Mrs Brown's Boys' festive special sees ratings slump to lowest EVER with viewers claiming 'unfunny' sitcom 'ruined Christmas' - after star Brendan O'Caroll's 'racist joke' scandal

Mrs Brown's Boys 2024 festive special saw its ratings plummet to the lowest ever, with viewers claiming it 'ruined' their Christmas. Mrs Brown's Boys' 2024 festive special saw it's ratings plummet to it's lowest ever, with viewers claiming it 'ruined' their Christmas The BBC sitcom, created by and starring Brendan O'Carroll as Agnes Brown, attracted a measly 2.2M viewers, after it's 2013 Christmas Day episode was watched by a whopping 11.5M During rehearsals for the special the show become embroiled in a racism row after actor and writer Brendan, 69, alluded to the N-Word in front of shocked co-stars and production staff. ‘Agnes began the word but was stopped from finishing it by her daughter Cathy, as she knew she would be.’ The latest episode of Mrs Brown's Boys, which has previously been described as 'marmite television', saw the Irish matriarch trying to convince her family that she was not grumpy like Scrooge While the sitcom struggled in the ratings, elsewhere on BBC1, Gavin and Stacey: The Finale was the most watched show of the festive season with 12.5M Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl attracted 9.5M Those at home described it as 'spectacularly unfunny' In initial statements about the incident, neither the BBC nor Brendan acknowledged the severity of the offensive slur. It backfired and caused offence which I deeply regret and for which I have apologised.’ During rehearsals for the special the show become embroiled in a racism row after actor and writer Brendan, 69, alluded to the N-Word in front of shocked co-stars and production staff The Dublin-born comic later apologised before claiming his racist joke 'was a good thing' for the BBC because it 'raised awareness of racism' Those who witnessed the remark were reportedly left ‘shocked’ by the slur which was ‘flagged with the BBC afterwards’.