This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Nearly 3 million people recorded the festive special of Doctor Who and watched it in the week after Christmas Day, with Downton Abbey among the other most popular timeshifted programmes, but Mrs Brown's Boys held on to the top spot as the dust settled on the festive TV ratings battle.

Doctor Who increased its overnight audience from 8.3 million to 11.1 million in the consolidated figures published on Thursday, which includes delayed viewing over the seven days after the programmes were broadcast on TV.

Downton Abbey's overnight audience of 7 million viewers was up by 2.4 million to 9.4 milllion. Although it was still down on last year's consolidated audience of 10.3 million the Julian Fellowes drama, which was scheduled against an hour-long EastEnders and Mrs Brown's Boys on Christmas Day, moved up from seventh to fourth place in the ratings.

Downton Abbey overtook the Albert Square soap, which fell from fourth to fifth in the consolidated ratings it topped last year, and Call the Midwife and Strictly Come Dancing.

Brendan O'Carroll's bawdy sitcom Mrs Brown's Boys reigned supreme, piling on another 2.1 million viewers during the week after Christmas Day to give it a total audience of 11.5 million, around 200,000 more than watched last year's number one, EastEnders.

Mrs Brown's Boys did not air on Christmas Day last year, so a strict year-on-year comparison is not possible. Of the shows that did air on the same day last year, Doctor Who's consolidated audience was up more than a million, from 9.9 million.

But other BBC1 shows Call the Midwife and Strictly Come Dancing were both down, from 10.2 million and 9.2 million respectively. ITV's Coronation Street was also down, from 8.8 million last year.

Christmas Day ratings - the consolidated top 10 (overnight audience and position in brackets)

1. Mrs Brown's Boys, BBC1 11.52 million, 36.3% (9.4m, 35.5%)

2. Doctor Who, BBC1 11.14m, 35.33 (8.3m, 30.7%)

3. Coronation Street, ITV 9.82m, 30.9% (8.3m, 30.7%)

4. Downton Abbey, ITV 9.41m, 30.2% (7m, 27%)

5. EastEnders, BBC1 9.36m, 29.6% (7.8m, 29%)

6. Call The Midwife, BBC1 9.16m, 33.8% (7.1m, 30.1%)

7. Strictly Come Dancing, BBC1 8.84m, 37.9% (7.3m, 35.4%)

8. Toy Story 3, BBC1 7.33m, 39.6% (6.3m, 38.9%)

9. Emmerdale, ITV 7.07m, 25.8% (5.8m, 24.7%)

10. The Queen, BBC1 5.82m, 35.3% (5.7m, 36.2%)

* ITV overnight audience includes ITV+1

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