Elton John’s Farewell U.K. Performance at Glastonbury Draws Record Numbers for BBC

Elton John’s headlining set on Sunday night at Glastonbury Festival on BBC One received the biggest ever overnight audience for a Glastonbury performance, the broadcaster said.

The performance, the 76-year-old legend’s last in the U.K., had a peak overnight audience of 7.6 million and an average of 7.3 million with a 48.9% share. It was also broadcast on BBC Radio 2, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds.

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Overall, 200,000 festival goers attended the concerts across different stages on Worthy Farm. On the BBC, a record 21.6 million people — 7% more than last year across linear TV — watched, with over 40 hours of linear programming available to audiences.

Friday’s headliner, Arctic Monkeys, saw a record performance for a Friday night headline set with a peak audience of 2.6 million and an average of 1.5 million. Audiences for Saturday’s headliner, Guns N’ Roses, peaked at 2.1 million on BBC Two, with an average audience of 1 million. Lewis Capaldi and Lizzo’s respective Pyramid Stage performances on Saturday had a peak BBC One audience peak of 2.4 million and an average of 2.3 million viewers.

The Legends program with Yusuf/Cat Stevens on Sunday reached the biggest BBC Two audience this year with an overnight peak audience of 3 million and an average of 2.3 million. The BBC One show with Rick Astley and Blondie had a peak audience of 2.5 million and an average of 2.1 million.

Lorna Clarke, BBC director of music, said: “What an incredible way to end this year’s Glastonbury festival. Elton John’s set will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the most epic performances ever to light up the Pyramid Stage and was watched by a record 7.6 million people on BBC One. I’m so delighted the BBC and our superb teams were able to share every bit of the magic from Worthy Farm during the weekend with audiences at home.”

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