BBC's political thriller Bodyguard soared past The Crown with 10 million more UK viewers in just seven days – according to the broadcaster's director general Tony Hall.
Created by Line of Duty mastermind Jed Mercurio and starring National Television Award winner Richard Madden, the heart-pounding series became a small-screen phenomenon last year.
Netflix famously doesn't release a full breakdown of its viewing figures, but Lord Hall was ready to claim exactly how many people in the UK have watched The Crown.
Related: Bodyguard's one-off Comic Relief special with Richard Madden unveils its star-studded cast
He recently spoke at the Media & Telecoms 2019 & Beyond conference in London (via The Hollywood Reporter), where he celebrated the series finale of Bodyguard reaching 17 million pairs of eyes in the UK within a week.
"Our data suggests The Crown [reached] 7 million users in the UK in 17 months," he suggested in comparison.
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The Crown was being used as an example of why Lord Hall believes that the BBC stands on its own in the streaming age.
He later added: "We can make linear and nonlinear TV channels and video-on-demand work together."
Netflix's lavish royal drama has a great chance of competing against those figures with its upcoming third series though, as Oscar winner Olivia Colman and a host of other stars have signed up.
She's joined by Game of Thrones star Tobias Menzies and Harry Potter's Helena Bonham Carter.
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Reporter, Digital Spy
Dan is a freelance entertainment journalist. Beginning his writing career in 2014, Dan's work first graced the pages of cult publications Starburst magazine and Little White Lies before moving onto Total Film, Digital Spy, NME and Yahoo Entertainment.
In the film and TV universe, he kneels at the altar of Jim Carrey, Daniel Plainview, Mike Ehrmantraut and Paulie Walnuts.
