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Eastenders rules UK Christmas viewing

Soaps prove to be unstoppable with traditional UK Christmas audiences.

2012-12-27_0033Eastenders has won the battle of the UK Christmas specials, defeating Downton Abbey and Doctor Who.

Christmas night viewing is a huge tradition in the UK where chilly weather keeps families indoors and they gather around the telly in the evenings.

EastEnders on BBC1 drew 9.4 million viewers, down from the 9.9 million recorded last year. But it was the fourth year in a row that the BBC soap was the most-watched Christmas Day program in the UK.

Coronation Street was the second most watched program of with 8.8 million viewers.

Strictly Come Dancing was third with 7.8 million viewers followed The Royle Family with 7.7 million and Doctor Who with an audience of 7.6 million in the fifth spot.

Downton Abbey on ITV1 drew 7.3 million overnight viewers, sixth rank on the list.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

5 Responses

  1. Blimey – I left the UK for Australia 17 years ago when EastEnders was regularly pulling 17million viewers. I take it this is a result of the last several years of multi channelling.

  2. These are not final figures – it does not include timeshifting / bbd/itv iplayer – figures will actually go up – some shows may increase by say 1-2 million – others will only go by 1/2 a million-therefore final places are yet to be determined

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