Gogglebox and Channel 4 benefitted as large parts of the nation switched off from the BBC's blanket coverage of Prince Philip's death, new figures have revealed.
The BBC suspended its entire television schedule across all channels after the announcement of the Duke of Edinburgh's passing, with every channel showing BBC News' coverage of the event for the rest of Friday.
The corporation resumed regular programming on Saturday at 2pm, more than 24 hours after the news of Prince Philip's death broke.
ITV also paused its regular schedule in favour of Prince Philip coverage, but Channel 4 pursued a different route; it broadcast a live update as the news broke, a special programme at 4pm on Prince Philip's life, and an extended Channel 4 News programme at 7pm, but otherwise it stuck to its regular schedule, including Gogglebox and The Circle.
The approach, which drew criticism from some, garnered the highest single-channel viewing figures of the night, as Gogglebox attracted nearly 4.2 million viewers from 9pm, according to Deadline.
The BBC's 6pm news bulletin was watched by a total of 4.6 million people, but this was spread across BBC One, BBC Two, and the BBC News channel.
The Sun reports the corporation received more than 100,000 complaints about its wall-to-wall coverage of the duke's death, as it set up a complaints form dedicated to the matter.
An insider told the newspaper: "I feel sorry for the Beeb. They would be criticised and accused of not being respectful enough if they didn't lay the programmes on. But they seem to have left many people very cross."
A BBC spokesperson would not comment on the reported complaints figures when asked by Bristol Live. They said the next regular release of complaints would be published on Thursday.
The spokesperson continued: "We are proud of our coverage and the role we play during moments of national significance."
Every major channel except Channel 5 suffered a decline in viewing figures across the night as a whole.
Between 7pm and 11pm, the important prime time slot, BBC One's average viewing figures were down 6% on the previous Friday, while BBC Two's were down 65%, ITV1's were down 60%, and Channel 4's down 8.5%. Channel 5, which allowed its planned schedule to run largely uninterrupted, was up 2%.
