Christmas TV 2018

Mrs Brown down 2m year on year. I suspect a cast change last year and being more formulaic hasn't helped. It's obvious Brendan is now doing it just to finish the contract out, which I think is at least four episodes in the next two years, the New Year's Day 2021 episode being the final one.

All Round to Mrs Brown's is probably the future for the format on television at least, with the more lucrative stage show.

I had to admit that I didn't watch any linear television until 7.45 last night for CTM, EE and Mrs Brown and that was it. Netflix and my Plex library were my first port of call.

The novelty has well and truly worn off with Mrs Browns Boys but to it's credit I did think last nights was an improvement on the last couple of years.

As for overall figures - a shame to see them well below the 10m mark that used to be quite common for the day not that long ago but interesting that a bit further down the top ten and you see viewing is actually up on the last couple of years.

Here's how the Xmas Day overnights compare the previous few years. No real big hitters this year, but the outer reaches of the top 10 improve on the last couple of years. Overall average only slightly down on last year. pic.twitter.com/Y4dcAL5I6w

— Mark Gibbings-Jones (@BrokenTV) December 26, 2018

Christmas Day will always be the chicken and the egg situation. The soaps are never going to do it now as viewers just aren't as invested in them, but just as you get throughout the year I'm sure at some point something will surprise us on the day and bring the viewers in once again. I bet the BBC are cursing CBS for giving James Corden a Hollywood career.

But you still watched three hours of linear television - and three hours of BBC1 at that - which I would suggest is quite a lot.

I only watched Strictly properly yesterday, but I'm not complaining about the schedules - the rest didn't appeal to me but I know it all appeals to other people. It's the same as any other day, I watch what I want to watch and then the telly goes off. I don't have the time or inclination to watch telly all night. I think for many people as well Christmas Day is an incredibly inconvenient day to watch television.

We look at the ratings from the past and they are impressive but it's worth remembering that for so many of these years it was pretty much BBC1 or nothing. 1993 is the perfect example - BBC1 got huge ratings, but ITV was notoriously appalling and BBC2 and C4 both got zero ratings during the course of the evening. If you wanted to watch telly, you watched BBC1. The difference now is that if you weren't that bothered about Birds of a Feather you'd probably stick with it. These days there's a million and one other things to watch.

Only linear TV I watched on Xmas Day was Father Christmas and The Snowman on C4+1 at 1300. Didn't bother with Snowdog this year. That's it.

No. It isn't. Christmas issue has been perfect bound in some regions for several years now.

With Mrs Brown now phoning it in to ever decreasing ratings, we are really missing a big comedy breaking through. I expect it will continue even after next year as there isn’t any obvious replacement.

I’m still not a fan of Call th Midwife being on Christmas Day for 90 minutes or EastEnders being promoted to the key 9pm slot.

I and many other who do enjoy Mrs Browns boys have yet to watch the series and are planning to do so via catch up.. Typical naysayers..

I think the most depressing pattern in those ratings is the repetition year on year. If you take a look at those stats going back to 2014, the majority are the same handful of programmes each year. Can they really not come up with anything different? Christmas used to be a special event - but it's just more of the same these days as broadcasters have become so lazy.

We did watch linear TV last night, although I was flicking all over the place trying to find something worth watching. After enduring Strictly Come Dancing for a while, we finally ended up watching Dad's Army and 'Allo 'Allo repeats which were infinitely more enjoyable than anything new that was being shown last night! It was definitely the worst night of Christmas TV I can remember.

What did Torvill and Dean get last night?

Personally I'd have put Call the Midwife and EastEnders an hour earlier and Michael McIntyre at 9.15pm.

Well, actually like Andrew I wouldn't be having a 90 minute Call the Midwife special on Christmas Day every year. Ironically they year they finally bumped Doctor Who to another day is the year it probably had enough buzz around it to justify a Christmas Day outing, although I think yesterdays ratings back up those who were saying when it was announced that it would rate better in a decent New Years Day slot anyway.

Christmas TV in general hasn't been great.

We need new original content of the same standard Netflix and Prime etc can provide.

I think the only way that's going to be possible is that the BBC continues co-producing shows with Netflix and Amazon as they simply can't compete with the streaming providers on budgets alone.

The Crown would have been an ideal BBC/Netflix co-commission, but it proved that Netflix can go it alone. Same for Amazon with The Man in the High Castle.

We don't need more drama. We need investment in comedy and sketch comedy of the kind that can then produce a Christmas special. Comedy is sorely lacking at the moment.