Once more it's been proven that we all love nothing more than some Christmas cheer in the form of The Toy Show, with an unbelievable 1.3 million people tuning in on Friday night, making it the most watched show on Irish television this year to date.
Folks watched all around the world too, with The Little Mermaid themed show getting viewers from 110 countries on the night, from Germany to Fiji, Russia to New Zealand, and Mongolia to the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. The show was also streamed in Mali where, no doubt, the Defence Forces personnel, serving alongside Sgt Graham Burke on a peacekeeping mission, watched as he was reunited with his family live on the show.
The Burke family’s reunification also went viral with more than 1 million views across RTE's social media platforms. This year’s show was lauded on social media with #LateLateToyShow trending number one worldwide on Twitter on Friday night and trending in Ireland across the weekend.
It was watched by an average audience of 1.2 million live on the night, a 72 per cent share of the audience watching television at the time. A further 107,000 viewers watched their recording of the show on Saturday and 42,000 viewers did the same on Sunday.
The audience peaked at 1.34 million viewers and the show had a reach of 1,732,500 viewers who tuned in for a minute or more of the broadcast. Nine out of ten children watching television on the night were tuned into The Late Late Toy Show.
Over the week, 2,219,900 people tuned into The Late Late Toy Show and behind the scenes documentary The Late Late Toy Show Unwrapped, cementing the show’s place as the Irish television event of the year.
Host Ryan Tubridy said, "It never ceases to amaze me how many people hold The Late Late Toy Show so dear. The fact that so many people let us become part of their world over the weekend is really heartening and the reaction I have been getting from people since the show has been overwhelming.
"I want to thank the stars of our show, the children, from little Tadhg letting me drag him around the studio floor to that very special moment when the Burke family was reunited. The team, led by producer Nigel Power, put together something truly memorable and I’m delighted to see that viewers embraced it."
Late Late Toy Show producer Nigel Power said, "With this year’s Toy Show we wanted to have lots of fun but also reflect the Ireland we are living in today. We had children from all sorts of backgrounds and abilities and they all did a brilliant job on the night. The show was months in the planning and I want to thank everyone who worked so hard both behind and in front of the camera to make it such a special night."
If you still haven't got your Toy Show fix for the year, take a look at our behind-the-scenes video on the set below, or if you missed it, check out some of the highlights here as well as our live blog from the night.
