I can see them splitting EE next year. It would pull people in to the channel at two times.

Ken

It should have been MBB and Miranda this year. They played it too safe which made it dull for viewers. I've never seen CTM before and it bored me. I went for a nap until Eastenders came on.

Sorry, but Call the Midwife performed poorly and dragged down the BBC last night.

As noted by another poster, its average was actually inflated by Corrie viewers tuning in early for EastEnders and avoiding ITV News. The first hour averaged only 6.9m, which for me is not good enough for either the programme or BBC One primetime on Xmas Day.

Agreed. They would be foolish not to Glenn. They need to capitalise more on how big EE is on Xmas Day and split it like they have done in the past. It works well if they can find the right programme to fill the gap and I think Miranda would be a strong choice.

All Call The Midwife did was stop Corrie ratings higher. So from that angle it worked as it cleared the way for EE.

But its an awful figure for the show. Think it was on too long for Xmas Day. 1 hour and 15 minutes is too much.

All these timeshifts will be very interesting. Be a major turn up if Corrie is the one that ends up topping the whole day. It usually does timeshift well.

CTM is too worthy and demanding for a Christmas night, same as DA isn't really a Christmas show. The BBC are right to show EE on Christmas Day, as soaps are now accepted as an integral part of the day, but really should concentrate on LE and comedy at other times.

I agree except they didn't play it safe they just copied ITV and put there own downton on.It failed to beat corrie and really looked out of place.

Next year I hope they give us more comedy.

Ken

Downton is not what I consider a family show. Sandra, Dan and their kids Kylie and Deano would not be sitting down to watch Downton as Kylie & Deano want to watch Enders.

The demo on the Eastenders website is mostly 12 year old girls. As snobby as it sounds I can't see many 12 year olds from a certain ilk watching Downton.

Old, but interesting article by a BARB panellist. They say you register who's in the room.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2001...asting.comment

Can't see how the 'watching' would work. Too arbitrary "are you watching or reading the paper, dear?" , every 15 minutes.

Lol r u actually serious? Not being funny but maybe should take a look at Itv ratings. Now there shocking especially DA :0

That happend here.....Corrie wad on and i popped to the toilet and when i came back CTM was on but half expected to watch the news. Corrie was the only show we watched on ITV1 all day due to CTM chances are it would have stayed on BBC1

At the end of the day CTM was only on Christmas Day because DA was, it'll be interesting to see who blinks first in next year's schedules.

I had a feeling it would be too much for many viewers, it doesn't even have the 'epic' feel that Downton Abbey has been whipped up into.

While watching #pogdogs last night I wondered if if the next series is moved to an hour as part of the flop zone, if they could introduce a second presenter to cover the cats bit of Battersea Dogs and Cats home. Maybe 45 mins dogs/15 mins cats?

EastEnders wins Christmas Day ratings battle - Downton and Midwife tie for sixth: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012...ngs?CMP=twt_gu

'Downton Abbey,' 'Doctor Who' U.K. Christmas Day Specials See Ratings Drop: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...ratings-406365

Mrs Brown Boys is now currently the 2nd most watched tv show over Christmas, after Eastenders!

Ratings for the 2nd show tonight (and for Miranda) will be very interesting indeed.

When you think that the first ever episode on BBC1 aired in a post 10:30pm Monday timeslot in Jan 2011 and did a 1m rating, just illustrates how quickly it has gained popularity and how big it has become.

Definitely deserved more credit and a higher profile than it currently gets.

Yeah but with the exception of 2011, ITV never rates well on Xmas Day. Last year gave them hope, but this year it's fallen apart and they'll have to think again.

The BBC however normally dominates all day long and produces seriously substantial audiences for multiple programmes. The inquest as to why that didn't happen yesterday will go on for some time I suspect.

Underwhelmed and shocked by last night's figures. I expected most shows to rate better than they did. I expected EastEnders to mop up a few more casual viewers (I predicted 10.5m on the prediction game), but still it did very well to top the day.

