HE musical bonanza to celebrate the close of the Olympics attracted an average audience of 22.9million.

Sunday night's Olympic closing ceremony managed to claw in a bigger
average audience than the opening event, according to figures released
today.The musical celebration which featured performances by acts
such as Take That and the Spice Girls drew an average 22.9 million to
BBC1 - half a million more than saw Danny Boyle's mesmerising launch a
fortnight earlier.A peak audience of 26.3 million was watching
the event - created by artistic director Kim Gavin - at its height on
BBC1, on a dedicated Olympic channel and on HD at 9.35pm.The
event culminated with a breathtaking fireworks display and the flame in
the cauldron being extinguished. It set a new audience record for
Olympic closing ceremonies, easily outstripping the previous high of 11
million for Barcelona in 1992.Sunday night's peak was actually
slightly down on the audience for the opening ceremony which reached a
combined 26.9 million across several BBC channels.The figures
crown a series of huge audience figures achieved during the games, for
the ceremonies and the colossal achievements of the athletes.The
biggest blockbuster among the sporting events during the London 2012
fortnight was Usain Bolt's triumph in the 100m final a week ago with 20
million tuning in, while 17.1 million watched Mo Farah take the 10,000m
gold.Tom Daley's bronze-winning performance during the 10m platform final on Saturday night pulled in 15.9 million.

BBC1 controller Danny Cohen said: "It has been an absolute privilege to broadcast the London 2012 Olympics on BBC1.

"It's
been a phenomenal Games and Team GB's amazing achievements have helped
draw huge audiences to BBC1 and put the channel right at the heart of
the action."We've had fantastic feedback about the quality of the
BBC's coverage and all the teams involved deserve huge thanks and
praise."The closing ceremony also featured Ed Sheeran covering
Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, with a high wire artist above the
stadium recreating the cover image for the band's 1975 album. Annie
Lennox, George Michael, Madness and One Direction were also among the
performers.BBC1 had four-fifths of all TV viewers during the ceremony which began at 9pm and ended three hours and 20 minutes later.

The Beijing Olympics in 2008 drew an average of just 5.5 million, despite being screened on a Sunday afternoon.