a newer film but it had the same slot two years ago and had a decent Christmas slot last year too, whereas despite Aladdin being older, it hasn't had the same level of TV exposure.

How one person feels about tonight's TV:

"EastEnders is on at the same time as Downton Abbey tonight, I genuinely feel upset and stressed over the issue."