Don’t have a cow, man, but The Simpsons have been voted Britain’s favourite television family.
Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie secured 34% of votes in a poll to find the nation’s favourite screen family.
They were closely followed by Only Fools and Horses chancers The Trotters, Del Boy (David Jason) and Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst).
There was a close-fought battle for third place, with the Royle Family, the Flintstones and the Addams Family all tying for the bronze medal.
Real-life families also featured, with The Moffatts (Scarlett, mum Betty, dad Mark and little sister Ava) and the Malones (mum Julie, dad Tom Senior and sons Tom Jr and Shaun) from Gogglebox in the top 10.
(Image: Fox)
They were more popular than glitzy showbiz clan the Kardashians and the Osbournes, who were in the top 20.
The top 20 were:
1) The Simpsons
2) The Trotters – Only Fools and Horses
3) The Royle Family
4) The Addams Family
5) The Flintstones
6) The Griffins – Family Guy
7) The Shipmans – Gavin & Stacey
8) The Moffatts – Gogglebox
9) The Malones – Gogglebox
10) The Goodmans – Friday Night Dinner
11) The Starks – Game of Thrones
12) The Siddiquis – Gogglebox
13) The Khans – Citizen Khan
14) The Wests – Gavin & Stacey
15) The Kardashians
16) The Osbournes
17) The Warners – Gogglebox
18) The Goldbergs
19) The Platts – Coronation Street
20) The Harpers – My Family
The survey of 2,000 Brits by Freeview also found families are watching more telly together racking up an average of 18 hours a week – four more than before lockdown kept us all inside longer.
(Image: BBC)
(Image: Channel 4)
Almost six in 10 said they had bonded better over television shows, with comedies the number-one choice, followed by documentaries and adventure programmes or films.
Almost half of those quizzed felt TV had helped them connect to the outside world during lockdown and a quarter said it was the perfect way to escape real-life woes.
Almost four in 10 families selected what to watch collectively, a third let the mum or dad decide, and kids took charge of the remote control in a quarter of households.
(Image: BBC)
(Image: HBO)
One in 10 took a vote to avoid rows over what to watch but a similar number fell out over TV choices.
Jo Hemmings, a relationship and behavioural psychologist, said: “Families can bond over their feelings towards fictional characters, situations and plots and chat about them in the same way that they might talk about real-life events and friends.
“We get emotionally attached to characters in TV series and we want to see them continue – or conversely gotten rid of – one of the reasons why voting apps, which create an interactive voting process for many reality TV series, have become so popular.
“It makes us feel as if we have some influence over what happens.”
