‘Late Late Toy Show’ watched by some 1.36m viewers

The Late Late Toy Show was the most watched programme of the year to date with an average of 1.36 million viewers.

A total of almost two million viewers, or an audience share of 73 per cent, tuned in to some part of the show, according to TAM/Nielden viewership figures.

RTÉ estimated that 88 per cent of four to 14-year-olds in the State watched the show. The average number of viewers is similar to the figure of 1,357,000 viewers who tuned in last year.

The toy show also generated a huge volume of tweets with 91,000 using the #LateLateToyShow hashtag alone, peaking at 620 tweets per minute.

RTÉ television managing director Glen Killane estimated that some 90 per cent of all children watching television on the night tuned into the Late Late Toy Show.

An additional 116,600 streams were recorded on the RTÉ Player. Live streams abroad totalled 51,500, a 27 per cent increase on last year. The top three countries for streaming internationally were the UK, the US and Australia.

Late Late Toy Show host Ryan Tubridy said "stellar children, Trojan teamwork behind-the-scenes and some magic in the air helped make it a great night for everyone".

This year’s show, which was based around the theme of Beauty and the Beast, featured a record number of children taking part with a total of 285 appearing including performers and toy testers.