Call the Midwife and Downton's figures are underwhelming, but I expect to see record breaking time shift numbers for both shows. I'm still predicting that Call the Midwife will top the entire day, once all the official figures are released. I just think maybe viewers would have preferred to watch comedy like Miranda and Mrs Brown's Boys on Christmas night itself, opposed to two period dramas? If you think about it, watching two period dramas on Christmas night sounds a bit heavy.

I thought Strictly would have done better. Corrie and Emmerdale were about where I expected them to be.

The only show that did better than I thought was Lord of The Rings over on Channel 4.

Top of the Pops peaked with 5.36m (34.1%) in the last five minutes.

I don't disagree BUT it performed as DA and was obviously in the schedule to counter itv's DA Vs EE scheduling. I don't think throwing Miranda or MBB would have worked here either as both have never achieved the kind of ratings ctm did I its run.

It was a gamble but viewers still tuned in for ee so it didn't

really "hurt" the schedule.

As it stands even strictly would have lost the slot too

The frustrating thing is that the BBC had the programmes this year, It's just the way they were placed! Call The Midwife would have been perfect for boxing day. Splitting EastEnders up and putting Miranda between them - What a boost for the new series! and Mrs Brown's Boys after EastEnders!

TRF needs to be rested.

Isn't this series of Mrs Brown's Boys the last, I didn't think they were going to go past a 3rd season?

The BBC would be mad not to order a Christmas special for next year after its massive Christmas Eve rating. If Mrs Brown's Boys had been on instead of the Royal Family last night it probably would have topped the whole day.

Hats of to that ratings hit known as The Queen, if we add all the showings together, she could be pulling in 9 million, almost up there with EE.
Also praise to ITV1, once a national joke on Christmas Day, for holding up so well in peak time. CS did very well for them and DA and Emmerdale kept a high percentage of the viewers.
I think TRF is starting to creak a bit now and ratings of 7.69 million show the public aren't so keen. Also the extremely coarse humour at times was off putting. Auntie should now consider a double bill of Miranda and MBB.

It provided a 75 minute solid 7m rating which allowed DW and SCD to shift early and record big year on year gains for the slot between 5-7pm. IT underwhelmed but it certainly didn't drag the night down for BBC One, it's inclusion helped BBC One overall. It's also only 300k off what SCD recorded in the same slot last year. To say it dragged down the night is nonsense if anything it did the opposite.

Absolutely agree Mrs Bown Boys Is a fantastic show and deserves a lot more credit. I mean look, it manages to make DA ratings look really shocking.

Clearly all the BBC has to do now on Christmas Day (for as long as Downton lasts) is put Eastenders against it as EE is going to win the overnight battle. Irrespective of how much it timeshifts the number looks poor on the night for Downton and I will be surprised if it hits last years consolidated figure.

The other numbers are lacklustre too-the BBC needed to find a couple of million more for its range of shows to start to look as though it meant business and be a convincing winner.
Shrek saw off Tangled which might have done better any other day for ITV, but didnt set the world alight.

Cant work out whether I liked Dr Who or not but it did pretty well in its earlier slot.

Strictly could not have done more to look and feel upbeat and Christmassy but lacked the one standout guest that may have dragged more people to the party.

CTM-Im not convinced it will maintain its huge figures from last year in its new series, its problem is its just too samey imo. Last night was a heartfelt story but still a bit sad for Christmas night.

EE did well comparatively but its the equivalent of someone giving a puppy as a present at Christmas-everyone connected with it has got to realise its not just for Christmas-its for the rest of the year too!

Royle Family-well its thread was just a community of moaners throwing flak at it-I didnt think it was all that bad even if its not what it used to be.

As for ITV well if your in the camp that thinks Downton is a soap, it was four hours of peaktime soap with a few dogs and bloopers thrown in.

EDIT:The Beeb needs to contact Nick Park and beg another Wallace and Gromit-that would be a spark for next years schedule.

My whole family love Downton, but never watch Eastenders but we just chose to watch Eastenders and the Royle Family as they are much shorter. Downton will have a huge timeshift.