Mrs Brown’s Boys landed a massive one-two punch this festive season knocking out the competition on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
A brand new Christmas special – Mrs Brown’s Boys: Mammy’s Christmas Punch – was the most popular festive programme on Irish television this year pulling in an average* of 668,400 viewers and a 42 per cent share** on Christmas Eve. The audience reach*** – the total number of people who tuned in for a minute or more of the programme – was 919,200. Mrs Brown’s Boys: Mammy’s Christmas Punch was a ratings knock out with a further 72,700 viewers watching on RTÉ One +1 that night.
Topping off a cracker of a Christmas for Brendan O’Carroll’s phenomenally popular creation, Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie was the most watched broadcast on Christmas Day pulling 591,300 viewers and a 38 per cent share. The movie was watched by a further 45,500 viewers on RTÉ One +1.
RTÉ One and RTÉ2 were the number one and number two channels on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day. Between them RTÉ One and RTÉ2 accounted for 15 of the Top 20 most watched programmes on Christmas Eve and 14 of the Top 20 most watched on Christmas Day. The average person watched 4 hours and 39 minutes of television on Christmas Day alone.
RTÉ One viewers also thoroughly embraced a trip down memory lane on Sunday night as half a million people suddenly remembered they hadn’t done their homework while watching Well Holy God, It’s Glenroe. The show, which celebrated one of Ireland’s most beloved soaps, was watched by an average of 497,900 viewers for a 34 per cent share. Almost 30,000 viewers watched the show on RTÉ One +1.
On St Stephen’s Day, Donegal crooner Daniel O’Donnell’s festive special – Daniel O’Donnell and Friends – was the most watched entertainment show of the evening drawing an average audience of 391,200 with a 25.5 per cent share.
The most-watched soap on Irish television on Christmas Day was Fair City with an average of 351,800 viewers enjoying the hour-long festive episode which saw the Brennans intrude on Orla and Wayne’s romantic get together.
On RTÉ2, the perennially popular Father Ted Christmas Special proved as big a draw as ever on Christmas Eve bringing in an average audience of 188,700 and with a share among the channel’s target audience of 15-34s of 22.5 per cent. The Al Porter Show, a variety special filmed live at the Olympia Theatre and broadcast on Christmas Eve, brought in 95,900 viewers.
RTÉ2’s ongoing commitment to supporting Irish music paid off on Christmas Day when Hozier took viewers to the channel with an average of 97,000 viewers and a 12.4 per cent share of 15-34s watching the Hozier: Other Voices special. U2 also hit another high note for the channel on Christmas Day with an average of 89,300 viewers and a 13 per cent share of 15-34s watching the band’s emotional return to France in U2: Innocence + Experience Live in Paris.
As ever, Christmas movies were hugely popular with Gravity on RTÉ One on Christmas Eve pulling an average of 274,700 viewers and a share of 20 per cent. The second most popular movie on Christmas Day, after Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie, was Pixar’s modern classic Brave with an average audience of 253,900 and a share of 20 per cent.
The top movie on RTÉ2 over the Christmas period was Superman reboot Man of Steel which saw an average of 164,500 viewers enjoying Henry Cavill’s take on the iconic superhero.
The most watched news broadcast over the bank holiday weekend was Monday, December 27th’s Nine O’Clock News on RTÉ One with an average audience of 562,200 and an audience share of 35 per cent.
Note to Editor:
Source for television figures: TAM Ireland Ltd/ Nielsen TAM, Live + VOSDAL data, National Individuals
*Average audience – The average number of viewers across a programme or series, expressed in 000s. TV viewing is measured minute-by-minute, so the average audience is the average across all of these minutes
**Share – The percentage of the total audience watching television at the time
***Reach – The number of viewers who tuned into a programme for a minute or more.