What you watched most on TV in 2013

SINGAPORE — The numbers are out. And we clearly love our stars.

Star Awards 2013 — Show 2 was the single-most-watched programme on free-to-air television last year. The annual ratings behemoth was watched by more than 1.6 million viewers on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.

Its closest competitor? Star Awards 2013 — Show 1, the less flashy, more technical-achievement-skewed of the two ceremonies, with more than 1.4 million viewers.

According to MediaCorp’s annual list of the most-watched shows on local television, viewers tuned in to watch a mix of returning dramas, new blockbuster serials starring a dependable cast of famous faces, and fresh content fronted by rising stars.

Police drama C.L.I.F 2, starring Joanne Peh and Qi Yuwu, returned with the added celebrity wattage of Li Nanxing, Rui En and Pierre Png to claim the top spot for a drama on Channel 8, pulling in an average reach of 901,000 viewers. The similarly star-studded The Dreammakers, with Zoe Tay, Chen Hanwei, Rui En and Rebecca Lim, came in second with an average viewership of 885,000. Period epic The Journey: A Voyage, which recently concluded its run in January, was tied for third spot with Huang Wenyong’s final drama serial It’s A Wonderful Life and the Tay Ping Hui-led buddy drama Break Free, all scoring an average viewership of 835,000.

On the variety side, comedy ruled the Channel 8 roost. Say It!, a new series pitching the Mandarin skills of English-speaking actor Chua Enlai against the English skills of Mandarin-speaking Vivian Lai, was the top-rated programme with an average viewership of 768,000. Pornsak’s feel-good series The Joy Truck and comedy sketch show Laughing Out Loud — starring Kym Ng, Quan Yi Fong, Dennis Chew and Channel 5’s The Noose regulars Chua and Alaric Tay — rounded out the Top 3 with 764,000 and 726,000 viewers, respectively.

“It’s amazing that someone’s inability in something is so well-received,” said Chua, laughing. “I even had Chinese-speaking people come up to me to say they learned lots from the programme.

“I think having people learning along with me makes me feel less lonely,” he quipped.

On Channel U, local and Asian dramas continued to do well, with Jesseca Liu’s Marry Me (345,000), Korean drama Dr Jin (337,000) and Taiwanese drama Spring Love (335,000) proving most popular.

Over on Channel 5, returning drama Point Of Entry 3 continued to draw in viewers with an average viewership of 322,000, while new series Mata Mata — set in Singapore’s formative post-war years and starring fresh faces Cheryl Wee, Nadiah M Din and Daniella Sya, alongside more recognisable names like George Young and Paul Foster — made an impressive debut with 298,000 viewers.

“I’m so pleased that the show has done as well as it has,” said Young. “The entire concept — basing the drama around real historical events in Singapore’s ‘adolescent years’ — appealed to me from the outset, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

His co-star Foster was glad to hear the news, too. “I had high expectations for Mata Mata,” he said. “The cast, the crew, the story, the locations — there were so many factors that made the show what it was.”

The figures provided by MediaCorp are inclusive of non-linear statistics, which include xinmsn Catch-Up, mobTV, Toggle and Channel 8 On-Demand.