A little bit of pub trivia for you: If you exclude news and sport, what has been the most watched episode of anything on television, since modern records began (2002), across all broadcasters and streamers? Answer? It was Gavin & Stacey: The Finale, which aired on BBC One on Christmas Day, 2024.

19.3 million people have seen the 95 minute special, in which we found out what happened after Nessa (Ruth Jones) proposed to Smithy (James Corden). And what’s staggering is that it’s not even the final figure. There will be one out towards the end of this month, which is estimated to be above 20 million.

As someone who tracks and charts ratings on the regular (I know, I’m a geek) I can vouch that these are extraordinary figures. Yes, modern records began in 2002 and there have been higher rated episodes of television in our history. The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Specials, for one thing, had up to 28 million back in the day. Yet that was back in the 1970s when we only had three channels.

Now there’s hundreds of channels and just about every show ever made available on demand. And around a third of the population of the UK watched that episode in just over a week.

So what does the overwhelming success of Gavin & Stacey indicate? Well, when it matters, people still gravitate to the same show at the same time. I know that might be an obvious thing to point out, but at a time of fragmenting audiences it is worth reminding.

Also, that people are tuning into scripted comedy, at a time when the genre seems to be in peril. While there have been huge hits in recent years, such as Derry Girls, Motherland, Ghosts and Ted Lasso to name but a few, the regulator Ofcom has deemed the comedy genre to be ‘at risk’ for the past five years (along with music and children’s programming).

There is also currently an industry-wide squeeze on making new television in general, due to the current state of the economy and the rising cost of making television, which makes it harder to produce anything at all. Comedy is more of an inherent risk to commit to making than other types of shows because, generally, it tends to attract a smaller audience at first compared to other genres, although the potential can be huge.

For its credit, the BBC has fought back, announcing a commitment to more sitcoms and announcing an increase to its comedy budget. There’s been a slew of new comedies on the broadcaster, from the LGBTQ+ drag sitcom Smoggie Queens to the honest and witty We Might Regret This. The detective drama Ludwig, starring David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin, became an instant hit last year and has already been renewed for a second series.

Yet, while any investment in comedy is welcome, it is also worth mentioning how much of an anomaly Gavin & Stacey actually is. The sitcom’s success is unlike any other television show in the modern era. It started out on the fledgling BBC Three channel back in 2007, gaining critical acclaim and a word-of-mouth before moving to BBC One. The series ended in 2010, but millions of viewers have watched it on streaming and catch up since before the specials debuted. Its relatable, yet often absurd, humour has a universal quality that attracts people of all ages.

“It’s a very, very usual path for a show to take, a little show that gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger,” said Richard Osman in A Fond Farewell, a recent BBC documentary about Gavin & Stacey: The Finale. “I think it’s almost certainly a unique journey.”

Perhaps the real lesson of Gavin & Stacey’s success is to give shows time. Line of Duty grew from a show in the summer of 2012 on BBC Two to one of the most watched dramas of the 21st century. Wallace & Gromit, a claymation that started out as a student’s graduate project, attracted more than 10 million viewers on BBC One on Christmas Day.

The streaming age has made it possible for shows to have staying power and attract audiences like never before, with new viewers potentially tuning in for the first time months or even years after the show’s very first episode. That was certainly the case for Gavin & Stacey.

Yet, it feels like we’re living in the age of the great cancellation, especially on streaming, when shows are cut before their prime. Wouldn’t it be great if broadcasters and streamers started to think about a show’s long term potential, rather than dropping them right away if they don’t hit immediate projections?

Gavin & Stacey: The Finale is streaming on BBC iPlayer.