
The RT Toy Show Appeal the Community Foundation for Ireland raises 6.5 million
This year's show had the highest TV audience for a Late Late Toy Show on record
-1.7 million watch across the weekend, making it one of the highest-rating TV programmes on a single channel on record
The eagerly anticipated Late Late Toy Show 2020 captured the hearts of viewers at home and across the world at the weekend, raising a staggering 6.5 million for The RT Toy Show Appeal, the Community Foundation for Ireland with viewers watching from 138 countries.
With presenter Ryan Tubridy at the helm, the core message of this year's show was one of celebration of the wonderful children of Ireland those here and those who can't make it home this Christmas during what has been a difficult year for all.
Viewers were bowled over by the show's little stars including Galway girl Saoirse Ruane, whose story inspired the establishment of The RT Toy Show Appeal with the Community Foundation for Ireland, and Adam King from Cork, who won the hearts of the nation with his aspirations to work in ground control at NASA. The show also featured a surprise duet from Dermot Kennedy with Ballina's Michael Moloney, and little rock star Noah Rafferty being gifted a guitar from U2's Edge. A heart-warming performance of Rule the World was sung by Eva Norton who was joined by children from across the globe, sending messages to their loved ones back home. Eva was joined on lead vocals by Take That's Gary Barlow.
1.5 million viewers watched the entire show themed The Wonderful World of Roald Dahl on RT One on Friday night, representing a 79% audience share. TV viewing to Friday night's show is now at 1.7 million, taking catch-up viewing on Saturday & Sunday into account. This makes it one of the highest rating TV programmes, on a single channel, on record. The 1 minute consecutive Reach*** to The Late Late Toy Show (including 1 & Saturday repeat) was 2.4 million.
Online, The Late Late Toy Show exceeded 500,000 streams live and on-demand across the weekend, in what was a record-breaking weekend on RT Player. The Late Late Toy Show (RT One and RT News Irish Sign Language Toy Show versions) had 359,000 live streams.
A further audience of 176,000 watched The Late Late Toy Show repeat on Saturday on RT One. The Late Late Toy Show Singalong had 450,000 viewers watching, and a 34% audience share on RT One.
Across RT Social, The Late Late Toy Show videos on RT 's Instagram and Facebook accounts had 5.85m views and generated total interactions of 830,000, while #LateLateToyShow was the number one worldwide trend on Twitter.
Speaking today, Ryan Tubridy said: The true essence and magic of The Late Late Toy Show was really captured this year with the wonderful children involved. To hear that it was beaming into 138 countries across the globe is just phenomenal. The fact that children and their families who might not be able to get back home this Christmas got to join with us in unison was very important to us. The Irish people continue to astound with their ability to dig deep and support The RT Toy Show Appeal, raising much-needed funds and truly exceeding all expectations with their generosity. I think it's safe to say we are truly humbled by the reaction to the show.
RT Player
RT Player saw increases of nearly 90% on 2019 streaming. The global Irish joined Ryan to stream the uniquely Irish Toy Show from 138 different countries including Mozambique, Ecuador, and Vietnam, with 30% of live viewing on Friday night from outside Ireland.
Live streaming of The Late Late Toy Show (RT One and RT News ISL Toy Show versions) had 359,000 streams. There were an additional 165,000 catch-up streams to the main show across the weekend, adding up to 524,000 in total (277,000 in 2019). In addition to this, clips of the Top Moments from the show were streamed 282,000 times whileThe Late Late Toy Show Singalong registered 103,000 streams across Friday-Sunday.
The Late Late Toy Show with Irish Sign Language (ISL) was available live on Friday night on RT Player and RT News, it has had over 34,000 streams to date with the ISL Toy Show opening performance of Oh So Quiet' appearing in the Top 5 most-watched clips on RT Player.
Ratings Source: TAM Ireland Ltd / Nielsen TAM
*Average audience (Live VOSDAL - Live Viewed on Same Day As Live) -The average number of viewers across a programme or series, expressed in 000s. TV viewing is measured minute-by-minute.
**Share The percentage of the total audience watching television at the time. The share was 79%
***Reach, Live VOSDAL - Reach is the number of people who tuned in for at least a minute of the show.
RT Player streaming figures AT Internet
The RT Toy Show Appeal,
The RT Toy Show Appeal the Community Foundation for Ireland, is a designated fund to help a range of children's charities and causes around Ireland, to be managed on RT 's behalf by The Community Foundation for Ireland www.communityfoundation.ie. The Community Foundation for Ireland was also the partner for RT Does Comic Relief which raised just under 6 million for non-profit organisations that provide key supports for vulnerable citizens impacted by Covid-19.
All RT Toy Show Appeal funds raised will be distributed by them in 2021. 50% of the monies raised will be shared among three children's charities (Children's Health Foundation, Barnardos, Children's Books Ireland), and the other 50% will be distributed as grants by Community Foundation for Ireland.
Children's Health Foundation is the new name for CMRF Crumlin and Temple Street Foundation, which came together in January 2019 to become one foundation supporting all CHI sites to ensure every sick child has the very best chance. Children's Health Foundation is committed to su
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