THERE IS no stopping the Jedward juggernaut. Twins John and Edward Grimes have just been given their own television show on the same day figures showed their appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest final was the most-watched programme so far this year.
To add to the latest episode of Jedmania, fans started queuing overnight at Dundrum Town Centre for the first signing session of their new album Victorythis morning.
Their performance on Saturday, May 14th, when they finished eighth in the Eurovision final in Dusseldorf, had 1,182,700 viewers, making it the only programme to get more than a million viewers so far this year.
Their appearance in the semi-final also made the top 10: 780,000 viewers saw them qualify with Lipstick, making it the seventh most watched programme.
RTÉ announced yesterday that the twins will be given a 10-part series, OMG! Jedward's Dream Factory,to be broadcast later this year. Aimed at eight- to 16-year-olds, it will be an Irish version of Jimmy Savile's Jim'll Fix It.
The top 50 programme audiences were released by RTÉ, which accounts for 48 of them. The list is provided by AGB Nielsen Media Research.
Ranking is based on programmes of 15 minutes or longer broadcast between January 1st and June 30th on any television channel available in Ireland.
There is a strong bias in the top 10 towards current affairs. The political leaders' debate on RTÉ's The Frontlineon February 14th, before the general election, was the second most watched programme, with 964,800 viewers. With 806,700 viewers, the leaders' debate on Prime Timeon February 22nd was placed sixth.
RTÉ's Nine O'Clock Newson March 20th was fifth with an audience of 813,300 and the Six One Newson March 20th attracted 771,100 viewers, placing it eighth.
The third most watched programme was from a series television critics loved to hate, Mrs Brown's Boys, with the episode broadcast on February 5th attracting 924,200 viewers.
The final of the All Ireland Talent Show, a series recently axed by RTÉ, was the 10th most watched programme, with 749,700 viewers, the same number as the episode of Coronation Streetbroadcast by TV3 on January 3rd.
TV3's only other programme in the top 50 was the first episode of Come Dine With Me Ireland, which had 512,000 viewers on June 6th.
The station said the audience share for TV3 and 3e had increased 5.4 per cent to almost 14 per cent, while RTÉ had declined 3.1 per cent to 34 per cent.
Director of programming Ben Frow said TV3 was on course to have its best year to date.
Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Ireland featured strongly in the ratings, peaking at 710,400 viewers on the third day of the visit.
US president Barack Obama’s visit on May 23rd had a peak audience of 663,700.
The most watched sports programme was on March 19th, when 690,400 viewers watched Ireland beat England in the Six Nations rugby championship.
