Ghosts bows out on a high

The final episode of BBC1’s long-running paranormal comedy Ghosts departed to 4.4m (28.7%), surpassing its last Christmas Day foray by half a million viewers.

The grand finale of the Monumental TV’s comedy pipped 2022’s special, which amused 3.9m (25%) at the slightly earlier time of 7.30pm – the show’s first outing on Christmas.

It was narrowly overtaken by Ncuti Gatwa’s debut performance as the Doctor in the Christmas Doctor Who special, which began at 5.55pm and entertained 4.5m (32%).

The episode was unable to match the opening of the three-part specials featuring David Tennant, which began with 5.1m (36.5%) in a 6.30pm slot on a Saturday in November, but was broadly level with Gatwa’s first appearance which drew an overnight audience of 4.6m (32.3%) earlier this month.

The largest audience of the day was for the King’s Speech at 3pm, which drew a crowd of 6.5m (54.2%) for its ten-minute duration across BBC1, BBC2 and ITV, with the majority of those tuning in on BBC1 (5.2m/43.7%).

This was below last year’s inaugural broadcast from King Charles III, which drew 8.1m (54%), as well as Queen Elizabeth II’s the year before, which had a high of 7.5m (51.6%).

Channel 4’s Alternative Christmas Message with Stephen Fry totalled 747,000 (5.8%) at 5pm, just above last year’s 720,000 (5.1%) according to Barb data provided by overnights.tv.

Later in the evening, Call the Midwife returned to 4.3m (29%) on BBC1, followed by the EastEnders Christmas day special at 9.45pm with 3.4m (27%).

BBC2 aired a trio of repeats from comedy double act Morecambe and Wise across the day, starting out with Christmas show at 5.55pm with 1.3m (9.4%), followed by In Their Own Words with 1.2m (9.3%) and ending with The Music of Morecambe and Wise at 8pm 930,000 (6.2%).

Later that evening, Passion’s documentary on Caroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy played at 10.25pm to 833,000 (8.9%).

Meanwhile on ITV, a festive special episode of The Masked Singer: Christmas Special performed with 2.7m (18%) at 7.30pm and was followed by The 1% Club Christmas Special, which entertained 3m (20.4%) at 9pm. At 10pm, a tribute to Barry Humphries: The Last Laugh bowed out to 1.2m (10.6%).

Festive editions of The Great Pottery Throwdown and The Piano on Channel 4 entertained 1.4m (9.1%) and 970,000 (6.6%) respectively. On Channel 5, musical highlights shows Britain’s Favourite Karaoke Songs at 6pm followed by Britain’s Favourite Party songs serenaded 376,000 (2.6%) and then 440,000 (3.4%).

Christmas Eve

BBC2’s A Ghost Story for Christmas: Lot 249 spooked 773,000 (5.9%) from 10pm, down on previous years’ offerings Count Magnus (2022) and The Mezzotint (2021). Earlier, Carols from King’s soothed 1m (7.7%) from 6.40pm over its 80-minute broadcast.

On C4, Mog’s Christmas entertained 1.7m (12.1%) from 7.45pm, while The Repair Shop Christmas special dominated at 8pm with 3.9m (26.6%), ahead of Royal Carols: Together at Christmas on ITV1 (2.5m/16.9%).