Best viewing figures for each of the commercial networks?

Does anybody have the best viewing figures ever for the history of each network?

BBC One
BBC Two
ITV1
Channel 4
five

And perhaps Sky One.

I'd imagine it's maybe a football match or perhaps that Royal Documentary that broadcast in the 70s.

If anybody knows any of them, that would be great.

look them up here

I know for definite that Channel 4's was 13.8 million for the film A Woman of Substance, broadcast on 4 January 1985. Excluding films, the channel's highest rating was 10 million viewers for the final of the third series of Big Brother on 27 July 2002.

Not sure about Five's, but I think it might have been for the film Independence Day, but not sure what the figures were.

Thanks for the info.

BBC One - The World Cup Final - 1966 - 32.6 million
ITV - Coronation Street - 1989 - 26.9 million
Channel 4 - A Woman of Substance - 1985 - 13.8 million

BBC Two - ???
five - ???

Channel 5 (as it was then), covered an England vs Albania world cup qualifier in March 2001. It averaged 5.5m viewers, peaking at 8m.

That's probably up there as their highest rating.

Well one source says Corrie highest rated episode was Christmas Day 1987, another says it was 1989. Cant remember whether it was the 13th March 1989 episode where Alan tried to murder Rita or the 8th December 1989 episode where Alan got killed by a tram that got 26.9 though.

EDIT - Just did a search on google and it was the 8th December 1989 episode which got the highest ratings.

Do we know which episode that was? I was always led to believe Corrie's highest rated episode was for Hilda Ogden's farewell which was a Christmas episode IIRC.

The highest rated episode of Corrie ever was March 19th 1989 - it was watched by 26.9 million viewers.

Me too. This quote from the 40th anniversary book;

"As the credits rolled over Hilda's farewell party at the Rovers the ratings figures staggered executives at both BBC and ITV: the Street had broken its own records with an incredible 26.6 million viewers"

But then another source said it was 1989 so there is some confusion over which episode is the highest rated. I will e-mail ITV and find out.



That was the episode after Alan tried to kill Rita - I remember that episode at the time, it was great. Everyone was tuning in to see if Rita lived.

It's very rare these days when either BBC1 or ITV could get about 20 million viewers for one programme. The last time BBC1 got very high ratings was for the 2001 Christmas Day 'comeback' episode of Only Fools and Horses which averaged at 21 Million. For ITV the last event was the infamous England Vs Argentina game during the 1998 World Cup, that at it's peak got about 24 Million viewers.

As for Sky One, I think the highest was about 2 or 3 Million viewers, the last time IIRC was the Rebecca Loos interview. Sky Sports 1 can get about 3-4 Million on a Sunday afternoon when there's a crucial Premiership game playing, often beating most of the terrestrials.

What did the 1996 episode of Only Fools and Horses get? I seem to remember the figure making front page headlines in the tabloids at the time.

IIRC it was about 24/25 Million.

ITV showed a James Bond film opposite this and got their lowest ever Prime Time rating. (Since viewing figures were monitored)