Atlanta, GA 12/28/2010 10:17:34 PM
The BBC won the Boxing Day (26.12.10) ratings war.
The corporation's soap 'EastEnders' reached a record peak audience of
9.5 million viewers on the second day of the festive holiday as viewers tuned in to see the drama unfold in the wake of Stacey
Branning’s decision to flee Albert Square on Christmas Day (25.12.10).
The channel's revival of period drama ‘Upstairs Downstairs’, starring
Keeley Hawes and Ed Stoppard also increased ratings, with it's debut on
Sunday peaking at 8.1 million.
The programme, which was a hit on ITV in the 70s, had an average rating
of more than 7.5 million and an audience share of 28.4 per cent -
almost matching ITV's 7.6 million for period drama ‘Downton Abbey’
earlier this year.
ITV1 struggled to compete with comedy ‘Benidorm’, which shared the
‘Upstairs Downstairs’ air time, coming in at only 6.5 million viewers
at its highest, while and Harry Hill's 'Best Of Christmas TV Burp' had
a peak audience of just 2.9 million. In the early evening slot, ITV1
showed the film 'The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor' but lost out to
BBC1's 'Countryfile', which received a peak audience of 5.8 million,
and 'Antiques Roadshow', with 7.8 million viewers.
