An Only Fools and Horses Christmas special, screened on Christmas Day, pulled in more than 15 million viewers, a 58.3% share, making it the most popular programme of the day. The BBC had seven of of the ten top-rated programmes on Christmas Day.
On New Year's Day, EastEnders villain Janine pushing Barry Evans over a cliff attracted 14 million viewers.
In contrast, ITV's World Idol, the international Pop Idol spin-off, pulled in 4.5 million viewers on Christmas Day, a 17% audience share, rising to 6.6 million for the final on New Year's Day. Faced with competition from movies Billy Elliot and Castaway on BBC One, ITV's two-part drama The Mayor Of Casterbridge attracted disappointing ratings of 6.3 million for the first episode and 5.3 million for the second.
An ITV spokeswoman pointed out that between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, ITV had narrowed the gap with BBC One compared with 2002. ITV won the peak time battle on New Year's Eve with its Brides in the Bath drama beating film repeat Air Force One on BBC One.
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