6.2million watch final episode

The runaway success of Mrs Brown’s Boys shows no sign of abating, with the seventh series ending with an impressive 6.3million viewers on Saturday night.

The figure represents more than a quarter of all viewers watching TV at the time – and is more than 50 per cent up on BBC One’s average audience for that 9.30pm slot.

It brought the average audience across all seven shows in the second season to a strong 5.4million – 50 per cent up on the 3.6million average of the first series.

The big audiences are also in love with Brendon O’Carroll’s character, with an audience appreciation index of 91 (out of 100) – a rare achievement and the highest ever for a comedy on BBC One. However critics have been less enamoured with the old-fashioned sitcom, which plays heavily to the live studio audience.

Mrs Brown’s Boys show is a co-production with RTE, and has proved a huge hit in Ireland, too. The Christmas episode was the most-watched TV show in Ireland over the holiday season, with a 49 per cent audience share.

The show is going back on the road later this spring, too, with a series of live dates for Mrs Brown Rides Again across the country.

Meanwhile, Harry Hill’s TV Burp returned for what is likely to be its final series ion ITV1 on Saturday

It attracted 5.4million viewers – more than any other show in the 7.15pm timeslot and up on the respectable 4.6million for the first half of the series, which aired in late 2011. But it was still down on ITV1’s average audience for that slot.

Published: 6 Feb 2012