Despite being one of this winter’s most anticipated comebacks, BBC One’s ‘Gavin and Stacey Christmas special’ is set to be beaten to the honour of being this year’s most watched Christmas TV show, according to the bookies.
The James Corden and Ruth Jones written-comedy will return on Christmas Day and the bookmakers rate the odds of it being the most watched show at 3/1.
Instead, it’s the fellow BBC comedy ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas special’, that’s the 2/1 favourite according to Betting-Directory.com, despite it’s later showtime of 11pm.
Call the Midwife, which was the most watched show last Christmas day, sits joint-second favourite alongside Gavin and Stacey.
Doctor Who and Strictly Come Dancing share the third favourite position at 5/1. Iconic BBC show Top of the Pops is surprisingly an outsider at 25/1, despite pulling in talent such as George Ezra and Sigrid as part of last year’s line-up.
The bookies are expecting Eastenders to win the ‘soap-war’ this winter, with the show rated at 6/1 to be the most watched show at Christmas. Fierce rivals Coronation Street are ranked at 10/1.
The Queen’s Speech, which pulled in 7.1 million viewers last year, is 6/1 favourite and is expected to lose out to other BBC programming.
For the full list of odds, please read below:
Odds for the most watched TV event at Christmas 2019
Mrs Brown’s Boys – 2/1
Gavin and Stacey – 3/1
Call the Midwife – 3/1
Doctor Who – 5/1
Strictly Come Dancing – 5/1
Eastenders – 6/1
The Queen’s Speech – 6/1
Coronation Street – 10/1
Top of the Pops – 25/1
*Odds according to Coral – correct at the time of publishing, subject to change.