I read a story (possibly here on Digital Spy) that the BBC wasn't going to do another 'I'd Do Anything' next year.
It may be they've run out of West End shows to cast the lead for, but I got the impression they've realised that even by giving it Doctor Who's time slot, they still can't get the viewers.
Doesn't make much of a difference, taking into account there's no season 5 next year anyway, but nice to know they may have learnt a lesson about scheduling (you can lead a horse to water etc etc).
I read a story (possibly here on Digital Spy) that the BBC wasn't going to do another 'I'd Do Anything' next year.
It may be they've run out of West End shows to cast the lead for, but I got the impression they've realised that even by giving it Doctor Who's time slot, they still can't get the viewers.
Doesn't make much of a difference, taking into account there's no season 5 next year anyway, but nice to know they may have learnt a lesson about scheduling (you can lead a horse to water etc etc).
wouldn't you like to see it return to it's natural home in the Autumn/Winter schedule?
wouldn't you like to see it return to it's natural home in the Autumn/Winter schedule?
Ooohh, imagine that. All dark and cold outside, rain tapping on the lounge windows and wind howling down the chimney . . . and Doctor Who on the telly! Lovely.
Ooohh, imagine that. All dark and cold outside, rain tapping on the lounge windows and wind howling down the chimney . . . and Doctor Who on the telly! Lovely.
Ooohh, imagine that. All dark and cold outside, rain tapping on the lounge windows and wind howling down the chimney . . . and Doctor Who on the telly! Lovely.
That would be good, especially for the scary (Moffat) episodes. I wasn't really creeped out by Blink last year as the sun was shining through the windows. It wasn't till I watched it again at night that it scared me.
Ooohh, imagine that. All dark and cold outside, rain tapping on the lounge windows and wind howling down the chimney . . . and Doctor Who on the telly! Lovely.
That would be good, especially for the scary (Moffat) episodes. I wasn't really creeped out by Blink last year as the sun was shining through the windows. It wasn't till I watched it again at night that it scared me.
I know a lot of people like this idea, and I'm not adverse to it myself, but we have to realise that the BBC has to look at the bigger picture. The whole reason Doctor Who is on at this time of year is because it delivers ratings to BBC in a period were it might struggle otherwise. Let's hope they have realised that they at least need to give it a decent slot when it's on now. The sharp raise in ratings hasn't gone unnoticed, anyways....
Ooohh, imagine that. All dark and cold outside, rain tapping on the lounge windows and wind howling down the chimney . . . and Doctor Who on the telly! Lovely.
wouldn't you like to see it return to it's natural home in the Autumn/Winter schedule?
Something of a myth that. A large amount of classic Who was broadcast in Spring and Summer.
61 out of 134 First Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
39 out of 129 Second Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
66 out of 128 Third Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
26 out of 170 Fourth Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
4 out of 69 Fifth Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
9 out of 31 Sixth Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
5 out of 42 Seventh Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
So 210 out of 703 episodes were shown in Spring or Summer. Bearing in mind that all of the Davison, Colin Baker and McCoy seasons were shown over thirteen or fourteen weeks, and so stayed largely within a single season, makes an association with Autumn/Winter more a consequence of scheduling decisions than any perception that Doctor Who is an Autumn/Winter series.
If Davison's episodes had been had not been shown twice weekly, and Colin Baker's episodes been a standard 26 x 25 minutes (with no hiatus), then more than half of all Doctor Who episodes would have been shown in Spring or Summer, rather than well over a quarter as actually happened.
Something of a myth that. A large amount of classic Who was broadcast in Spring and Summer.
61 out of 134 First Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
39 out of 129 Second Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
66 out of 128 Third Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
26 out of 170 Fourth Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
4 out of 69 Fifth Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
9 out of 31 Sixth Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
5 out of 42 Seventh Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
So 210 out of 703 episodes were shown in Spring or Summer. Bearing in mind that all of the Davison, Colin Baker and McCoy seasons were shown over thirteen or fourteen weeks, and so stayed largely within a single season, makes an association with Autumn/Winter more a consequence of scheduling decisions than any perception that Doctor Who is an Autumn/Winter series.
