Revealed: The most watched TV programme of the yr – bringing in practically 13 million viewers
ITV’s coverage of England’s Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands was the most watched programme of the year, bringing in nearly 13 million viewers.
This narrowly beat the recent BBC festive finale of Gavin & Stacey, which drew in the largest Christmas Day audience for 16 years, with 12.3 million.
BBC1’s broadcast of the Spain versus England Euro 2024 final in July, which was also shown on ITV, was next most popular, averaging nearly 11.5 million viewers.
The figures for the football matches include the whole coverage of the games, including pre-match and post-match analysis.
The peak audience for the Netherlands game on ITV is said to have hit more than 20 million.
Figures are based on overnight data, which measures the amount of people watching on the same day the show aired. They show the average audience numbers.
Another BBC1 Christmas show was in fourth place, with the long-awaited return of Wallace & Gromit with the feature film Vengeance Most Fowl, watched by 9.4 million on the day.
This put it ahead of the final of Strictly Come Dancing, which saw comedian Chris McCausland carry off the Glitterball Trophy. The show was watched by nearly nine million, according to the figures provided by Home.
England manager Gareth Southgate celebrating during England’s semi-final match against the Netherlands. ITV ’s coverage of the Euro 2024 game was the most watched programme of the year, bringing in nearly 13 million viewers
The cast of Gavin and Stacey. The hit BBC1 show drew in the largest Christmas Day audience for 16 years with 12.3 million
The Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in Malmo in Sweden this year, was the next most popular show attracting an audience of 7.6 million for BBC1 in May.
It was followed by the final episode of the latest series of ITV’s hit I’m A Celebrity….Get Me Out of Here!, which saw McFly singer Danny Jones crowned champion. The programme attracted a same day audience of 7.4 million.
In eighth place on the list was BBC1 coverage of the Olympics on the night of the opening ceremony in Paris in July, which attracted nearly seven million.
The next most popular show was BBC1’s revival of former ITV entertainment show Gladiators, presented by Bradley Walsh and his son Barney. It was watched by an overnight audience of more than six million for an episode in January.
A third-round match in the FA Cup between Arsenal and Liverpool in January on BBC1 was in tenth place with nearly 5.9 million viewers.
Eight of the top ten shows were aired on BBC1 with the other two going out on ITV.
Another BBC1 Christmas show was in fourth place, with the long-awaited return of Wallace & Gromit with the feature film Vengeance Most Fowl, watched by 9.4 million on the day
Nemo from Switzerland won the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo in Sweden this year. An audience of 7.6 million tuned into BBC1 in May to watch the contest
Other hit shows in the year like Mr Bates vs The Post Office and The Traitors did not make the top ten overnight shows, but will have picked up significantly larger audiences across a seven day period.
If the BBC1 and ITV broadcasts of the Euro 2024 final are combined the audience for the game was more than 15 million, as almost four million watched on ITV.
BBC news reported a peak audience of 24.2 million for the final across both BBC and ITV coverage.
ITV had sole rights to the semi-final match between England and the Netherlands, which explains why it had the highest audience.
The list only includes the top performing episode per programme title, including only the highest rating match from Euro 2024 on ITV and the BBC. Other England games also got high ratings.
