13 sporting events make top-50 most-watched TV shows of 2020
RTÉ’s coverage of Dublin’s six-in-a-row-clinching success over Mayo on the Saturday before Christmas ranked fifth highest of all TV broadcasts in Ireland this year. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
The All-Ireland Senior Football final was the most-watched Irish sporting event in 2020 with 876,600 viewers.
RTÉ’s coverage of Dublin’s six-in-a-row-clinching success over Mayo on the Saturday before Christmas ranked fifth highest of all TV broadcasts in Ireland this year, behind the annual favourite, The Late Late Toy Show (1.7m), and a trio of news broadcasts as the nation entered higher Covid-19 restrictions.
In all, 13 sporting events broke the half-a-million-viewer mark to make the top-50 across all TV programmes.
Ireland’s defeat to France on Halloween night in the final round of the Six Nations followed closely behind in seventh with 850k viewers and rated as Virgin Media’s most-watched TV show of 2020.
The All-Ireland Hurling final between Limerick and Waterford ranked 10th overall (713k), between Room To Improve and Dancing With The Stars.
All five of Ireland’s Six Nations games, either side of the Covid-enforced break, rated highly, with February’s opening-day victory over Scotland 17th, the heavy loss to England 18th, beating Wales 21st, and October’s win over Italy 27th.
In a disappointing year for the national team, the top-ranked soccer broadcast was Ireland’s Euro 2020 playoff semi-final loss to Slovakia – 24th overall.
Other GAA games to make the top-50 included Limerick’s hurling semi-final thriller against Galway (29th), and the football semis between Mayo and Tipperary (30th), and Dublin and Cavan (38th).
The Autumn Nations Cup rugby games on RTÉ against Wales (36th) and England (40th) also featured.
The other sports programme to make the list was the second part of The Boys in Green documentary, which aired on Monday, March 16th, as the country prepared to enter lockdown.
TAM Ireland, who produce the viewing figures, also reported that 2019/20 was the best ever Premier League season on Sky Sports, with viewing figures up 10% compared to pre-lockdown levels.
- 1. All-Ireland SFC final: Dublin v Mayo (RTÉ 2) – 876.6k viewers
- 2. Six Nations: France v Ireland (Virgin Media One) – 850.3k
- 3. All-Ireland SHC final: Limerick v Waterford (RTÉ 2) – 712.9k
- 4. Six Nations: Ireland v Scotland (Virgin Media One) – 635.8k
- 5. Six Nations: England v Ireland (Virgin Media One) – 634.4k
- 6. Six Nations: Ireland v Wales (Virgin Media One) – 605.2k
- 7. Euro 2020 playoff semi-final: Slovakia v Ireland (RTÉ 2) – 570.4k
- 8. Six Nations: Ireland v Italy (Virgin Media One) – 540.6k
- 9. All-Ireland SHC semi-final: Limerick v Galway (RTÉ 2) – 534k
- 10. All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Mayo v Tipperary (RTÉ 2) – 533.2k
- 11. Autumn Nations Cup: Ireland v Wales (RTÉ 2) – 510.3k
- 12. All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Dublin v Cavan (RTÉ 2) – 505.3k
- 13. Autumn Nations Cup: England v Ireland (RTÉ One) – 510.3k
- 14. The Boys In Green (March 16th) – 479k
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