If Davison's episodes had been had not been shown twice weekly, and Colin Baker's episodes been a standard 26 x 25 minutes (with no hiatus), then more than half of all Doctor Who episodes would have been shown in Spring or Summer, rather than well over a quarter as actually happened.
But it's interesting that the average audience peaked in the January - March period.
So 210 out of 703 episodes were shown in Spring or Summer. Bearing in mind that all of the Davison, Colin Baker and McCoy seasons were shown over thirteen or fourteen weeks, and so stayed largely within a single season, makes an association with Autumn/Winter more a consequence of scheduling decisions than any perception that Doctor Who is an Autumn/Winter series.
Sorry to bring statistics into this (well basic algebra anyway) but if 210 episodes were shown in Spring/Summer then 493 were shown in Autumn/Winter.
Which means that 70% of all episodes were shown in Autumn/Winter, so the perception that Doctor Who is a Autumn/Winter show is down to the fact that 7 out of every 10 episodes were in Autumn/Winter.
I'd heard that the Beeb weren't doing another musical search next year, but also heard that Lloyd-Webfoot wants to do "The Wizard of Oz" next, so conflicting stories out there.
As much fun as it would be watching DW on a dark cold evening, the Beeb is never gonna put DW head-to-head with something like "The X Factor", which forms quite a part of ITV's autumn/winter schedule. I guess there could be room for both, after all "Britain's Got Talent" is on at the moment, but it doesn't have two parts to the show like "The X Factor".
I'd heard that the Beeb weren't doing another musical search next year, but also heard that Lloyd-Webfoot wants to do "The Wizard of Oz" next, so conflicting stories out there.
As much fun as it would be watching DW on a dark cold evening, the Beeb is never gonna put DW head-to-head with something like "The X Factor", which forms quite a part of ITV's autumn/winter schedule. I guess there could be room for both, after all "Britain's Got Talent" is on at the moment, but it doesn't have two parts to the show like "The X Factor".
The X Factor is doing a SCD and having a sunday nights results show which is why Sharon O is asking for more money
Do we think the ratings for TU&TW were purely down to the change in timeslot or the weather wasn't as nice and it was about Agatha Christie?
I'd heard that the Beeb weren't doing another musical search next year, but also heard that Lloyd-Webfoot wants to do "The Wizard of Oz" next, so conflicting stories out there.
As much fun as it would be watching DW on a dark cold evening, the Beeb is never gonna put DW head-to-head with something like "The X Factor", which forms quite a part of ITV's autumn/winter schedule. I guess there could be room for both, after all "Britain's Got Talent" is on at the moment, but it doesn't have two parts to the show like "The X Factor".
I've said it before. The figures I've linked to above show that historically the most successful months for Doctor Who were January to March.
X-Factor finishes just before Christmas for some strange reason I've never been able to fathom and in my opinion it would be perfect to start a new Doctor Who series with a Christmas Special, and then continue it through to the Spring.
Of course. It can't be denied that TV audiences are usually higher in Autumn and Winter. I wasn't commenting on how Doctor Who performed in the different seasons, just on the notion that it's natural home was seen as in Autumn and Winter.
I think this is probably quite true, but my memory is that each season started in the autumn (September time).
If it was broadcast in the spring and summer, this was because each season was so long - 24 episodes or so! Goodness, that's half a year!!!
It varied a lot. All the sixties seasons started late Summer/early/mid Autumn.
All of the Pertwee seasons started late December/January.
The first Tom Baker season started late December. All the rest were late August/early September.
All of Davison's seasons started in early January, as did Colin Baker's first. The hiatus shifted Baker's second series to Autumn, all of McCoys staying the same.
So the series shifted about a lot more than people think.
