History-making events top chart of decade’s biggest TV audiences so far
The highest-rated broadcast on a single channel is England’s Euro 2020 semi-final victory over Denmark.
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Your support makes all the difference.A new King, a global pandemic and a trophy for England at the women’s Euros mean this is already a decade like no other – and all were responsible for some of the biggest TV audiences of the first half of the 2020s.
Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and King Charles’s coronation both attracted enormous ratings, as did former prime minister Boris Johnson’s broadcasts about Covid-19, proving that moments of history still draw in millions of viewers.
Though live events dominate the list of the decade’s most-watched television so far, drama and entertainment favourites such as Line of Duty and I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! have also pulled in huge audiences, as have surprise hits including 2024’s Mr Bates v The Post Office.
Topping the list is Boris Johnson’s broadcast on March 23 2020 announcing the first Covid-19 lockdown, which was shown simultaneously on six TV channels and which drew an average audience of 28.3 million.
This is one of the highest ratings in modern television history, according to analysis by the PA news agency using data from the research organisation Barb, which has been responsible for calculating UK TV official viewing figures continuously since 1981.
Next in the chart come other multi-channel events: Mr Johnson’s second Covid-19 broadcast on May 10 2020 (an audience of 27.6 million across seven channels), the Queen’s funeral service on September 19 2022 (26.5 million across more than 50 channels) and the Queen’s Covid-19 address to the nation on April 5 2020 (24.5 million across seven channels).
The King’s coronation service on May 6 2023 did not quite match these huge numbers, despite being shown live on various channels, attracting a combined audience of just under 19.0 million.
The decade’s highest ratings for an event shown exclusively on one channel is 18.4 million, which was the average audience for ITV’s full coverage of England’s Euro 2020 semi-final victory over Denmark on July 7 2021.
Football is also responsible for the second largest audience for a broadcast exclusive to one channel: the 16.1 million who saw full coverage of England lose to France in the 2022 World Cup quarter-finals on December 10 2022, again on ITV.
The third largest audience in this category is for a programme made specifically for television: the police drama Line of Duty, which pulled in 15.8 million viewers for its concluding episode on BBC1 on May 2 2021, in which the elusive “H” was finally unmasked.
This is the highest rating for a drama series so far this century, beating the previous record of 15.2 million set by an episode of Heartbeat on ITV in February 2000.
All figures are consolidated ratings, meaning they include people who recorded and watched the programme up to seven days later – the industry standard for measuring TV audiences.
This means the chart does not yet include the episode of the sitcom Gavin & Stacey shown on BBC1 on Christmas Day 2024, for which only overnight ratings (12.3 million) are currently available.
When the seven-day consolidated ratings for Gavin & Stacey are published, they are likely to show a jump that – if big enough – could rank the episode above Line of Duty’s 15.8 million.
Consolidated ratings also include people who watched on tablets, PCs and smartphones, along with any “pre-broadcast” viewers who streamed the programme online before it was transmitted on television.
Stripping out of the chart all subsequent instances of Covid-19 news, live sport and multi-channel broadcasts, the most-watched programme after Line of Duty is currently Oprah Winfrey’s interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, broadcast on ITV on March 8 2021 (14.8 million), followed by the first episode of the 2020 series of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, shown on ITV on November 15 2020 (14.3 million).
Next comes the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee concert (June 4 2022, BBC1, 13.1 million), the 2020 final of Strictly Come Dancing (December 19 2020, BBC1, 12.5 million) and the 2023 New Year’s Eve fireworks (BBC1, 12.2 million).
Other instances of large audiences this decade include the 2020 final of The Great British Bake Off (November 24 2020, Channel 4, 11.7 million); the last episode of the police drama Happy Valley (February 5 2023, BBC1, 11.1 million); and the launch of the 2020 series of Britain’s Got Talent (April 11 2020, ITV, 11.0 million).
England’s historic victory in the final of the women’s Euros on July 31 2022, in which the Lionesses defeated Germany 2-1, had an average audience of 11.2 million for full coverage on BBC1.
The final of Euro 2020, which took place on July 11 2021 and saw England beaten by Italy, was shown simultaneously by both BBC1 and ITV, with full-coverage audiences of just over 18.0 million and 4.4 million respectively.
By contrast, the Euro 2024 final on July 14, in which England lost to Spain, was again shown by both channels but attracted smaller full-coverage audiences of 11.7 million on BBC1 and 4.1 million on ITV.
Until just a few days ago, the highest entry in the chart for a non-sport programme shown in 2024 was ITV’s real-life drama Mr Bates v The Post Office, which attracted an average of 10.4 million viewers for the final episode shown on January 4.
The Christmas Day episode of Gavin & Stacey has already done well enough in the overnight ratings (12.3 million) to beat this number, however.
When consolidated ratings for this episode are published by Barb, they will determine where the sitcom ranks in the overall chart for both 2024 and the decade.
The figures for Gavin & Stacey prove that huge TV audiences are not a thing of the past and could, given the right combination of stars, script and circumstance, reoccur in the second half of the 2020s.
But it will probably take history-making events on a similar scale to a royal death or a pandemic to generate viewing figures of a size to rival those at the top of the decade’s chart.
Here are the five biggest TV audiences of the 2020s for an event shown simultaneously across two or more channels:
– Prime ministerial Covid-19 statement, March 23 2020: 28.3 million– Prime ministerial Covid-19 statement, May 10 2020: 27.6 million– Queen’s funeral service, September 19 2022: 26.5 million– Queen’s Covid-19 address, April 5 2020: 24.5 million– Euro 2020 final, July 11 2021: 22.5 million
Here are the 10 biggest TV audiences of the 2020s for a programme or event shown exclusively by one channel, based on the highest-rated instance:
– Euro 2020: England v Denmark, July 7 2021 (ITV): 18.4 million– World Cup 2022: England v France, December 10 2022 (ITV): 16.1m– Line of Duty, May 2 2021 (BBC1): 15.8m– Oprah with Meghan and Harry, March 8 2021 (ITV): 14.8m– I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, November 15 2020 (ITV): 14.3m– BBC news Covid-19 special, March 23 2020 (BBC1): 13.6m– Euro 2024: England v Netherlands, July 10 2024 (ITV): 13.3m– Queen’s Platinum Jubilee concert, June 4 2022 (BBC1): 13.1m– Strictly Come Dancing, December 19 2020 (BBC1): 12.5m– New Year’s Eve Fireworks, December 31 2023 (BBC1): 12.2m
(All figures are official consolidated seven-day ratings published by Barb.)