BBC Christmas viewing hits record lows with ‘stale’ line-up
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
BBC Christmas viewing hits record lows with ‘stale’ line-up
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
23 Comments
Cant be bothered to read something I need to sign up and pay money for. Could at least warn us next time.
The only thing on over the whole christmas – new year period that looks worth watching is “Wild London” on new years day, because its David Attenborough. Maybe the new Night Manager
It was pretty appalling.
BBC1 seemingly put in the most effort, with at least some new productions for the day (I know you hate Mrs Brown’s Boys, shut the fuck up)
Was geniunely shocked to find BBC2 with not only nothing new on all day, but nothing of the 21st century. The “Freshest” thing there was the Keeping Up Appearances special.
ITV doubled down on their quiz shows whilst Channel 4 opted for a GoggleBox highlight reel for two hours.
The article is paywalled so I can’t read it. But I agree with the headline. The BBC lineup this year was definitely really disappointing. I feel like there’s usually at least one big highlight on Christmas Day to look forward to but it was slim pickings this year. I haven’t looked hard at the schedules for this coming week but usually there are some hidden gems during this period in between so hopefully that’s the same again this year.
Hardly anything to get super excited about this year compared to Christmas 2024.
And yet they still had 9 of the top 10 most-watched shows on Christmas Day (the only non-BBC show being The 1% Club). Seems like the real story here is about how low live TV viewing figures are generally, rather than the hit-piece on the BBC this is framed as.
I don’t get why bbc doesn’t do a few more specials of some of it’s regular running shows. Just bake a Xmas special into the main filming run and keep it in the tank until ready.
Amandaland could have been 45 mins. Fleshed it out a bit with it being a Christmas Special.
The BBC feels like its stuck in the early 2000s. Stranger Things has been the only thing that’s been anywhere on my radar as Christmas TV I’ve been interested in watching.
Honestly Christmas telly has been going down the shitter in the last eight-nine years, but this Christmas truly felt like the pits. I know streaming is trampling linear TV, but fuck me couldn’t the BBC, ITV or Channel 4 and 5 make a decent argument as to why linear TV still has a place in our society?
All encompassing Shitification. Have you seen modern films? Blurry backgrounds, no effort, no sets, over post-production, just shitty CGI. We’re done.
It was absolutely dire. Couldn’t find anything to watch if you wanted to🤦♂️
I only watch eastenders on Christmas, but that was a shit Christmas special. Nothing happened
Didn’t even watch the TV yet… Except to see ole Charlie boy do his little speech…
Don’t even have a TV license anyway so shouldn’t be anyway (that was at my mum’s so doesn’t count)
Doesn’t help there was sod all on. Me and my family just put all Xmas specials from classic comedy shows like Vicar of Dibley and Only Fools and then watched Home Alone and Die Hard.
Now don’t think I’m a regular Eastenders viewer but I tend to catch the Christmas specials as my Mum loves the thing.
Even this year’s Christmas special was boring. Somehow in 2025 your Christmas special is fanservice for a soap with characters no one really remembers coming back to pretend to be cartoonishly evil and not actually do anything bad in the end of the day.
They honestly just need to make Phil Mitchell go full Die Hard next year and defeat an invasion of football hooligans at the Queen Vic
Well, there was the Peep Show Bake-Off 😭 that was pretty good, I guess
Well if the BBC was bad, the others were dreadful. Couldn’t believe it when we turned the tv onto ITV at prime time and the best they could put out is fancy dress the chase.
it was the shittest christmas day tv selection in a while.
The BBC is an institution that is allowed to continue because of its legacy insistence in Britain, just like the royal family.
It is an awful organisation that has done awful things, enforces discriminatory hiring practice and steals from young journalists that they might offer a research job if they meet diversity requirements at a later stage. I say this with first hand information and disillusion with a once great institution.
Not surprising. The BBC is just a nepo wage farm at this point.
So glad I dont pay for a TV licence (I dont watch live TV just streaming services).
I’d feel ripped off nowadays.
Same as everything, price has gone up and quality is down.
I say this every year, but for some reason the BBC are obsessed with showing Morecambe and Wise / The Two Ronnies every Christmas.
The generation of people who enjoyed those shows have all been dead for over ten years.
What goes on in boardroom discussions for Christmas planning?
“Our viewership is at an all-time low! How can we capture an audience this Christmas and compete with streaming services?”
“I know, why don’t we show a comedy from 1976! That’ll get the kids off TikTok!”