Viewers switch off amid wall-to-wall royal coverage
Viewing figures across all major TV channels plummeted on Friday night amid wall-to-wall royal coverage following the death of Prince Philip.
ITV’s Friday night viewing figures fell 60 per cent, according to reports, with the BBC suffering similar losses.
Gogglebox, which was broadcast on Channel 4 at 9pm on Friday night, won the battle of the ratings, drawing in 4.2 million viewers.
All broadcasters shelved scheduled programming in the immediate hours following the Duke of Edinburgh’s death.
The BBC pulled the entirety of its programming on BBC One, Two and BBC Four. It has since set up a dedicated complaints line after being inundated with criticism.
The BBC said on its official complaints page that many viewers believed there was “too much coverage” of the royal death.
The rolling royal news continued into Saturday morning, with both the BBC and ITV changing their morning schedules to make room for news specials about Prince Phillip.
All in all, total viewing numbers for broadcast television were about five per cent lower than the Friday before.