6.50- Doctor Who Christmas Special: 12.24m (50.0%)

Wow!!

Some people may have not liked the episode or felt let down by it, but 12m tuning in to watch it, you can't go wrong. It is the 5th most watched programme of the year (2007). Great ratings!

A staggering achievement for DW!

I'd imagine it's a champagne breakfast in RTD's household!

Regards,

Cypher

Here's an OG news story about this: http://www.gallifreyone.com/news.php...yykFpurrVdaDyl

Those are fantastic figures, and an audience share of 50% as well.

as the OG report says


Well done.

but watching it is not the same as enjoying it.

the figures are meaningless except to say that a lot of people tuned in optimistically.

Agreed, only the AI figures will show us that(which arrive later after the overnights), however the fact that the audience stayed with it is some indication that they did not dislike it enough to switch off.

And from that OG report:


which say something as well

I'm sure the audience appreciation index (AI) figure will be published in due course to settle this issue one way or the other.

Well we shall see. There will be an AI figure soon.

In the meantime this is a staggering figure.

My son got series 3 DVD set as a present so we watched last year's special before last night's.

I haven't watched Catherine Tate programs and last saw Kylie acting in neighbours.

I thought last year's special with CT was hilarious and am looking forward to her being a companion.

Lat night's ep was OK - but not brilliant. Still watchable. Some-one else on this thread compared Kylie to Sally Sparrow - no way!

Sally and 'Blink' were fantastic.
Kylie and Voyage of the Damned were average.

Still. that's only my opinion and lots of people hate CT and can't watch her because of their negatvie preconceptions(!!). I hope people give her a chance in the next series.

I am going to try as it takes more than a dire companion to put me off one of my all time favourite shows, but I am not looking forward to it - I loathed her in TRB and the few snippets we saw of her in the trailer last night didn't do anything to change that opinion - if she can annoy me that much after a few seconds I dread to think what a whole series is going to be like.

Back on topic though - excellent viewing figures

I think the steady rating throughout the episode says much of the general audience appreciation. There seems a split in opinions which I believe comes from the very fact that this section is in 'Cult' when DW is and has been 'mainstream' since its relaunch in 2005.

Cult doesn't get over 12m people tuning in! Some readjustment in attitudes required, me thinks. Great episode reflected by an outstanding rating from the 'mainstream' audience.

Here's the 5 minute breakdown as posted over at OG - nice steady trend upwards as the episode progressed. Of massive interest is the show's peak number - over 15 million would have seen the trailer for series 4.

Phenomenal, simply phenomenal....

Regards,

Cypher

--------------------------

5 Minute breakdown

18:40..12.24m
18:45..12.82m

18:50..11.21m
18:55..11.55m
19:00..11.74m
19:05..11.62m
19:10..11.62m
19:15..11.74m
19:20..11.83m
19:25..11.95m
19:30..11.93m
19:35..11.94m
19:40..11.87m
19:45..12.47m
19:50..13.90m
19:55..15.12m

20:00..15.23m
20:05..13.12m

Article now up on BBC News:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7160322.stm

Regards,

Cypher

I'm sure the BBC's marketing department will put the success down to the excessive number of trails and accelerated credits rather than anything to do with the actual show.

I can think of a few FMs around here who will say the same!

At which point they will probably say that another few million would have watched had they been able to clearly identify that Doctor Who is a BBC1 programme, but had tuned in to the wrong broadcaster completely (thus inflating the figures for ITV1) so a stonking great BBC One logo should be added ......

And they have probably got definitive market research that states in no uncertain terms that the greater the credit squash and speed, the greater the number of people who will watch, thus justifying credits that scroll past at speeds only The Doctor in his Tardis would be proud of.

I wasn't the biggest fan of last nights episode either (a bit overcooked, in my opinion), but I think it was intended to have a much broader appeal - and clearly, it succeeded.

It was still quality, fun, entertaining family TV and will have introduced an awful lot of new viewers to the series'. It can only be good for the show in the long run.

Oh dear, I can see dervish not liking that one bit .....

And of course the end credits were the most popular part of the show - an extra couple of million tuned in especially to see them.

Er not really. Because shows like X Files & Dr Who are very mainstream in thier prime, but have a cult following. Dr Who's ratings could plummet, but you'd still have a million people watching just because its Dr Who. Cult show.

Anyway great news. Not a fan of the episode, but the longer these great ratings continue, the longer we will have the Dr on Tv.

According to BBC News, 13.8million.
Which is pretty damned good. Certainly seems to have picked up about 4 million "passing" viewers, who may just give the new series a wee look. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Much more than than the other 2 Christmas Specials. And nice to see the show become the new Morecambe and Wise. Big ratings, Special guests and a nice song . And fun for all the family. Top banana.

At which point they have the ideal justification for including end credits for the next programme as an IPP, just so that viewers have the opportunity to see what they might be missing if they did not watch that programmes

Do you think it was helped by being sandwiched between two EE episodes? Since they were the first and third biggest shows yesterday.

The 5 minute figures themselves would suggest this however the defenders of the poor episode are looking at the higher end figures.

The 5 minute figures clearly show that those who had decided to wait for the next episode of Eastenders bled away a mere 10 minutes later and then started to return towards the end of the episode so that they didn't miss any of the next epsiode.

All of this puts into question the 13+ million that the BBC is quoting as it is probably closer to 11.5 million who actually sat and watched he whole episode through.....

the reason it got such good rating was because everything else on at the time was crap. they were lucky ITV decided not not to run corrie agasint it (not that I like that stupid show, but you can't deny is popualrity) otherwise doctot who's ratigns woudl have been a bit lower.