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Queen Elizabeth II

Queen's speech tops TV viewings on Christmas Day

<![CDATA[Her Majesty's Christmas speech this year has topped the TV viewings, bucking the trend by actually increasing in views.
Shows like Doctor Who, Mrs Brown's Boys, and Eastenders were beaten by The Queen's annual televised message. 7.8 million viewers saw the 3pm screening on BBC1 and ITV, which talked about reconciliation as its main theme. This was a 50.7% share of viewers, beating the other programmes by almost 20%, according to The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB).
Rumours spread claiming Her Majesty was to abdicate in the message after bookmakers received a flurry of bets on the likelihood of The Queen passing the throne to Charles. Of course, she did not.

You can read about the message and watch it in Royal Central’s article here.

Last year’s most-viewed programme was Mrs Brown’s Boys, which came in second place this year, with 7.61 million viewers, 32.2% of the day’s audience. This was 1.79 million viewers down on last year’s 9.4million though.

Third place was Eastenders, with 7.5 million viewers (30.2%), followed by Strictly Come Dancing at 7 million strong audience, and Call the Midwife in 5th with 6.8 million viewers (27.9%), figures from BARB show.

Most programmes were less popular this year than in 2013, and Doctor Who dropped 24% of its viewers, with new lead actor, Peter Capaldi. The Queen’s Speech bucked the trend with an increase of 90,000 viewers.

Top 10 watched shows on Christmas Day:

  1. The Queen’s Speech
  2. Mrs Brown’s Boys
  3. Eastenders
  4. Strictly Come Dancing
  5. Call the Midwife
  6. Miranda
  7. Coronation Stree
  8. Doctor Who
  9. Downton Abbey
  10. Emmerdale

feature photo: Simon Turton/Arriva
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