London 2012 Olympics: 26 million tune in to BBC for the spectacular finale

The closing ceremony won a bigger average television audience than the opening event.

Sunday evening’s musical celebration, featuring performances by acts including Take That and the Spice Girls, drew an
average 22.9 million to BBC1 – half a million more than saw Danny Boyle’s mesmerising launch a fortnight earlier.

A peak audience of 26.3m was watching the event – created by artistic director Kim Gavin – at its height on BBC1, on a dedicated Olympic channel and on HD at 9:35pm.

The event culminated with a fireworks display and the flame in the cauldron being extinguished. It set a new audience record for Olympic closing
ceremonies, easily outstripping the previous high of 11m for
Barcelona in 1992.

Last night’s peak was slightly down on the audience for the opening ceremony, which reached a combined 26.9m across several BBC channels.

The figures crown a series of huge audience figures achieved during the Games. The biggest blockbuster among the sporting events was Usain Bolt’s triumph in the 100m final a week ago with 20m tuning in, while 17.1m watched Mo Farah take the 10,000m gold.

BBC1 controller Danny Cohen said: “It has been an absolute privilege to broadcast the
London 2012 Olympics on BBC1.”