Downton beats Call The Midwife in Christmas Day ratings battle as new figures released

'Call The Midwife' and 'Downton Abbey' will not go head-to-head this Christmas (Carnival; BBC)

New figures show rival period dramas Call The Midwife and Downton Abbey outshone Coronation Street in the Christmas Day battle of the period dramas.

Overnight audience ratings issued last week suggested Corrie was the second most popular show of the day behind EastEnders.

But newly-compiled "consolidated" figures, which include catch-up viewing, show the two period dramas have shot ahead of the Weatherfield soap.

ITV's Downton drew 10.28 million - when viewers of the +1 channel are included - while Call The Midwife on BBC1 pulled in 10.18 million.

The two shows had been neck and neck on 7.3 million viewers when the overnight ratings were announced.

In 2011, Downton also proved to be a big winner based on consolidated figures, which meant that, after time-shift viewing was included, it was the biggest Christmas Day show.

But this year its seasonal edition screened last week - in which Dan Stevens' character Matthew Crawley was killed off - was still unable to dislodge EastEnders.

The Christmas Day top 10 based on consolidated figures is as follows (with the original overnight position in brackets):

1 (1) EastEnders 11.31 million viewers

2 (6=) Downton Abbey 10.28

3 (6=) Call The Midwife 10.18

4 (2) Coronation Street 10.16

5 (4) The Royle Family 9.90

6 (5) Doctor Who 9.87

7 (3) Strictly Come Dancing 9.17

8 (9) Emmerdale 7.12

9 (8) The Queen 6.58

10 (10) BBC News 6.34

PA