TV Ratings 2023

[FetchFugly]

Being at my parents' house over Christmas the adverts drove me absolutely insane. I am not used to it.

I dread the day that I am forced by Sky into some kind of streaming only service without the ability to skip adverts.

 

[Raining on Me]

I’m not sure I get the Call The Midwife beef (well clearly I do as it’s not aimed at the Moopy audience per se) but of course it was going to be scheduled better than Eastenders. It’s a lot more popular, and has topped the ratings on Christmas Day in previous years and also tops the ratings chart when on its series run.

I wasn't saying it shouldn't get a prime slot, I know it's hugely popular, but would have thought an hour from around 8-9 was ideal for it, with Eastenders running the 9-10 slot which would have benefitted both even more perhaps. Not that it all makes a great difference anyway, but since we're all chatting about it

 

[Rita]

I wasn't saying it shouldn't get a prime slot, I know it's hugely popular, but would have thought an hour from around 8-9 was ideal for it, with Eastenders running the 9-10 slot which would have benefitted both even more perhaps. Not that it all makes a great difference anyway, but since we're all chatting about it

That wasn’t aimed at you, sorry. It got a lot of negative comments in the Eastenders topic but I thought it would be obvious that it would be scheduled better than Eastenders because as you say it is very popular.

 

[Rita]

Call The Midwife has had 1.5 hour episodes before at Christmas but I couldn’t be sure if it has a running time of an hour and a half every year. I’m not sure where I would even source that info?

 

[lolly]

EastEnders also does significantly better on iPlayer than Call The Midwife. So you're going to give primetime to the show which benefits more from live viewing.

 

[Raining on Me]

Call The Midwife has had 1.5 hour episodes before at Christmas but I couldn’t be sure if it has a running time of an hour and a half every year. I’m not sure where I would even source that info?

A quick google suggests at least the past 2 years before this were 90 minutes so obviously more often than I thought.

I guess not everyone finds babies boring and evil (sometimes both). Who knew

 

[Jark]

frankly I can't believe they're still calling the midwife. it's Christmas, she's out getting smashed with the gals. 90 mins of watching someone calling a phone that never picks up sounds deeply unappealing

 

[untilted]

I just think it was poor scheduling. Feature length episode of Call The Midwife, which actually is popular, but they should have saved Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel for Boxing Day or something.

I’ve been thinking about this today. My boss told me his family watched (they don’t usually) and found the late slot “made sense” because it was “quite dark and violent”

I mean, sure…?

 

[Ellie]

I did the Black Friday deal for £1 a month for premium ITvx for 3 months.

 

[octophone]

That's quite a drop in viewers for Chuck, eh? Clearly less interesting than Liz.

 

[Rita]

frankly I can't believe they're still calling the midwife. it's Christmas, she's out getting smashed with the gals. 90 mins of watching someone calling a phone that never picks up sounds deeply unappealing

!

darling, it’s set in the 60’s and most of the midwives are NUNS!

 

[Rita]

I’ve been thinking about this today. My boss told me his family watched (they don’t usually) and found the late slot “made sense” because it was “quite dark and violent”

I mean, sure…?

They should have had some FOUL LANGUAGE so it really earned its place of after 9pm.

Stacey shouting at Sharon to “pull yourself together you FUCKING CUNT” would totally ring true to me.

 

[Jark]

!

darling, it’s set in the 60’s and most of the midwives are NUNS!

as if they've never had a festive tipple!

 

[lolly]

That's quite a drop in viewers for Chuck, eh? Clearly less interesting than Liz.

It is, but then it did climb last year for his first one. This year's was down on her last one, though.

 

[untilted]

They should have had some FOUL LANGUAGE so it really earned its place of after 9pm.

Stacey shouting at Sharon to “pull yourself together you FUCKING CUNT” would totally ring true to me.

Imagine the OFCOM reports!!!

 

[lolly]

 

[cwej]

Dealing with ITVX and sitting through adverts does it for me, when you know that it will be available without at some time in the future.

Nolly is the only thing I've watched on ITVX. I quite fancy the Alan Carr thing, Archie and The Winter King but they'll all keep.