Sorry to bring statistics into this (well basic algebra anyway) but if 210 episodes were shown in Spring/Summer then 493 were shown in Autumn/Winter.
Which means that 70% of all episodes were shown in Autumn/Winter, so the perception that Doctor Who is a Autumn/Winter show is down to the fact that 7 out of every 10 episodes were in Autumn/Winter.
As I pointed out though - if the series hadn't been speeded up by going twice weekly etc., with all the other format changes that ended up happening, then more than half would have in Spring/Summer.
My point is - the BBC didn't treat the series as an Autumn/Winter show, and the changes to broadcast patterns had more to do with finding a 26 part series awkward to fit in than anything else.
A fan common fan perception is that Doctor Who was all watched in the early evening darkness of Autumn and Winter, when a substantial part of it was shown in the brightness of Spring and Summer.
In fact - being in a much earlier timeslot back then, for much of its life, meant that a fair few Autumn and Winter screenings were actually watched with the sun streaming through the windows.
I would think if they are going to shift Doctor Who, it would probably be more likely to move to a January-March run, rather than a September-December one. The schedules on BBC and ITV are packed in the autumn with Strictly and X-Factor in such a way that trying to schedule Doctor Who without clashing would be a nightmare.
Much better to move to Saturday nights January-March, which has been now been vacated by Dancing on Ice. Doctor Who would have a free run, in the dark, off the back of a much-hyped Christmas special. This would surely be the best option.
It's a shame though that the best of the 4 new-who series so far had to suffer a significant drop in ratings for the bbc to realise it's importance.
But it hasn't actually, DS.....overall I think you'll find when the final figures for episode six come in that the first six episodes of this series have, overall, had higher figures than the first six episodes of series 3. It was really only the two-parter where the figures were really down, and even then it was only the second part which was hugely down on the norm. The point is more that the average could have been considerably higher than it was had it not had the early slot....
Comments
Excellent stuff! That's not a million miles away from where S4 started. Doubly-impressive when you consider that it's a mid-season ep.
Let's hope the rest of the series can keep its momentum!
Regards,
Cypher
I'm so glad next week it's not on in relation to the audience figures as it will be earlier and not get as much viewers.
It may be they've run out of West End shows to cast the lead for, but I got the impression they've realised that even by giving it Doctor Who's time slot, they still can't get the viewers.
Doesn't make much of a difference, taking into account there's no season 5 next year anyway, but nice to know they may have learnt a lesson about scheduling (you can lead a horse to water etc etc).
wouldn't you like to see it return to it's natural home in the Autumn/Winter schedule?
Ooohh, imagine that. All dark and cold outside, rain tapping on the lounge windows and wind howling down the chimney . . . and Doctor Who on the telly! Lovely.
yes please:)
That would be good, especially for the scary (Moffat) episodes. I wasn't really creeped out by Blink last year as the sun was shining through the windows. It wasn't till I watched it again at night that it scared me.
I know a lot of people like this idea, and I'm not adverse to it myself, but we have to realise that the BBC has to look at the bigger picture. The whole reason Doctor Who is on at this time of year is because it delivers ratings to BBC in a period were it might struggle otherwise. Let's hope they have realised that they at least need to give it a decent slot when it's on now. The sharp raise in ratings hasn't gone unnoticed, anyways....
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a96234/dr-who-ratings-leap-in-later-timeslot.html
sounds like last summer....
And this summer if recent weather is anything to go by.
Something of a myth that. A large amount of classic Who was broadcast in Spring and Summer.
61 out of 134 First Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
39 out of 129 Second Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
66 out of 128 Third Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
26 out of 170 Fourth Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
4 out of 69 Fifth Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
9 out of 31 Sixth Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
5 out of 42 Seventh Doctor episodes were shown in Spring or Summer.
So 210 out of 703 episodes were shown in Spring or Summer. Bearing in mind that all of the Davison, Colin Baker and McCoy seasons were shown over thirteen or fourteen weeks, and so stayed largely within a single season, makes an association with Autumn/Winter more a consequence of scheduling decisions than any perception that Doctor Who is an Autumn/Winter series.
