[Gary Baldy]

Why do people focus on overnight ratings? - It seems there are some people out there who can not or simply will not understand that overnight linear TV ratings mean nothing now - those days are long gone.

2.5 million overnight ratings may seem low, but as mentioned, the previous year it was 3.3 million, so just a drop of 800,000 which is to be expected, as most people do not watch live television anymore, are not willing to stay in and watch a long ceremony, and will prefer to simply watch clips.

Gavin and Stacey got over 11.6 million linear viewers on Christmas Day 2019. (17 million once iPlayer was factored in).

BGT’s 2020 series launched on 11.38 million.

I’m A Celeb 2022 launched on 12 million.

I’d hardly say linear ratings mean nothing or that those days are “long gone”.