Downton Abbey wins battle of Christmas Day ratings

The final episode of Downton Abbey aired on Christmas Day. Picture: Contributed

With peak figures of 7.1 million, the two-hour long episode of Julian Fellowes’ drama just pipped the Strictly Christmas special, won by Harry Judd, which was the BBC’s most-watched show of the day with a peak of seven million viewers and an average of 6.5 million.

The real ratings winner was the Queen, whose 3pm broadcast had the biggest overall figures for the day, drawing 6.1 million on the BBC and 1.1 million on ITV, excluding +1 and catch-up services.

In its swansong episode, viewers watched as Downton’s Lady Edith finally got her happy ending with Bertie Pelham, Lady Mary discovered she was pregnant and Anna and Mr Bates welcomed their first child - with no tragic deaths to break the reverie.

ITV said: “This is the first time a Downton Christmas special has topped the ratings in the UK on Christmas Day.”

It was a drop from the 8.8 million who tuned in for the penultimate episode of the series in November and failed to replicate the figures from the first-ever Downton Christmas episode in 2011 when it pulled in a consolidated audience of 12.1 million.

The BBC claimed eight of the 10 most watched Christmas shows, with Mrs Brown’s Boys and Stick Man drawing in an average of 6.4 million, and Doctor Who and Call the Midwife pulling in an audience of 5.8 million each.

Downton went head-to-head with an hour-long special of EastEnders in the 8:45pm slot but even a shock car crash involving the Mitchell and Beale families only captured the attention of 5.7 million fans.

Coronation Street triumphed as the most-watched Christmas soap.