Comparing (overnights only)

April 2011:

Ep01 - 6.5m
Ep02 - 5.4m
Ep03 - 6.2m
Ep04 - 5.9m

September 2011:

Ep01 - 6.2m
Ep02 - 5.5m
Ep03 - 6.0m
Ep04 - 5.2m

September 2012:

Ep01 - 6.4m
Ep02 - 5.5m
Ep03 - 6.6m
Ep04 - 5.5m

Consistency can be boring.. is it worth discussing?

I quite enjoyed it, but knew ITV was the wrong place for this kind of show. Had it been broadcast on Channel 4 as a Brookside replacement, it would have been around for a lot longer.

It's over a million down on last week, though. the X Factor is apparently nearly dead because it's down 0.8m inc. +1.

Do you know how it's timeshifting, please? I know last week's was posted earlier.

I don't have a strong objection to programmes of this nature being on BBC 1 and agree with the thrust of your point about ratings. However, I am critical of the BBC for screenning only factual programmes on the two main channels on a Sunday in primetime.

On November 23th 2013, when it has 10 million overnight and has beaten The X Factor.... then maybe.

Where will it find 5m viewers from in the overnights?

The Director General compared the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who to the Olympics in terms of it being event tv the other day.

Silence must fall when the question is asked-

Maybe the question should be, what happens when The X Factor isn't the number one Saturday night show?

Yes that's why it's considered nearly dead, the week on week drop, nothing to do with the massive year on year drop. Also, I think only the extremists are saying it'd nearly dead, most are just saying that's something's clearly going wrong.


The 50th anniversary is that day, so I think they'll probably come from a good few months of intense promotion.

Why are people still comparing year-on-year? The show was still rating very well at this stage last year; it was never going to catch up. The trick will be to gain momentum at the live stage; if it manages that it'll regain ground lost.

The biggest problem The X Factor has had this year is the horrible launch. Since then, expectations have to be managed; I think some expect the programme to find 2m+ from nowhere.


I don't think it'll hit 10m (overnights) but I'm only going off the current state of the overnights. It could well grow through the next part of the series until 10m becomes a possibility.

And The X Factor is hyped up???

I love Doctor Who and it's performing very well but not brilliantly in the overnights. Much like the aforementioned X Factor. It's going to have to be massively promoted and have some momentum to hit 10m for the anniversary...but I won't completely rule it out.


Silence will fall...at the South Bank.

EDIT: That's going to happen very soon; I'm pretty sure Strictly Come Dancing will beat The X Factor on Saturday's.

Forget the 0.8m week-on-week. Looking at figures in isolation never gives a true picture

The X Factor ratings are getting attention because they are down 2m+ on last year. The programme is still a monster hit, ticking all the right demographic boxes, will probably still top the weekly BARB chart for the next few months but it is still down considerably compared with the last few years.

Doctor Who has always seen overnight/consolidated trends of up/down +1m/-1m week-on-week. These variations have been happening ever since the relaunch in 2005. The overnight rating will probably be up again next week and this latest series will possibly average about the same as every other.


Doctor Who:

Ep01 - 8.33m (+1.95m)
Ep02 - 7.57m (+2.09m)
Ep03 - 8.42m (+1.81m)

BARB Series Averages:

8.00m - Series 6a: Final BARB rating average (after 3 episodes) April- 2011
7.59m - Series 6b: Final BARB rating average (after 3 episodes) Sept - 2011
8.11m - Series 7a: Final BARB rating average (after 3 episodes) Sept - 2012

David Tennant is still a big draw though, I'm assuming it wasn't Sara Pascoe that drew that Comedy World Cup rating.

And I think at this point it's reasonable to say he might be involved next November.

Oh god I hope not, not even if it would boost the ratings (which I kind of doubt as none of his other stuff has done particularly well.) I hope they just try to produce a great story, something Moffat is more than capable of doing, without trying to shoehorn in as many doctors as possible. Also, in my opinion Matt Smith doesn't need any help to pull off a massive episode(s) like this.

I'd argue year on year is a harsh analysis at this stage. The show struggled badly at the lives this year and it carried over to this year's launch which rated poorly, relatively speaking. The 2m+ who abandoned the show were hardly going to return overnight...maybe it could have gradually built back to where it was but the main part of the show was so poor last year that was hardly going to happen.

It has to gain in the lives this year IMO; this is where year on year can be brought back (I think it'll start lower for the live launch but should start climbing from there whereas the show declined last year).


How close is Moffat's Who to RTD's Who is terms of consolidated figures, please? Due to the advance in catch up services I'm assuming Moffat will be down on the overnight but catching up with the consolidated figure.

I think a multi-Doctor story is probably going to be the 50th Anniversary episode, wonder if it'll be longer than an average episode, I'd like it to be 90 minutes but it'll probably be more like 60-75 minutes.

