[tellyblues]

Apart from the finale of Downton Abbey in 2015, you have to go all the way back to 2000 when an ITV show (Corrie) topped the Xmas Day ratings and ITV were strong overall. The BBC1 offerings around this period were ropey (Changing Rooms, David Copperfield, Ground Force) but to be fair to ITV they had WWTBAM which was massive at the time and deserved the viewers it got. Since Strictly and Dr Who were added to the mix and although there have been duff choices like To The Manor Born and a few episodes of The Royle Family which were below par (and people only in hindsight would have decided not to watch), the BBC haven't looked back.

It may well be that ITV don't try that hard but I think aside from The X Factor, I'm A Celeb and Saturday Night Takeaway which haven't been shown on Xmas Day, their light entertainment slate has been really poor over the years so what could they have done (assuming they don't try)? The 1% Club and Limitless Win have been hits but aren't in the same league. The Masked Singer I don't think works as a standalone episode and because of various other things. On the whole, if creating an Xmas Day schedule using just their own shows, ITV have managed it well. It could be better but that work has to be done all year round and sadly I'm not sure that Wheel of Fortune, Password etc are good enough.