Both sides are as bad as each other, I just want to see ratings not endless drivel from BBC and ITV fanboys.

"Doctor Who" would find itself in an early doors slot at 6pm. Especially if the weather is still nice in August/September when its rumoured to be launched. It should be moved to Sundays at 7pm. Its quite squandered by BBC One at times.

There is still speculation that DW will take Atlantis' post SCD slot this Autumn. If this is the case then a late September launch would be more realistic. But, where would that leave Atlantis? Spring 2015?

Haven't done this for a while but here's the top 20 most watched shows of the year. No +1, duplicates, etc

Most Watched Programmes of 2014 [Officials]
01 - 12.72m - Sherlock (01/01/14) - BBC 1/HD
02 - 11.84m - Britain’s Got Talent (12/04/14) - ITV/HD
03 - 11.35m - Call the Midwife (19/01/14) - BBC 1/HD
04 - 10.75m - Coronation Street (20/01/14) - ITV/HD
05 - 9.41m - The Voice UK (08/02/14) - BBC 1/HD
06 - 9.28m - The Musketeers (19/01/14) - BBC 1/HD
07 - 9.20m - Birds of a Feather (02/01/14) - ITV/HD
08 - 9.09m - EastEnders (21/04/14) - BBC 1/HD
09 - 8.94m - Eurovision Song Contest (10/05/14) - BBC 1/HD
10 - 8.84m - Death in Paradise (11/02/14) - BBC 1/HD
11 - 8.09m - Jonathan Creek (28/02/14) - BBC 1/HD
12 - 8.02m - Sport Relief (21/03/14) - BBC 1/HD
13 - 7.98m - Emmerdale (27/01/14) - ITV/HD
14 - 7.92m - Silent Witness (02/01/14) - BBC 1/HD
15 - 7.83m - The Crimson Field (06/04/14) - BBC 1/HD
16 - 7.64m - Happy Valley (29/04/14) - BBC 1/HD
17 - 7.59m - Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway (08/03/14) - ITV/HD
18 - 7.41m - The 7.39 (07/01/14) - BBC 1/HD
19 - 7.29m - Countryfile (06/04/14) - BBC 1/HD
20 - 7.25m - The Widower (31/03/14) - ITV/HD

Saturdays is where DW should be. It does fine there, and has in the past been used as something to prop up other shows. And as has been pointed out in the past, the DW audience seems to have little issue with embracing timeshifting and iPlayer.

I agree about the 7pm timing though (on a Saturday) - it seems to lose out if it gets earlier slots (and there are justifiable complaints about it being moved around the evening schedule to suit other programmes).

Dr Who post SCD would be a departure but maybe good for ratings or maybe too late?

I think because there has been a rather long break and a new Doctor, and rumoured "darker" stories, a post SCD slot would be perfect for it. People were saying how badly Atlantis performed with overnights of a consistent 4.5m. Surely DW would do much better than that?

Considering that early SCD programmes would be over 2 hours long, unless SCD started at 5pm, DW would be on too late. And a 5pm start for SCD would impact its own ratings as it is likely that many who would want to watch would be busy with meals, still working (at shops) or coming back from shopping). A killer for a 2hr+ live show

Yeah I dunno what they will do with it this year. It could begin after the Edinburgh TV Festival as it sometimes gets a premiere there.

But it may also be there to even up the ratings once the X Factor gets underway pre Strictly Come Dancing. The X Factor is usually August. Im not sure Atlantis will be given an autumn series this time. It may be held back.

It attracts media coverage when it gets bumped around the schedule and I do feel Capaldi will be compared unfavourably with Matt Smiths launch ratings and Tennants which were around 8 million.

However I doubt Capaldi can do that on a sunny Saturday evening at 6pm. Probably the first ever series got the best scheduling for Doctor Who since it returned. October on a Sunday night at 7pm every week would help keep the Doctor Who critics at bay with bouncy ratings overnight.

Matt Smith's exit got 10m, I don't see why Capaldi can't get 8m for the launch. I certainly hope so!

Thanks for this lewie, one minor correction - Coronation Street was 10.65m (10.646m to be more precise.) Good to see that it's half drama at the moment, although a lot of the lower ones will be displaced sooner or later.

anyone know why itv didnt show Harry potter tues & thurs this week? meaning only 1 emmerdale episode would be displaced?

as opposed to 2 emmerdales and 1 corrie?

The ratings for Capaldi are bound to be up a bit yeah out of curiousity of a new Doctor but poor Matt got compared with Tennants high ratings initially by the unfair press.

Ah sorry about that!

Yeah the amount of drama in the top 20 is pleasing to see. But with the World Cup on the way and the upcoming Autumn reality/talent shows there's lots more still to come. Plus Doctor Who, Open All Hours and GBBO. In for some exciting times ratings wise!

Anyone got any predictions for the World Cup by the way? Could we see the magic 20 million? Who knows?

Of course there will always be comparisons and I think it's only fair when Matt's first series was at the same time of the year as David and Chris's were. And Moffat's era was always going to be compared to Russell T Davies's.

Matt's Doctor Who era wasn't helped by split series, variable quality in later episodes and some convoluted plotting. Hopefully Peter Capaldi won't have the same problems as Matt did on Doctor Who. Signs are promising that it'll be very good but scheduling will be key.

Moffat needs to come away from the series now though to let it progress naturally. His convoluted plots are a turn off for a mass audience.

Presumably the idea was that they could show an hour-long Emmerdale on Tuesday to clash with 'stEnders, which was of course foiled when the Beeb decided to show 'stEnders at 8pm instead. But it clearly would have been more logical as you suggest, especially given last week they showed one on Tuesday. This scheduling is atrocious, actually.

Does it? never seen that myself 9and I am a DW fan, so i do keep a close eye on the respective threads).


You assume

a) DW will start in late Summer - it might still be September

b) It will air at 6pm - it could be any time from 6pm to 7pm

c) It will be sunny for the first episode! Now that is streching incredulity to the limit - sunny? AND on a Saturday? AND on the very day that DW starts?


The thing was, there was an enormous amount of media and viewer interest - DW coming back after many years, a new Doc, a new companion, a new production team, new production values.

Hardly comparable.


Why play to the critics? What about those who really matter, the viewers?

is there proof for that claim?

Moffat and his convoluted agenda! Davies with his soapy gay agenda! No one is ever happy!

We can still get hot days in September. 6pm on a hot Saturday in September won't help Doctor Who's rating if it's on then. But there is always a larger than normal curiosity rating for a new Doctor. A 9m overnight wouldn't surprise me.

And the ratings pretty much the same on average.

But Doctor Who's audience has changed in that time. About 40% of the final viewing figure for an initial airing of a new episode is time-shift, so that when you take that into account the ratings for Matt Smith's episodes where every bit as good as David Tennant's episodes. Further, aren't the BARB about to include viewings from IPlayer too, so that might give Doctor Who a ratings bump?

Davies era was way more accessible. It also helps that David Tennant was one of the greatest Doctor's. RTD era had the best, more interesting and less dragged out plotlines.

The problem with Moffat is that he kept secrets back and drip fed hints and further questions within each series, and I'm not entirely sure whether we got all the answers to the questions he laid down. It was strung out so long that when we finally got the answer it was disappointing.

I have high hopes for Capaldi's era to return to its best