Seconded. Matt Smith has been a superb Doctor and the last thing that should happen at the anniversary is him being overshadowed by a returnee.

At this stage, what else can we compare it to though? It is down considerably on the last few years. We may see an improvement in the latter stages. Only the complete/final averages will give a true indication.



Doctor Who: Series averages (2005-Present)

Overnight Series Averages:

7.3m - Series 1: Overnight average (13 episodes)
7.2m - Series 2: Overnight average (13 episodes)
7.0m - Series 3: Overnight average (13 episodes)
7.2m - Series 4: Overnight average (13 episodes)
6.0m - Series 5: Overnight average (13 episodes)
5.7m - Series 6: Overnight average (13 episodes)
6.0m - Series 7: Overnight average (3 episodes)

Average Timeshift:

+ 0.64m - Series 1 (2005)
+ 0.51m - Series 2 (2006)
+ 0.55m - Series 3 (2007)
+ 0.85m - Series 4 (2008)
+ 1.73m - Series 5 (2010)
+ 1.79m - Series 6 (2011)
+ 1.95m - Series 7 (2012) - 3 episodes

BARB Series Averages:

7.94m - Series 1: Final BARB rating average (13 episodes)
7.71m - Series 2: Final BARB rating average (13 episodes)
7.55m - Series 3: Final BARB rating average (13 episodes)
8.05m - Series 4: Final BARB rating average (13 episodes)
7.73m - Series 5: Final BARB rating average (13 episodes)
7.52m - Series 6: Final BARB rating average (13 episodes)
8.11m - Series 7: Final BARB rating average (3 episodes)

iPlayer:

0.51m - Series 4: Average iPlayer requests per episode (13 episodes)
1.47m - Series 5: Average iPlayer requests per episode (13 episodes)
1.32m - Series 6: Average iPlayer requests per episode (13 episodes)
1.38m - Series 7: Average iPlayer requests per episode (2 episodes)

You maybe right but I'd love it if Christopher Eccleston was willing to do it, purely because a "These are my replacements? A dandy and a clown." type scene between Eccleston, Tennant and Smith would be wonderful.

The DS ratings thread. Now with added Doctor Who fanwank.

IMO, week on week, hence I keep pushing it ahead of year on year. This is the first series which has seen a decline from launch, and a big one at that. From that moment it was never going to hold up year on year. The only year on year comparison that maybe can be made is it's not losing more viewers; it's staying around 2m down in the overnights.

I agree that the overall averages will give the true indication.


Thanks. As I said, Doctor Who is in a completely different universe where we cannot discuss the overnights without considering timeshift.

Some will be apoplectic in the morning.

If Ten somehow returns with Donna I wouldn't mind seeing him return. If they somehow rope Rose back into it... I think that's my biggest fear - I hated the love story which was running in the background of new series two.

Series 1:

Ep01 - 9.9m
Ep02 - 7.3m
Ep03 - 8.3m
Ep04 - 7.0m

Series 2:

Ep02 - 8.9m
Ep03 - 7.6m
Ep05 - 8.6m
Ep06 - 6.9m

Series 3:

Ep01 - 8.2m
Ep02 - 6.8m
Ep03 - 8.0m
Ep04 - 6.3m

Series 4:

Ep01 - 8.4m
Ep03 - 6.9m
Ep04 - 6.4m
Ep05 - 5.9m
Ep07 - 7.7m

Series 6:

Ep01 - 6.5m
Ep02 - 5.4m
Ep03 - 6.2m
Ep04 - 5.9m

For anyone interested in USTV ratings from the 50's-1999 then the following site is an interesting read, it details the years top 30 programs.

http://www.classictvhits.com/tvratings/index.htm

Jenny Cummins ‏@jscummins
ITV1's X Factor peaked with 10.8m (av 9.4m) last night - figures include +1
9:37 AM - 24 Sep 12

8.96m (33.6%) excluding +1 according to Jake Kanter.

Jake Kanter ‏@Jake_Kanter
Downton Abbey’s 8.13m (30.7%) viewers was half a million down on last week and more than 800k year-on-year.
9:40 AM - 24 Sep 12

Jenny Cummins ‏@jscummins
Audience peak of 9.3m (av 8.4m) for ITV1's Downton Abbey - figures inc+1
9:42 AM - 24 Sep 12

More surprised about Downton than The X Factor there, thought it may have had similar to last week considering it finished at 22:05 and not 22:30.

A bit better than I expected for XF (I thought it'd just hit 9m with +1). It was down -15% on last year which is actually the smallest year on year decline we've seen so far this year.

A little surprised at Downton - I thought it'd do a bit better than that. A lower lead-in can't be helping. I wonder what Andrew Marr got?