[Omnipresent]

BBC1 had 9 of the Top 10 rated shows for Christmas Day:

www.bbc.co.uk 

BBC sweeps the board with nine of the top ten shows on Christmas Day in 2023
Strictly Come Dancing wins Christmas Day overnight ratings in 2023
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

BBC’s Strictly special was the most popular show on Christmas Day in 2023 with 5.3 million viewers (excluding The King’s Christmas broadcast).

BBC dominated the ratings with nine out of the top ten most watched shows as audiences chose the BBC across the day for a spectacular range of new episodes of their favourite shows, and the figures will grow as viewers catch up on iPlayer.

BBC One was by far the biggest channel on the day, over double the next-biggest competitor with over 27% of broadcast viewing. It saw its highest share since 2019 (Gavin & Stacey), and was also higher than any other year since 2010. BBC One was also bigger than the whole SVOD market combined on Christmas Day on TV.

According to Jake Kanter the total audience for The King's speech was 5.9m across BBC1, BBC2 and ITV:

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[eyeTV]

ITV soaps will be back to 1 hour next year.

[all new phil]

I may have asked this at TVF. I assume the Kings Christmas message is sent to all the networks and are embargoed until 3? Or is it played out centrally.

I think it was sent out at about 11am with the embargo.

[JMT1985]

ITV prime time Christmas night seems to have all been below the 3 million overnight mark, which in a way ITV don't mind and don't care.

ITV are never in the business of winning Christmas Day - they never have been for the last three decades, happy to leave it to BBC One, and offer token resistance.

The Masked Singer Christmas Special was this year's token resistance, and probably it score 2 to 3 million at most.

So, actually it was a good day for ITV1 - cheap and cheerful programming.

[eyeTV]

The 1% Club did do alright at 3.36m

[tellyblues]

The Masked Singer is one of ITV's biggest shows no doubt but it's getting on a bit and also the I'm A Celeb specials and Dancer series perhaps made the new special feel like "another episode of" and not exactly must watch. It won't be tried again on Xmas Day and the soaps may be back to one hour each next year as if ITV want to provide light entertainment in response to the BBC1 schedule, I can't see what else would work. Deal or No Deal or Wheel of Fortune are too basic and long drawn out whereas The 1% Club is perfect because it doesn't spend too much time on each question.

[JMT1985]

The Masked Singer is one of ITV's biggest shows no doubt but it's getting on a bit and also the I'm A Celeb specials and Dancer series perhaps made the new special feel like "another episode of" and not exactly must watch. It won't be tried again on Xmas Day and the soaps may be back to one hour each next year as if ITV want to provide light entertainment in response to the BBC1 schedule, I can't see what else would work. Deal or No Deal or Wheel of Fortune are too basic and long drawn out whereas The 1% Club is perfect because it doesn't spend too much time on each question.

ITV always have a entertainment show to act as a "stooge" to BBC One's schedule at the same time - each year, ITV wheels out a different entertainment show to fill a gap.

For example 2009 it was All Star Mr and Mrs, 2010 and 2011 it was All Star Family Fortunes, and then for a while Paul O'Grady Love of Dogs filled that role a lot.

So The Masked Singer was the choice for 2023, and it will change every year - ITV just pick one of their entertainment shows and use it for Christmas Day.

Cheap to make, and it gives the impression that ITV care about Christmas Day prime time, when in fact they don't. Ad revenue is very low for Christmas Day and the attitude at ITV is try and look Christmassey but spend little money in doing so

[Score]

ITV soaps will be back to 1 hour next year.

Not sure about that. The 1% Club did well and The Masked Singer was ahead of both soaps as well (albeit only marginally ahead of Corrie). I’d say it did enough to get another spin next year and if anything Emmerdale did badly enough to be removed from Christmas Day entirely.

Given that entertainment did better than the soaps (and is cheaper than drama) it might make sense to double down next year and use something like Deal or No Deal in an early evening slot alongside Masked/1% Club.

[JMT1985]

Not sure about that. The 1% Club did well and The Masked Singer was ahead of both soaps as well (albeit only marginally ahead of Corrie). I’d say it did enough to get another spin next year and if anything Emmerdale did badly enough to be removed from Christmas Day entirely.

Given that entertainment did better than the soaps (and is cheaper than drama) it might make sense to double down next year and use something like Deal or No Deal in an early evening slot alongside Masked/1% Club.

I have to agree with you here - it seems ITV soaps knew of course the big story for Eastenders this Christmas, and so decided not to even bother to offer any big plot for the day and so two basic half hours was all we got.

Soaps were never a permanent slot on Christmas Day, that didn't happen until the 1990s - the 1993 Christmas, where ITV simply hurled movie premieres to their viewers (lack of, as most watched BBC 1) in prime time was where we saw that ITV didn't really care about putting soaps on Christmas night.

[eyeTV]

I think the soaps did worse only being 30 mins. It wasn't worth the effort to fit them into people's schedules.

Corrie was completely uneventful needn't have bothered, Emmerdale average. That said EastEnders was completely over the top.