ITV1 soap Coronation Street reached the biggest audience of 2005, narrowly beating soap rival EastEnders, according to Broadcast magazine.
The biggest Coronation Street episode of the year was on 21 February when 14.35m viewers followed the storyline of Katy's relationship with Martin.
An EastEnders episode on 18 February saw 14.34m watch Dirty Den's murder.
The Vicar of Dibley's New Year's Day special was the third most watched programme of 2005.
An episode of Emmerdale was the fourth most popular show, followed by Comic Relief's Red Nose night.
TOP 10 PROGRAMMES OF 2005
1. Coronation Street
2. EastEnders
3. Vicar of Dibley
4. Emmerdale
5. Comic Relief
6. Doctor Who
7. I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
8. Strictly Come Dancing
9. Touch of Frost
10. Little Britain
Source: Broadcast
The return of Doctor Who was the sixth most-watched programme of the year as old and new fans tuned into see Christopher Eccleston become the ninth actor to play the Timelord.
Out of the top 100 programmes BBC One had 50, while ITV1 had 47.
Channel 4's biggest hitters were Lost and Big Brother, while BBC Two's only entry was Rome.
Broadcast editor Conor Dignam said: "The top 100 list shows that British broadcasting is as creative as ever, but that the very largest viewerships are getting harder and harder to achieve as audiences fragment and multichannel TV comes into its own."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4585022.stm