The BBC has revealed which of the sets at this year’s Glastonbury were the most-viewed on UK TV – see the results below.
After two years away, the festival made its return to Worthy Farm last week, with Billie Eilish, Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar headlining the Pyramid Stage across the course of the weekend.
McCartney’s almost three-hour Saturday night (June 25) set, which NME called “history-making” in a five star review, averaged 2.7million viewers on BBC One and peaked at 3.9million, according to Broadcast.
While the 80-year-old Beatle’s figures were impressive, the artist with the biggest viewership average was Diana Ross, who performed in the revered legends slot on Sunday (June 26). The Motown icon and disco queen’s 75-minute set garnered an average audience of 3.1million, peaking at 3.8million.
In a four-star review of Ross’ performance, NME said she had the “crowd in her hands” throughout the set. “In their own fluffed-up curly wigs, you can see audience members relinquish themselves to the musical powerhouse and even cry as they recite back Ross’ lyrics,” the review added. “Being in a crowd with so much love in the air feels euphoric; confirmation that Diana Ross is the ultimate queen.”
Eilish, who became Glastonbury’s youngest ever headliner at 20, attracted 1.2million for her set on Friday night (June 24); Lamar brought in 570,000 viewers when he closed the festival on Sunday.
The BBC has also revealed that it earned record breaking figures across its digital platforms for its coverage of this year’s festival.
Content was streamed 34.1million times on BBC iPlayer, including 23m streams live – the highest on record for a BBC programme brand – and was played 2.3million times on BBC Sounds.
Streams increased 116 per cent on BBC iPlayer and 205 per cent on BBC Sounds in comparison to the Glastonbury 2019 – the last time the festival took place – up from 15.8million and 765,000 respectively.
BBC Director of Music Lorna Clarke said: “The BBC provided the ultimate armchair experience of the world’s best-loved festival this weekend with a dedicated Glastonbury channel on BBC iPlayer, 6 Music’s All Day Glastonbury coverage, performances from the biggest artists on demand on BBC Sounds and over 35 hours of coverage across our TV channels.”
Glastonbury’s 50th anniversary edition was originally scheduled to take place in 2020 and 2021 but were both cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.