Fair enough - but that’s definitely not the issue for my parents who will watch it live and then channel surf for the adverts anyway.

My mum is better than my dad though - she tends to choose one show to watch at a time on Netflix or similar and is currently on season 5 of How To Get Away With Murder.

 

[lolly]

December 11 - 17

NB: BARB website not updated yet so this chart doesn't include platform viewing. But it's already a week behind so I don't wamt to leave it any longer.

01 Strictly Come Dancing: The Final 9.920m
02 I'm A Celebrity... Coming Out 5.139m
03 Vigil 4.95m
04 Coronation Street 4.493m
05 Have I Got News For You 4.070m
06 The Royal Variety Performance 4.032m
07 Emmerdale 3.970m
08 BBC News at Six 3.639m
09 Countryfile 3.650m
10 Antiques Roadshow 3.456m
11 EastEnders 3.239m
12 The Chase 3.101m
13 Match Of The Day 2.986m
14 BBC Weekend News 2.907m
15 Deal Or No Deal Celebrity Special 2.760m
16 Only Connect 2.732m
17 The Martin Lewis Money Show Live 2.727m

And it all got a bit too newsy and One Showy and difficult to track after that, so I'm too bored to look further, unless it becomes more clear when BARB does update.

 

[lolly]

The second part of the Survivor Final (the part after the Strictly final) did get 2.952m. But the first part (before Strictly) didn't chart, so fewer than 2.529m viewers.

 

[lolly]

The Strictly final last year got 10.610m, although that's the figure including platform viewing. I don't think it usually does that well on platform though, so don't expect it to make up that much. Should see it go over 10m, though.

 

[lolly]

December 11 - 17

NB: BARB website not updated yet so this chart doesn't include platform viewing. But it's already a week behind so I don't wamt to leave it any longer.

01 Strictly Come Dancing: The Final 9.920m
02 I'm A Celebrity... Coming Out 5.139m
03 Vigil 4.95m
04 Coronation Street 4.493m
05 Have I Got News For You 4.070m
06 The Royal Variety Performance 4.032m
07 Emmerdale 3.970m
08 BBC News at Six 3.639m
09 Countryfile 3.650m
10 Antiques Roadshow 3.456m
11 EastEnders 3.239m
12 The Chase 3.101m
13 Match Of The Day 2.986m
14 BBC Weekend News 2.907m
15 Deal Or No Deal Celebrity Special 2.760m
16 Only Connect 2.732m
17 The Martin Lewis Money Show Live 2.727m

And it all got a bit too newsy and One Showy and difficult to track after that, so I'm too bored to look further, unless it becomes more clear when BARB does update.

And BARB has now updated, so this is the same chart with platform data included. And Netflix, as you can see from the inclusion of Chicken Run. I forgot subscription viewing wasn't included in the first chart.

December 11 - 17

01 Strictly Come Dancing 10.057m
02 Vigil 5.462m
03 I'm A Celebrity... Coming Out 5.255m
04 Coronation Street 4.587m
05 Have I Got News For You 4.200m
06 The Royal Variety Performance 4.053m
07 Emmerdale 4.042m
08 Film: Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget 3.898m
09 EastEnders 3.857m
10 Countryfile 3.658m
11 BBC News at Six 3.657m
12 Antiques Roadshow 3.466m
13 The Chase 3.115m
14 Match Of The Day 3.109m
15 BBC Weekend News 2.919m
16 Survivor 2.788m
17 Deal Or No Deal Celebrity Special 2.772m
18 Only Connect 2.751m
19 The Martin Lewis Money Show Live 2.737m
20 ITV Evening News 2.615m

 

[lolly]

Both episodes of Survivor did make the top 50 after platform viewing added,and it did comparatively well on it. The concluding part of the final got 3.002m

 

[Rita]

I was actually wondering how season 2 of Vigil was doing. That is good going as it really isn’t anywhere near as good as the first. I gave up after the 3rd episode.

 

[lolly]

So Strictly ends up falling just over 5% from last year's final.

 

[lolly]

I was actually wondering how season 2 of Vigil was doing. That is good going as it really isn’t anywhere near as good as the first. I gave up after the 3rd episode.

