Christmas Day TV ratings hit a new low this year as viewers complained about the ‘terrible’ offerings.
Despite millions being confined to their homes due to tier 4 restrictions – several million less turned on their televisions this year.
The highest rated broadcast for Christmas 2020 was The Queen’s speech.
Her Majesty, 94, delivered a rousing message, reminding Brits that they ‘are not alone’ despite such turbulent times.
The Queen’s Christmas Broadcast was watched by 8.3 million.
This was followed by Call The Midwife, which had 5.4 million viewers and then Blankety Blank, watched by 5.3 million.
While just 4.9 million tuned in to watch the Strictly Christmas Special, which included a moving tribute to the late Caroline Flack.
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And the fifth most watched show was The Wheel, with 4.7 million viewers.
Although two more million tuned in to watch The Queen’s speech this year compared to 2019 – the figures are still shockingly low.
In 2019 the most viewed Christmas show was the Gavin and Stacey Christmas special, which drew in an impressive 11.6 million viewers.
Meanwhile the Strictly Christmas special drew in 5.5 million viewers.
And this was all of course prior to the pandemic and national lockdowns.
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Viewers this year took in droves to Twitter to complain about the ‘rubbish’ and ‘terrible’ Christmas TV schedules.
One viewer complained: “Wow Christmas TV is terrible this year!” and another lamented: “These 2020 Christmas TV options are terrible and we are all stuck indoors.”
A third viewer shared: “The TV channels this Christmas are terrible. Considering many families and individuals will be alone. Poor show #BBC1 #BBC2 #itv #channel4.”
And a fourth viewer argued: “Totally abysmal TV programmes for Christmas – just ends a terrible year when the country really needed a ‘feel good’ campaign by the TV programmers!”
Whereas a fifth chimed in with: “What a load of rubbish Christmas TV and that applies to ITV, BBC, Sky. It’s the same every year no wonder people have Amazon Prime and Netflix.”
In fact, if we go back to a time when streaming wasn’t a thing, we see just how shockingly low television ratings are today.
In 2000, the highest rating Christmas Day show was Coronation Street, which earned 13.7 million viewers.
But in 2020, the cobbles soap opera only received 4.5 million viewers.
And in 2010, EastEnders came out top with 11.7 million viewers.
However, this year, the BBC soap only had 3.5 million viewers, with both Corrie and Emmerdale coming out higher.
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