Beaten only by the Queen on Christmas Day

Mrs Brown’s Boys was the most-watched show of Christmas Day after the Queen’s Speech.

A total of 6.8million viewers watched the exploits of Brendan O’Carroll’s Irish mammy, including the unveiling of the new actor playing Rory, Damien McKiernan.

That was 800,000 below the royal broadcast, which aired on both BBC and ITV.

It is also up on the 6.13million the sitcom attracted on the initial last year –  a figure which swelled to 9million when catch-up viewing was consolidated into the figures.

Yesterday’s return of French and Saunders narrowly missed out on a top ten place in the ratings, pulling 3.6million viewers at 10.30pm, according to overnight.tv 

And on Christmas Eve, Michael McIntyre’s Big Christmas Show was the most-watched programme, drawing 5.7 million viewers to BBC One.

Last night's episode of Mrs Brown’s Boys,  entitled Mammy's Mummy, was the first of two parts. The second, CSI: Mammy, is on New Year's Day at 10pm.

Published: 26 Dec 2017