BBC's Jubilee Concert Draws Biggest U.K. TV Audience of Year to Date

4:30 AM PDT 6/5/2012 by Georg Szalai

0
0
0
0
0
Email
Print
Comments

MJ Kim

The celebration of Queen Elizabeth II, which featured the likes of Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox and Elton John, drew an average of 14.7 million viewers, or a share of 57.4 percent.

The BBC said Tuesday that it drew the biggest British TV audience of the year to-date with its star-studded Monday night concert to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's diamond jubilee.

Jubilee: Celebrating 100 Years of England's Queen on the Big Screen

Prince Phillip Hospitalized With Bladder Infection During Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee

The concert, which included performances from the likes of Paul McCartney, Elton John, Grace Jones, Annie Lennox, Madness, Stevie Wonder, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams and will.i.am, outperformed Last month's season finale of Simon Cowell's Britain’s Got Talent on ITV.

The public broadcaster said its BBC1 network attracted an average of 14.7 million viewers, for a 57.4 percent share of TV viewers at the time, with the concert that aired from 7:30pm until about 10:45pm. At its peak, the BBC brought in 17 million viewers, or a share of 65.4 percent.   "It was the highest rating program across all channels this year, a spokeswoman said.

The season finale of Cowell's Britain’s Got Talent had drawn an average 11.4 million U.K. viewers on a Saturday night, or 11.9 million when including viewers on ITV1+1, which airs the talent competition with an hour's delay.

The BBC's Sunday coverage of festivities tied to Queen Elizabeth II's 60th anniversary on the throne had also drawn a majority share of U.K. households watching TV. At its peak, the BBC brought in 11.9 million viewers, or a share of 61 percent, with the average lying at 10.3 million, or a share of 55.9 percent.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Twitter: @georgszalai