I find it quite bizarre that so many people are talking about how poorly this event did, mostly because of comparisons with Children in Need.
Children in Need is a totally different concept, centering on public involvement and fundraising for a common cause. Itv really haven't pushed any public involvement because it's not what they are trying to do - if it was, they'd have allocated time in the show to report on what was going on around the country.
Text Santa is a show to encourage people to give over the night and it was very successful in doing that. As has been mentioned in this thread, itv went beyond Children in Need in terms of production to create an extravaganza that encouraged people to donate over £4million in four hours.
That's £4million that leading up to Christmas would have been idling in people's current accounts or wasted on Christmas indulgence, only encouraged by some entertainment on tv - no sitting in baths of beans or growing/shaving beards.
A success? Totally!