List of most-watched television broadcasts: Difference between revisions
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*The [[funeral of Pope John Paul II]] was watched by over 1 billion people worldwide.{{Citation needed|date=June 2010}} |
*The [[funeral of Pope John Paul II]] was watched by over 1 billion people worldwide.{{Citation needed|date=June 2010}} |
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*The [[Michael Jackson memorial service|funeral service for Michael Jackson]] was watched by over 2.5 billion people worldwide. |
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*The 2010 FIFA World Cup Final is believed to been watched by 1.75 billion people worldwide. |
*The 2010 FIFA World Cup Final is believed to been watched by 1.75 billion people worldwide. |
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Revision as of 10:16, 25 October 2010
The following is a list of most-watched television broadcasts, organized by country and based on various criteria.
Australia
The list below is the top ten most watched broadcasts in Australia since 2001. These figures only represent the Capital City audience and not the Regional audience.
| Rank | Show | Number of Viewers | Date | Network |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australian Open: Men's Final (Lleyton Hewitt v Marat Safin) | 4,045,000 | 2005 | Channel Seven |
| 2 | 2003 Rugby World Cup: Final (Australia v England) | 4,016,000 | 2003 | Channel Seven |
| 3 | "Masterchef Australia" | 3,962,000 | 25 July 2010 | Channel Ten |
| 4 | Masterchef Australia | 3,560,000 | 19 July 2009 | Channel Ten |
| 5 | 2006 Commonwealth Games: Opening Ceremony | 3,560,000 | 2006 | Channel Nine |
| 6 | AFL Grand Final (Sydney Swans v West Coast Eagles) | 3,386,000 | 2005 | Channel Ten |
| 7 | Australian Idol: The final verdict | 3,344,000 | 2004 | Channel Ten |
| 8 | Masterchef Australia: Finale night | 3,313,000 | 19 July 2009 | Channel Ten |
| 9 | Australian Idol: The final verdict | 3,330,000 | 2006 | Channel Ten |
| 10 | AFL Grand Final (West Coast Eagles v Sydney Swans) | 3,145,000 | 2006 | Channel Ten |
Top programmes
Nielsen then OZtam began compiling ratings for television beginning in 1956.
These are the programs that finished with the highest average Nielsen and Oztam rating in each television season:
CanadaThe most watched television broadcast in Canadian history was the Gold medal game of the Men's ice hockey tournament at the 2010 Winter Olympics. 16.6 million Canadians watched the entire game, roughly one-half the country's population. [3] 13.3 million Canadians watched the Opening Ceremonies, which was the previous record. [4] Many believed the final game of the 1972 Summit Series had up to 18 million viewers, but those rumours have been proven false, as only 4.3 million people watched that. 10.3 million people watched the gold medal final of the 2002 Winter Olympics. [5] ChinaChina Central Television's Spring Festival Gala has regularly attracted between 700 million and one billion viewers since the early 1980s.[citation needed] As of 2007, their main evening news broadcast (Xinwen Lianbo) had a daily audience of around 135 million people, a low figure compared to earlier years.[citation needed] Follow Me! a BBC beginner's English programme broadcast in China as part of the re-establishment of an educational system after the end of the Cultural Revolution.[1][2] The programme, broadcast on one of China's three channels from 1981 to 1989,[1] has been estimated to have attracted a nightly audience of 350 million people during the early 1980s.[2] ItalyMost-watched television seriesIn November, 2006, the Accademia dei Telefilm (Academy of TV series) published its list of the most-watched American television programmes in Italian history, based on the highest-rated episode for each series. The episodes all came from U.S. television programmes, with the top five consisting of ER, Beverly Hills 90210, House, Lost and Charmed. At the time of the survey, only Beverly Hills 90210 had finished its original run on Italian television, the rest were still airing.[3][4]
GermanyMost-watched U.S. television series episodes
Top 9 primetime telecasts of all time
United KingdomMost-watched episodes(by total number of viewers)[7]
One-off events(by total number of viewers)[7] 
Most-watched films(by total number of viewers;[12] dates are when the films were broadcast, not necessarily when they were produced.)
United StatesSources: BBC, Reuters, Nielsen Media Research Highest rated network telecastsThe Beatles' and Elvis Presley's first appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show hold the records as the highest rated telecasts of all time[citation needed]. The production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Cinderella that aired on CBS on March 31, 1957, has been claimed by some sources to have had an audience of 107 million viewers.[13][14]
Top 45 network primetime telecasts of all time (1964–2010)(from January 1964 to February 2010; ranked by rating, or "Percentage of Households." Households could include many viewers; share is the percentage of television sets in use tuned to a specific program; source: Nielsen Media Research and Variety) Few post-1990 telecasts are listed. Before Fox's launch in October 1986, the Big Three television networks—ABC, CBS, and NBC—dominated nationwide broadcasting. Today, with the ubiquity of cable and satellite television, typical American households have a far greater choice of programming from dozens or hundreds of specialty and broadcast channels, as opposed to the handful of broadcast channels during the era represented by most programs on this list. More recently, increased ease and prevalence of watching programming other than at its original airing (in reruns, by recording, by time-shifting, on an on-demand TV service, by internet download, etc.) decreases the need for masses of viewers to tune into a single broadcast as well. The Internet has also drawn viewers away from television. The 45 shows on this list could be grouped into just five categories:
The allocation of the 45 shows across the four major US networks are: 15 shows on each of NBC and CBS, 13 shows on ABC, and two shows on Fox. The 23 sports events on the list could be considered to carry their own audience, as compared to the notion that the efforts of any particular network caused the high viewership. All Super Bowl Ratings up to Super Bowl XLIII can be found in full here.[18]
Most-watched series finales
(sources: Reuters, Variety, Nielsen Media Research, ratings data from USA Today weekly ratings charts)
The finale is not necessarily a show's most-watched episode. Friends, for example, had 52.9 million viewers for a 1996 episode that followed Super Bowl XXX. 7th Heaven's initial finale was watched by 7.8 million on the WB, but was picked up by the new network The CW, however the show was cancelled after another season and its final episode was watched by 3.3 million people. M*A*S*H and Cheers finalesThe number of viewers for M*A*S*H (105.9 million) and Cheers (80.4 million) are the numbers most commonly reported. M*A*S*H has also been reported at 121.6 million viewers and Cheers has been reported at 93.1 million viewers.[22][36] For M*A*S*H, 121.6 million represents the total audience who watched at least six minutes and the 105.9 million represents the viewers who watched the average minute.[37] Regular episodes of M*A*S*H were thirty minutes long, but the final episode was two hours and thirty minutes. Annual top-rated U.S. TV seriesNielsen began compiling ratings for television beginning in 1950. Prior to that year, television ratings were compiled by a number of other sources, including C. E. Hooper (which was bought out by Nielsen in February 1950) and Variety. American Idol holds the record for most consecutive seasons at #1, with six, while All in the Family, and The Cosby Show share second place for most consecutive seasons at #1, with five each. These are the programs that finished with the highest average Nielsen rating in each television season: World
Worldwide viewership statistics cited in press releases by television networks, FIFA, the NFL and others have been questioned by independent groups and audience figures cited in billions are considered practically unverifiable.[38] While for these reasons there are no exact figures available for global television events, a report by IPG media agency Initiative Worldwide stated that the 2006 FIFA World Cup was the most-watched sporting event of that year with an average 95 Million viewers per match.[39]
References
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