We've still got it in the memory, bur neither of us can whip up the enthusiasm, based on the premise and reactions I've read.

 

[Rita]

The gap between the ITV soaps and Eastenders is really closing in now. Eastenders is the best by a mile at the moment, and I am assuming that a lot of the Corrie/Emmerdale fans are DYING OFF whereas Eastenders still appears to a younger audience.

 

[Rita]

So Strictly ends up falling just over 5% from last year's final.

Still an OUTSTANDING figure.

I didn’t watch this year at all, and it’s always a show that if I don’t watch live I don’t watch it on catch up for some reason.

 

[lolly]

The gap between the ITV soaps and Eastenders is really closing in now. Eastenders is the best by a mile at the moment, and I am assuming that a lot of the Corrie/Emmerdale fans are DYING OFF whereas Eastenders still appears to a younger audience.

If we compare with the corresponding chart of 2022 (12 - 18 December)

Coronation Street DOWN 0.132m (2.8%)
Emmerdale DOWN 0.379m (8.6%)
EastEnders DOWN 0.339m (8.1%)

That's clearly just a snapshot of one week, though.

 

[lolly]

Still an OUTSTANDING figure.

I didn’t watch this year at all, and it’s always a show that if I don’t watch live I don’t watch it on catch up for some reason.

I dipped in and out, but it's the same for me - I watch live, or not at all. Particularly when you can get the result at around 11pm on the Saturday night, it doesn't seem worth it.

 

[Rita]

If we compare with the corresponding chart of 2022 (12 - 18 December)

Coronation Street DOWN 0.132m (2.8%)
Emmerdale DOWN 0.379m (8.6%)
EastEnders DOWN 0.339m (8.1%)

That's clearly just a snapshot of one week, though.

Oh. So Corrie is still holding up quite well compared to the other two. That is surprising to me.

 

[lolly]

Oh. So Corrie is still holding up quite well compared to the other two. That is surprising to me.

It surprised me as well. I had the same impression as you, I think - EastEnders had declined but levelled out and was slightly growing again, whereas Coronation Street and Emmerdale were still in gentle decline.

Like I said though, it's only one week, and often in one week the figures may be affected by one or more of them by being moved in the schedules for something. I may do a deeper dive at some point looking over a longer period.

 

[lolly]

December 18 - 24

01 Beyond Paradise 6.199m
02 Vigil 5.359m
03 Coronation Street 4.601m
04 The Repair Shop 4.540m
05 Emmerdale 4.095m
06 EastEnders 4.074m
07 Not Going Out 3.864m
08 BBC News at Six 3.813m
09 All Creatures Great And Small 3.709m
10 Antiques Roadshow 3.612m
11 Would I Lie To You? 3.323m
12 Film: Mog's Christmas 3.232m
13 Countryfile 3.204m
14 Have I Got News For You 3.106m
15 BBC Sports Personality Of The Year 3.097m
16 Celebrity Mastermind 3.065m
17 The Great British Sewing Bee 3.015m
18 Blankety Blank 3.006m
19 The Chase 2.988m
20 Royal Carols: Together At Christmas 2.944m

 

[lolly]

Possibly also worth adding that Chicken Run: The Dawn Of The Nugget got a further 2.636m in this week. I assume because platforms like Netflix are entirely on demand and don't have a broadcast date (and none is given, like all the other shows), they count every week.

 

[lolly]

Saltburn dropped on Amazon Prime on 22 December, so could have featured in this chart if it was watched enough until 24 December. But I suspect next week is its best bet.

 

[Slave]

It surprised me as well. I had the same impression as you, I think - EastEnders had declined but levelled out and was slightly growing again, whereas Coronation Street and Emmerdale were still in gentle decline.

Like I said though, it's only one week, and often in one week the figures may be affected by one or more of them by being moved in the schedules for something. I may do a deeper dive at some point looking over a longer period.

There's quite a comprehensive comparison over on DS.

The EastEnders figure for that particular week is skewed because it was the week in 2022 when Dot's funeral aired. That week was up 700K on 2021, so a drop in 2023 is somewhat inevitable. The fact that it's only down by 100K shows overall how much EastEnders has reversed its decline.

