THE Late Late Toy Show was the most watched programme on Irish television last year, new figures reveal.
Hit drama Normal People was also the most watched programme on the RTÉ player in 2020.
The broadcaster also said its share of viewing had increased by seven per cent to 27 per cent last year and the RTÉ Player had seen a massive jump in viewers, increasing by 36 per cent.
According to the TAM ratings figures, The Late Late Toy Show topped the ratings with an average of 1.7million viewers
The second most-watched programme last year was the then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s broadcast on St Patrick's Day, with 1.6million viewers.
A range of RTÉ News bulletins, Prime Time, Claire Byrne Live, RTÉ Investigates and Election 2020 all featured in the top 20, while the All-Ireland Senior Hurling and Football Finals drew huge audiences.
Normal People was the most watched on the RTÉ player with 818,000 streams for the top episode out of a total of five million streams of the series.
The Late Late Toy Show was the second most-watched show on RTÉ Player with 575,000 streams.
Adrian Lynch from RTÉ said: "Looking at the Top 50 programmes, it’s clear that Irish stories and content are the programmes that bring people together proving that live programmes, big events and home-produced content are hugely popular.
"It was the year that pushed us to our limits as a nation, when we had to stay apart in order to pull together.
"But throughout this exceptionally difficult year, RTÉ provided variety across all channels as Ireland’s public service media, informing, entertaining and educating audiences of all ages and uniting the nation in those key moments - both the highs and the lows - that will stay with us for a long time."
