Mrs Brown's Boys leads Xmas Day ratings with over 7 million

Mrs Brown's Boys was the most watched television programme on Christmas Day, according to overnight data.



The first of two festive specials was watched by an average of 7.61m, giving the Brendan O'Carroll sitcom a 32.2% share of the audience from 10pm to 10.30pm.

It's the second year running that Mrs Brown's Boys has topped Christmas Day, although numbers were less than last year's 9.4m, representing an overall decline for all channels.

Elsewhere on BBC One, 6.98m (35.1%) saw Louis Smith win Strictly Come Dancing Christmas at 5pm. Call the Midwife attracted 6.83m (27.9%) at 7.45pm, while Doctor Who's 'Last Christmas' achieved 6.34m (27.5%) and Miranda's penultimate episode was watched by 6.67m (27.6%).

Downton Abbey's two-hour episode was ITV's biggest programme of the day outside of soaps. 5.51m (23.1%) watched from 9pm as the Crawley family celebrated Christmas, with an extra 319.9k tuning in on +1 (1.7%).

Earlier in the evening, Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs also performed well with 2.97m (13.6%) (245.5k/1.0% on +1).

Over on BBC Two, a selection of festive comedy repeats led the schedule. Morecambe and Wise in Pieces topped the channel's ratings at 6.15pm with 2.03m (8.8%), while 1.24m (5.1%) watched Dad's Army at 7.45pm and 1.37m (6.5%) laughed to Blackadder's Christmas Carol at 8.15pm. University Challenge performed well too, securing 1.52m (6.3%) at 7.15pm.

Channel 4's festivities began with a film, Arthur Christmas, which entertained 1.43m (6.2%) at 6pm (242.4k/1.0%). 1.13m (4.6%) stayed with the channel at 8pm for Frozen at Christmas.

Meanwhile an extended Alan Carr: Chatty Man with the likes of Terry Wogan, Sarah Millican and Dan Stevens was watched by 1.09m (4.6%) at 9pm (230.6k/1.2%).

On Channel 5, a showing of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang brought in 1.17m (6.7%) from 3.30pm - 6.16pm (93.4k/0.5%), while Chas and Dave's Xmas Knees Up was watched by 813.3k (3.4%) at 7pm (56.3k/0.2%).

BBC Three was the best-performing multichannel at 9pm, securing 1.00m (4%) with Shrek Forever After.

I thought Christmas days TV was absolute rubbish. - From what I've seen so far, Boxing day is no better.

Mrs Brown's boys was by far the best that I saw yesterday; however, even that had 'gone off the boil'.

I didn't switch the TV on all day although I did watch a recording of Dr Who in the early hours of this morning. Was sorry I bothered.