The year-on-year comparison for January - November 2023 was EastEnders up by 100K, Coronation Street down 470K and Emmerdale down 460K.

 

[lolly]

Comparing the soaps for this week to the same week last year gives quite a different picture:

Coronation Street DOWN 0.006m (-0.13%)
Emmerdale DOWN 0.076m (-1.8%)
EastEnders UP 0.298m (+7.9%)

Probably also worth pointing out that the corresponding week last year included Christmas Day, which probably makes EastEnders growth more impressive.

 

[lolly]

There's quite a comprehensive comparison over on DS.

The EastEnders figure for that particular week is skewed because it was the week in 2022 when Dot's funeral aired. That week was up 700K on 2021, so a drop in 2023 is somewhat inevitable. The fact that it's only down by 100K shows overall how much EastEnders has reversed its decline.

The year-on-year comparison for January - November 2023 was EastEnders up by 100K, Coronation Street down 470K and Emmerdale down 460K.

Oh that's interesting.

Both in terms of the info and having somewhere else to steal it from

Nice to see that the year on year comparison matched what I was kind of feeling from posting the chart each week.

 

[Rita]

Comparing the soaps for this week to the same week last year gives quite a different picture:

Coronation Street DOWN 0.006m (-0.13%)
Emmerdale DOWN 0.076m (-1.8%)
EastEnders UP 0.298m (+7.9%)

Probably also worth pointing out that the corresponding week last week included Christmas Day, which probably makes EastEnders growth more impressive.

Yes they always get a lot bigger figures on Christmas Day.

 

[Slave]

For avid soap ratings' watchers, this Christmas does appear to have been a tipping point. It was headline news that Coronation Street didn't make the top 10, despite that being the culmination of a marked decline over many, many months.

Compared to EastEnders pre-Chris Clenshaw and how the ratings were routinely - and rightly - slammed, ITV have gotten off lightly with quite a drastic slide. However, there are rumours of a scheduling shake-up coming, which may see different timeslots (hour-long episodes of Coronation Street are absolutely not working) or perhaps a reduction in episodes to lower costs.

It's most telling this year that ITV trimmed both soaps back to 30 minutes on Christmas Day. I know viewing habits have changed, but even so, Christmas Day advertising spots must surely still be a premium. The fact ITV decided neither Coronation Street or Emmerdale warranted hour-long Christmas specials for the first time in two decades (Coronation Street hasn't been 30 minutes since 1997, Emmerdale since 2004) must mean alarm bells are ringing, somewhere.

 

[lolly]

For avid soap ratings' watchers, this Christmas does appear to have been a tipping point. It was headline news that Coronation Street didn't make the top 10, despite that being the culmination of a marked decline over many, many months.

Compared to EastEnders pre-Chris Clenshaw and how the ratings were routinely - and rightly - slammed, ITV have gotten off lightly with quite a drastic slide. However, there are rumours of a scheduling shake-up coming, which may see different timeslots (hour-long episodes of Coronation Street are absolutely not working) or perhaps a reduction in episodes to lower costs.

It's most telling this year that ITV trimmed both soaps back to 30 minutes on Christmas Day. I know viewing habits have changed, but even so, Christmas Day advertising spots must surely still be a premium. The fact ITV decided neither Coronation Street or Emmerdale warranted hour-long Christmas specials for the first time in two decades (Coronation Street hasn't been 30 minutes since 1997, Emmerdale since 2004) must mean alarm bells are ringing, somewhere.

I know when I started posting the ratings here (2019, apparently), it became apparent that EastEnders was struggling immediately, and that I think at that point, Coronation Street and Emmerdale were either very stable, or only declining at a rate that wasn't noticeable compared to EastEnders. Everything then went a little ODD due to COVID, reduced episodes, short episodes (I think?), dumping on iPlayer, being shunted to BBC2 etc, but it has felt to me like since COVID, EastEnders did a good job of stabilising initially and had started something of a resurgence this year.

I knew that Coronation Street and Emmerdale were declining, but didn't appreciate it was quite as marked as your post above states - and I don't think there's any sign of it stopping yet. Being down around 10% year on year (possibly more for Emmerdale) must be really concerning in terms of ad revenue.