If Davison's episodes had been had not been shown twice weekly, and Colin Baker's episodes been a standard 26 x 25 minutes (with no hiatus), then more than half of all Doctor Who episodes would have been shown in Spring or Summer, rather than well over a quarter as actually happened.
But it's interesting that the average audience peaked in the January - March period.
http://slug-web.co.uk/doctorwho/classicstats_bymonth.asp
I think this is probably quite true, but my memory is that each season started in the autumn (September time).
If it was broadcast in the spring and summer, this was because each season was so long - 24 episodes or so! Goodness, that's half a year!!!
Which means that 70% of all episodes were shown in Autumn/Winter, so the perception that Doctor Who is a Autumn/Winter show is down to the fact that 7 out of every 10 episodes were in Autumn/Winter.
But a far larger part, more than twice as many, were bradcast in Autumn/Winter.
70% is greater than 30%, 70% wins, Autumn/Winter wins, FACT!
As much fun as it would be watching DW on a dark cold evening, the Beeb is never gonna put DW head-to-head with something like "The X Factor", which forms quite a part of ITV's autumn/winter schedule. I guess there could be room for both, after all "Britain's Got Talent" is on at the moment, but it doesn't have two parts to the show like "The X Factor".
The X Factor is doing a SCD and having a sunday nights results show which is why Sharon O is asking for more money
Do we think the ratings for TU&TW were purely down to the change in timeslot or the weather wasn't as nice and it was about Agatha Christie?
Probably a mixture of all those things and not one in particular.
I've said it before. The figures I've linked to above show that historically the most successful months for Doctor Who were January to March.
X-Factor finishes just before Christmas for some strange reason I've never been able to fathom
And how many decades out of date are those figures?
The words "historically" and "were" were a clue.
But people still watch more TV in the Autumn/Winter months now: http://www.barb.co.uk/viewingsummary/trendreports.cfm?report=hours&flag=viewingsummary
Of course. It can't be denied that TV audiences are usually higher in Autumn and Winter. I wasn't commenting on how Doctor Who performed in the different seasons, just on the notion that it's natural home was seen as in Autumn and Winter.
It varied a lot. All the sixties seasons started late Summer/early/mid Autumn.
All of the Pertwee seasons started late December/January.
The first Tom Baker season started late December. All the rest were late August/early September.
All of Davison's seasons started in early January, as did Colin Baker's first. The hiatus shifted Baker's second series to Autumn, all of McCoys staying the same.
So the series shifted about a lot more than people think.
As I pointed out though - if the series hadn't been speeded up by going twice weekly etc., with all the other format changes that ended up happening, then more than half would have in Spring/Summer.
My point is - the BBC didn't treat the series as an Autumn/Winter show, and the changes to broadcast patterns had more to do with finding a 26 part series awkward to fit in than anything else.
A fan common fan perception is that Doctor Who was all watched in the early evening darkness of Autumn and Winter, when a substantial part of it was shown in the brightness of Spring and Summer.
In fact - being in a much earlier timeslot back then, for much of its life, meant that a fair few Autumn and Winter screenings were actually watched with the sun streaming through the windows.
Much better to move to Saturday nights January-March, which has been now been vacated by Dancing on Ice. Doctor Who would have a free run, in the dark, off the back of a much-hyped Christmas special. This would surely be the best option.
It's a shame though that the best of the 4 new-who series so far had to suffer a significant drop in ratings for the bbc to realise it's importance.
But it hasn't actually, DS.....overall I think you'll find when the final figures for episode six come in that the first six episodes of this series have, overall, had higher figures than the first six episodes of series 3. It was really only the two-parter where the figures were really down, and even then it was only the second part which was hugely down on the norm. The point is more that the average could have been considerably higher than it was had it not had the early slot....