Doctor Who regeneration tops Christmas Day TV ratings

Matt Smith is being replaced as Doctor Who by Peter Capaldi

Doctor Who's regeneration was the most-watched Christmas Day television moment with 10.2 million viewers seeing the five-minute sequence on BBC One.

However Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas Special, also on BBC One, was the most-watched programme with an average of 9.4 million viewers.

An average of 8.3 million watched Matt Smith bow out as the Doctor while ITV's Coronation Street averaged 7.9 million.

It beat rival BBC soap EastEnders for the first time in more than 10 years.

BBC One had eight of the top 10 most watched programmes while ITV had four - the channels shared the Queen's Christmas broadcast and the news on each channel shared 10th place.

BBC One controller Charlotte Moore said: "Nothing brings the country together at Christmas quite like BBC One. Huge audiences shared the Christmas Day schedule on the nation's favourite channel."

Danny Cohen, Director of BBC Television, said: "I'm really proud of the quality and range of programmes we've shown across BBC Television this Christmas.

"Much-loved shows like Doctor Who, Strictly, EastEnders and Mrs Brown have been hugely popular with viewers this year."

The peak-time and all-day average audiences on BBC One on Christmas Day were both higher than those of any other channel.

BBC One's peak share was 7.6 million viewers, which was 30.2% of the audience, while ITV's peak average was 6.5 million - 25.6% of the viewers.

The all-day average on BBC One was 3.8 million (26.9%) and ITV's was 2.5 million (17.8%).

The ITV figures do not include the +1 channel.

The ratings, provided by BARB, the official source of television viewing figures in the UK, are only provisional overnight figures and could change once viewers who recorded programmes and then watched them later are taken into account.

Two years ago Downton Abbey was rated fourth in the overnight ratings but eventually rose to first when the final figures were released.

None of ratings will include viewings on catch-up services such the BBC's iPlayer or the ITV Player.