The Christmas speech that King Willem-Alexander gave on Christmas Day was watched by over 1.8 million people on television. This can be seen from the data of Stichting KijkOnderzoek (SKO). It was the most watched broadcast of the day.
The most people saw the talk via NPO1, around 766,000 viewers. The replay of the speech after the NOS Journaal at 6.00pm was watched by 699,000 people. On NPO2, where the speech was shown with a sign language interpreter earlier in the afternoon, 231,000 people watched. A handful of people also followed the intervention on the commercial channels RTL4 (83,000) and SBS6 (71,000). It is not known how many people heard the speech on the radio or watched via online platforms.
The king implored the Dutch to hold on to each other, even in times of strong emotion. “Democracy doesn’t mean that those who shout the loudest get what they want,” Willem-Alexander said. “Democracy is working together in respect of everyone’s fundamental rights on solutions that the majority can identify with”. He alluded emphatically to the relationship between the countryside and the city. “The time has come to strengthen the connection. Because what would the Randstad be without the region? What about the region without the Randstad? We desperately need each other.”
Viewership figures were slightly higher than in recent years; Willem-Alexander’s Christmas speech drew an average of 1.5 million viewers. An outlier was Willem-Alexander’s Christmas speech in 2020, when the Netherlands was in coronavirus lockdown. Then 2.2 million people watched the speech live.
The special broadcast of the program was also on Christmas Day Television monument about the deceased program creator Han Peekel. It attracted 411,000 spectators. This places the broadcast 12th in viewership figures.
Dagtopvijf van zondag 25 december
- 1. Heel Holland Bakt (NPO1) – 1.528.000 kijkers
- 2. NOS Journaal van 20.00 uur (NPO1) – 1.276.000 kijkers
- 3. Kersttoespraak Zijne Majesteit de Koning (NPO1, NPO2, RTL4, SBS6) – 1.151.000 kijkers
- 4. Huis Vol (NPO1) – 900.000 kijkers
- 5. Stralend Kerstfeest (NPO1) – 633.000 kijkers
