As many revisit their favourite show’s festive episodes to get into the holiday spirit, a new study has revealed the most popular Christmas TV specials of all time.
This year millions of Brits are waiting in anticipation for the 2024 Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special which will be the final ever episode of the beloved BBC sitcom.
As the nation prepares for some excellent new festive specials this year, Betway have revealed the definitive ranking of the greatest Christmas specials of all time.
Each episode’s popularity is based on a unique index score which is generated by ratings on IMDb, Amazon ratings, number of viewers (per million) and number of searches worldwide – with the lower the overall index score the higher the ranking.
The entire table of results can be found below.
Top TV Christmas Specials of All Time:
The results are now in and Betway has revealed that Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol which aired on Christmas Day in 2010 has come in first place.
Starring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, the episode had over 12 million people tuning in and 13,794 searches worldwide, making it the best TV Christmas special on record.
Following closely behind is the US Office’s Christmas special, Christmas party in second place. The festive episode aired in 2005 with over nine million watching and had a whopping 159,861 searches – the third highest number of searches overall.
Securing joint third place was Gavin and Stacey’s 2019 Christmas Special and Downtown Abbey: Christmas at Downton Abbey. Meanwhile Gavin and Stacey’s 2008 Christmas special also bagged fourth place, receiving the highest number of searches from the entire list at 308,602.
Black Mirror’s White Christmas followed behind with the second highest searches of 208,585 but ranked ninth place overall.
The oldest episodes on the list were ones from comedy sitcom Friends with their episodes ‘The One With the Holiday Armadillo’ (2000) and ‘The One With The Girl from Poughkeepsie’ (1997) coming in at fifth and eleventh place.
Despite their rankings, both episodes had by far the most viewers with over 23m tuning in, but did not make the top spot due to having the lowest searches at just 374.
In terms of this year, Gavin and Stacey’s Christmas Special is set to surpass the King’s annual Christmas speech in most watched Christmas Day TV ratings.
James Corden’s and Ruth Jones’ beloved comedy sketch will return for the first time in five years for it’s final ever episode.
Gavin & Stacey: The Finale airs at 9pm on Christmas Day on BBC One and iPlayer
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