1.4 million people tuned in to RTE Does Comic Relief last Friday night for what was a jam-packed night of comedy, heart-warming moments and entertainment, raising over €5.5 million euro on the night. Viewership reached its peak at 9:40pm with 638,000 people tuning in, while donations peaked between 10pm and 11pm, with almost €11,000 coming in per minute during this time.
The marathon four hour show which was a celebration of Irish creative talent was a massive hit with international audiences. It was watched on RTE Player in over 100 countries including Egypt, Thailand and Venezuela. RTE Does Comic Relief clips on RTE Player attracted almost 500,000 streams. Over on RTEs social platforms, #RTEComicRelief videos generated 2.5million views across all RTEs channels on Facebook, with Hozier, The Derry Girls and Jam Media's animation of Christy Moore's The Voyage being popular amongst users.
On Twitter, #RTEComicRelief videos on RTE channels generated 2.025 million views, with Normal People attracting 937k views. The Instagram audience put Westlife, Derry Girls and Normal people in their top 3 most watched videos with a total of 450k views across all channels engaging with #RTEComicRelief.
Executive Producer of RTE Does Comic Relief, Michael Hughes said: I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to Friday night both in front of and behind the scenes. We had an incredibly short run in to pull the show together in challenging circumstances, but everyone pulled out all the stops to make it happen, from across RTE and the independent production sector.
"We knew before the show that we had an incredible group of artists lining up for RTE Does Comic Relief but the sheer breadth of Irish creative talent on show on the night was mind blowing. I'm so incredibly thankful to all the amazing artists and creative contributors who gave us such beautiful, funny and moving works, and who did so with such generosity and good will. We are indebted. I also want to thank the brilliant team at RTE for their tireless efforts in realising such an ambitious show. This will result in real and tangible support for our charities and community and voluntary groups supporting those most in need as a result of Covid 19" - Deirdre O'Kane, on behalf of the Comic Relief Ireland Steering Group.
Donations are still open at rte.ie/comicrelief and the fund now stands at a total of €5,570,657.20
Tina Roche, CEO of The Community Foundation for Ireland said, "Thank you so much to the thousands of families and businesses who donated on Friday night. We are so grateful for all your support and know that it will make a huge difference to so many charities who have been struggling to raise funds and provide services to the most vulnerable in our communities. The good news is you can still donate online at www.rte.ie/comicrelief. Every donation makes a difference and means we can help more people."